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Laptop Buying Guide - Components |
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The main components you'll need to think about are:
- Processor - The better your processor, the faster things will run.
- RAM - The more RAM you have, the more things your computer can store in memory without having to access the (much slower) hard drive. The more ram, the smoother your computer will perform.
- Video Card - If you plan on playing video games, you need one of these.
- Screen - Your biggest concern here should be that the bigger the screen, the bigger the laptop, and the harder it is to lug around a college campus.
- Hard Drive - The bigger your hard drive, the more pirated copies of nickleback albums you can store.
- Battery - Better battery, longer lasting computer.
- Wireless - Connects you to the intertubes.
- Other Features - Other stuff you should be looking for, like HDMI ports and USB ports and webcams and more.
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The better your processor, the faster your computer will run. Now don't take this to mean that you should spend an extra $1,000 on a really good processor. Which speed you should get really depends on your major. For processors, there are only two brands to choose from: Intel and AMD.
If you're doing Engineering you should probably opt for a higher end Intel Core-i5 or, if you want to spend the extra money, a Core-i7. Otherwise you should be able to get by with a lower end Core-i5, or even an i3.
As far as RAM goes, you'll want to get at least 4 gigs, but probably no more than 8 gigs. Two gigs is a bit low. The amount of RAM you have in your computer can affect how your computer performs with many things open and you will see a significant performance drop if you run out of RAM.
If you're planning to play video games on your laptop that were made in the last ten years, you're going to need a good video card. If you're not planning on playing video games, you can stop reading right here. Don't worry about getting a graphics card, Intel's Integrated Craphics cards will do.
Otherwise, you'll want to shop around.
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Screen size is your main concern. The screen size (i.e. 15 inch, 17 inch, etc) is the diagonal measure of the screen just like with TV's. If you're just planning to browse the web and stuff, you'll probably be fine with whatever. If you have bad eyesight you might want to snag something bigger.
If you're more concerned about screen quality, you can spend some time shopping around for higher resolution monitors - The higher the resolution, the better the quality of the screen and the more pixels it packs into the same size screen.
You can also worry about refresh rates and stuff but that's not really worth your time on a laptop.
If you're a power-user, you might consider buying a second monitor and plugging it into your laptop when you're in your dorm, effectively doubling the amount of real-estate and letting you watch twice as many videos of cats on the internet as you could before! An extra monitor should run you $100-$200. Just remember to check of either a VGA, DVI, or HDMI port on your laptop before you snag a monitor (see below).
This is pretty basic. The bigger the hard drive, the more you can store.
It's hard to recommend a single size, because the amount of space you'll need varies wildly with how you use your computer. I will say this much: It's better to have more space than you use than it is to have no space left and a no where to save your schoolwork...
Here's three basic scenarios. Pick the one that best fits you or just get the biggest hard drive you can find.
- Student Sally isn't very good at computers. She uses hers mostly to type up reports and projects for her Communications major. She likes to browse pintrest, and she has no idea what a hard drive is, or how to check if it's full. She has a camera, and she likes to take pictures with it and upload them to her facebook, even though she sometimes forgets which end of the cable plugs into her laptop and which end plugs into her camera.
Take whatever the manufacturer says the battery life is and divide it by 2. If that number is an acceptable number to you, take it. If you really need to live through your 5 hour lecture with a laptop, either sit near the back and find an outlet or disable your wifi and dim your screen.
A lot of people are confused by this, which is strange because it's really not too complicated. There are 3 basic wireless modes you need to worry about (well, two and a half). Wireless B, Wireless G, and Wireless N, in order of both speed and range. Wireless B is so old you don't even have to worry about it. Wireless G is in most older laptops and some older smartphones. Wireless G is reasonably fast, but still significantly slower than a wired connection, and the range is not that good. Any laptop sold in the last 5 years should have Wireless N, which is much faster and has much better range. You want wireless N.
So how do the different formats affect you? Any laptop with a wireless N adapter can probably downgrade to wireless G if it needs to. Many older wireless routers (such as the one in your house right now) are probably still broadcasting on wireless G. This is fine, and will still work, but it won't be as fast as it could be. Worse still, if a laptop or device that only supports wireless G connects to a router with wireless N capabilities, it might drag everyone on the router down to wireless G speeds. For now, you should just look for a laptop with wireless N and not worry beyond that.
If you're buying a router, you may want to set it to wireless N only mode. Older devices using wireless G won't be able to connect, but they won't be able to drag you down either.
Speaking of which, here's a bonus section:
First off, find out if your college lets you have your own wifi routers. Many colleges discourage it, as wireless routers can really jam up the network, saturate the airspace, interfere with existing infastructure, cause nightmares for the school IT department to troubleshoot, and more. If you hook up your Wireless Router wrong, you risk taking down everyone's internets while your little router's DHCP has a wrestling match with the college's master DHCP servers. Not good, and something that may get you a stern talking to if they track your router down.
You're allowed to have a router? Or you feel like breaking the rules? Good, here's what to look for: TODO
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