centroles
08-21-2003, 09:52 PM
What to look for in a laptop (this describes laptops that are meant to serve as portable desktop replacements, not the three pound ones that're designed mainly for business men who love to travel and make powerpoint presentations on the plane - if you're one of these, the dell 300m among others is quite good, it gives you most of the features below and even a pretty good (even for many games) though shared :( graphics card for a solid price)...
A great graphics card, preferably 64 mb dedicated ati or nvidea though 32 mb dedicated will work for nongaming needs.
This is important IMO because the graphics card is the one component that will get outdated but can't be upgraded on a laptop, ever. And graphics cards aren't just important for gamers, everytime the monitor refreshes (tens of thousands of times a minute, the graphics card is doing the brunt of the work) its very important for the graphics card to be as near the top of the line as possible if you plan to watch any dvds or play serious games on your laptop.
dvdrw drive (assuming it's an internal one) - this really isn't important if you don't plan to use it but keep in mind, its expensive and a little difficult to upgrade the disk drives in laptops, and its not even an option for many models. so it might be worth it to get the dvd burner if you can as you probably won't have the option to upgrade to it later when you change your mind. If you're not a dvd nut or a video editor though, you'll probably be satisfied with just a dvd/cdrw or dvd drive.
A clear vibrant xga atleast (buy i strongly suggest you opt for a sxga atleast) monitor. Like the graphics card, the monitor can never be upgraded, so get one you will be happy with.
Not over 7 Ibs and with atleast a two hour battery life. What the point of a laptop if you never lug it around with you. You might as well pay a fourth of the cost and get an upgradable desktop. If its under 7 Ibs with a decent battery life you atleast have the option to take it with you without it seeming like a big chore.
The little things... not too loud, not too hot, not too big, not too small, a design and keyboard that's stable and that you're comfortable with. These things will hang annoy you forever, so they matter.
A pentium 4 or pentium M processor (maybe athlon xp). There are many things these processors do far better than their previous generations. I highly recommend you get them as the processor can't be upgraded to a different generation in a laptop (since that requires you change the mother board too)
All the little ports 2 usb 2.0 one or two firewire, atleast one pcmcia, ethernet, a headphone hole etc. They'll be handy, trust me.
Things that aren't as important...
the memory.... all the processors mentioned above use ddr memory so the power of the ram is not the issue, the amount of it is. but its very easy to find laptop ram very very cheaply online and it's even easier to install it yourself. just search for a guide online. so even if you get a 128 mb ram, you can upgrade it to 640 or so for probably around a 100 bucks the very next day. But if you try to add that much ram from the retailer themselves, you'll get charged a LOT more than what you would pay for the same components elsewhere.
the hard drive... the hard drive is one of the easiest components to upgrade in a laptop, i upgraded mine in 15 minutes. Just now, they're coming out with 7200 rpm hard drives and since the speed of the hard drive is probably the biggest bottle neck in any computer that meets the above requirements, you'll want to upgrade to this blazing fast harddrive speed as soon as they drop in price to around a $150 or so.
wireless networking... don't get me wrong, wireless networking is the wave of the future. soon virtually every restaurant, motel and airport will have highspeed wireless internet access at all times. but in reality, you can buy a pcmcia adapter (for $20 after rebates if you look around online) that gives any laptop the same (but often better) capabilities as the integrated wireless stuff. so get integrated wireless if you can, but don't pass up on the laptop of your dreams just because it doesn't have that feature because the pcmicia are unobtrusive and often a little bit more powerful (depending on the laptop).
But most importantly, use the internet. cnet.com , pricewatch.com , xpbargains.com and edealsinfo.com are all very useful sites.
Cnet has reviews of virtually all the best laptops out there and does a great job of pointing out their pluses and minuses but thier prices are NEVER up to date, I've seen laptops they listed as selling for 2600 selling for 1200 at my local bestbuy. Use them to make sure your laptop has all the features i described above and be sure to check out their user comments section as it gives you a great idea of what the main flaws and overall quality of the laptop is.
pricewatch is a conglomeration of the sites offering the best deals for computer parts online. i highly recommend you use them to find the best deals for memory and hdd upgrades.
xpbargains/edealsinfo list all the very best bargains online after rebates etc. You can find many things for very cheap or even free.
