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By now you should be armed with a list of specs and prices.You've found
a new Core 2 Duo laptop with a 17 inch wide screen, 250GB hard drive
and two gigs of ram for under 800 dollars. Great you say, I'll crack
out the credit card and buy this puppy before it's snapped up by
another eager bargain hunter.....But before you purchase
online.....WAIT! First visit a number of review sites and find out what
they think about your prospective buy. Is it prone to overheating? Are
there known issues with dead pixels on the screen? Is the battery life
pathetic?
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Do you plan on using your laptop on the road or for travel abroad? If so you'll want a notebook that is light with a small screen and compact form factor. If you plan on keeping your machine on a desk at home as a replacement for your PC a larger machine will be in order. These usually offer a larger screen, and are packed with more ports and power than ultraportables. However, they are much heavier and usually have less battery longevity than an ultralight laptop.This is all boils down to personal preference, but think hard on where you will be using your new laptop.
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This is the place where all your files, music, games and other software is stored on. Some of the cheapest notebooks sport drives with only 80-120GB of capacity. At the other end of the tech spectrum you'll find multimedia monsters like the ASUS M70 with up to 1TB (1,000GB) of hard drive space. When looking at a discount you'll probably want to aim for something in between.
Perpendicular magnetic technology is squeezing more and more space into 2.5 inch mobile drives, a case in point being Fujitsu's 300 GB SATAdrive, codenamed MHX2300BT. Size is just one factor to consider, rotational speed is another important aspect. Many affordable models will offer speeds of only 4,200 rpm, if you can afford it aim for at least 5,400 rpm or 7,200 rpm. Buffer size is another point to consider, but your head is probably spinning faster than a hard disk's platters so let's move swiftly on.
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The bare bones minimum RAM (random-access memory) is 1GB, any less and you may notice a lag in performance. Ideally you want at least 2GB for Windows Vista. Don't sweat about this too much. RAM is usually easy to upgrade, so you can install more memory further along the line.
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Often referred to as the CPU (Central Processing Unit), most of today's cutting edge laptops sport Core 2 Duo processors from Intel, or 64 bit Vista ready CPUs like AMD's Turion X2.Understandably many of today's bargains are powered by older hardware. You may mistakenly believe that discount hunters can't afford to purchase dual core laptops, however recently Dell's Inspiron 6400 in the U.S and Fujitsu's pi 1505 Amilo in the UK have been available for under $700 and £500 respectively.
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Guide to Buying a Notebook