Be sure to add your own suggestions to this thread.
If you're on a budget, don't worry, you should be able to find a quality laptop (ex: compaq x1000) that meets all the above requirements for around $1500 or so.
A great graphics card, preferably 64 mb dedicated ati or nvidea though 32 mb dedicated will work for nongaming needs.
This is important IMO because the graphics card is the one component that will get outdated but can't be upgraded on a laptop, ever. And graphics cards aren't just important for gamers, everytime the monitor refreshes (tens of thousands of times a minute, the graphics card is doing the brunt of the work) its very important for the graphics card to be as near the top of the line as possible if you plan to watch any dvds or play serious games on your laptop.
dvdrw drive (assuming it's an internal one) - this really isn't important if you don't plan to use it but keep in mind, its expensive and a little difficult to upgrade the disk drives in laptops, and its not even an option for many models. so it might be worth it to get the dvd burner if you can as you probably won't have the option to upgrade to it later when you change your mind. If you're not a dvd nut or a video editor though, you'll probably be satisfied with just a dvd/cdrw or dvd drive.
A clear vibrant xga atleast (buy i strongly suggest you opt for a sxga atleast) monitor. Like the graphics card, the monitor can never be upgraded, so get one you will be happy with.
Not over 7 Ibs and with atleast a two hour battery life. What the point of a laptop if you never lug it around with you. You might as well pay a fourth of the cost and get an upgradable desktop. If its under 7 Ibs with a decent battery life you atleast have the option to take it with you without it seeming like a big chore.
The little things... not too loud, not too hot, not too big, not too small, a design and keyboard that's stable and that you're comfortable with. These things will hang annoy you forever, so they matter.
A pentium 4 or pentium M processor (maybe athlon xp). There are many things these processors do far better than their previous generations. I highly recommend you get them as the processor can't be upgraded to a different generation in a laptop (since that requires you change the mother board too)
All the little ports 2 usb 2.0 one or two firewire, atleast one pcmcia, ethernet, a headphone hole etc. They'll be handy, trust me.
Things that aren't as important...
the memory.... all the processors mentioned above use ddr memory so the power of the ram is not the issue, the amount of it is. but its very easy to find laptop ram very very cheaply online and it's even easier to install it yourself. just search for a guide online. so even if you get a 128 mb ram, you can upgrade it to 640 or so for probably around a 100 bucks the very next day. But if you try to add that much ram from the retailer themselves, you'll get charged a LOT more than what you would pay for the same components elsewhere.
the hard drive... the hard drive is one of the easiest components to upgrade in a laptop, i upgraded mine in 15 minutes. Just now, they're coming out with 7200 rpm hard drives and since the speed of the hard drive is probably the biggest bottle neck in any computer that meets the above requirements, you'll want to upgrade to this blazing fast harddrive speed as soon as they drop in price to around a $150 or so.
wireless networking... don't get me wrong, wireless networking is the wave of the future. soon virtually every restaurant, motel and airport will have highspeed wireless internet access at all times. but in reality, you can buy a pcmcia adapter (for $20 after rebates if you look around online) that gives any laptop the same (but often better) capabilities as the integrated wireless stuff. so get integrated wireless if you can, but don't pass up on the laptop of your dreams just because it doesn't have that feature because the pcmicia are unobtrusive and often a little bit more powerful (depending on the laptop).
But most importantly, use the internet. cnet.com , pricewatch.com , xpbargains.com and edealsinfo.com are all very useful sites.
Cnet has reviews of virtually all the best laptops out there and does a great job of pointing out their pluses and minuses but thier prices are NEVER up to date, I've seen laptops they listed as selling for 2600 selling for 1200 at my local bestbuy. Use them to make sure your laptop has all the features i described above and be sure to check out their user comments section as it gives you a great idea of what the main flaws and overall quality of the laptop is.
pricewatch is a conglomeration of the sites offering the best deals for computer parts online. i highly recommend you use them to find the best deals for memory and hdd upgrades.
xpbargains/edealsinfo list all the very best bargains online after rebates etc. You can find many things for very cheap or even free.
Be sure to add your own suggestions to this thread.
If you're on a budget, don't worry, you should be able to find a quality laptop (ex: compaq x1000) that meets all the above requirements for around $1500 or so.