Practical Tips For Buying Your New Laptop

By: Titus Hoskins

So you want to buy a laptop but don't know where to start. You're not alone. Buying a new laptop can present many challenges, especially if you're unfamiliar with laptops or notebook computers.

Over the last little while so much new laptop technology has hit the market... Intel Duo Processors, SLI, Dual Graphics... it can all be totally mind boggling to the average consumer. For the first time laptop buyer understanding all the techno jargon can be downright scary.

Mainly because a whole new generation of notebook technology comes around every two years or less; probably much less when you consider all the new advances made recently. It can even be a little overwhelming even for someone like myself who runs an online Laptop Guide and who has a keen interest in all things laptop.

Regardless of all these fancy new improvements, devices and notebook technology, you must remember you're buying a new laptop for you and you alone. You must first decide if all this new stuff is important to you? Do you really need all this new notebook technology?

But most of all before you can consider that question you must first figure out WHY you want a laptop? Why are you buying a laptop? What chores or tasks do you want the laptop to perform?

If you just want a laptop for simple web browsing and emailing, a laptop made five years ago will do the job nicely and cost you a heck of lot less. You really don't need a top of the line laptop unless of course, you're keeping up with the Jones and want the latest top model of everything. But that's moving into Dr. Phil's territory... lets not venture there!

So what do you need the laptop for?

Do you need a lightweight portable laptop for business trips or meetings? Do you need a student notebook for classes? Or do just want a desktop replacement computer that you can easily move around in your home?

Your answer will greatly determine which type of laptop you should buy.

In my case, I work full time at home and do a lot of web design so I needed a solid machine with a lot of RAM. I also enjoy downloading and enjoying the occasional movie so a DVD Multi Drive and a wide screen display were important. High quality graphics and sound was also important for what I needed.

* RAM

RAM is to computer what location is to real estate. RAM or Random Access Memory is perhaps the most important factor to consider when buying your laptop or any computer.

RAM will greatly determine the speed of your laptop or computer. How fast it will process your tasks and graphics. You must make sure you have enough for your needs. You can now find many laptops pre-loaded with 1 Gig of RAM and capable of upgrading to 4 Gigs or more. Compared to yesterday's computers that's a lot of RAM. If you're not into gaming, handling large video files/editing, all that RAM is not needed but it will make your laptop run faster. Also, remember if you're into gaming, Video RAM will be important -- you need a top of the line (read expensive) Graphics Card and it will increase the cost of your laptop.

Also it may be wise to buy a laptop with upgradable memory - since new applications, multi windowed browsers, streaming video... of the very near future may place high demand on your laptop's RAM.

* Dual Core Processors

CPU or Computer Processing Unit is the heart of your laptop and in this case you have Two Hearts -- Intel Centrino Duo is the front runner in this area right now. However, AMD is giving Intel some stiff competition in the dual core battle with its Athlon™ 64 X2 dual core processor. Either one would be a wise choice.

* Hard Drive

The amount of space or size of laptop hard drives are steadily increasing, a 100 Gig laptop is now common. If you don't want a lot of storage, buying a smaller size hard drive will save you money. Many laptop experts choose the SATA hard drive with a high 5400 or 7200 RPM.

* Weight or Size

Perhaps the major reason you're considering buying a laptop is its size or weight -- otherwise you're better of saving your money and buying a desktop computer instead. A laptop is portable, you can carry it anywhere... tuck it under your arm and cart it to class or your next business meeting. It is ideal for taking your information and work to wherever you want to go. This portability is the main selling feature of a laptop.

Obviously you must pick the best sized laptop to suit your needs. Laptops are divided into different categories, here's a quick rundown:

Tablet PC (smallest) Size of a paper tablet or notepad, less than 3 pounds.

Ultra Portable (small) <11">13" x >11" More than 1.5 inches, more than 7 pounds and up

Pick the size that suits your purpose and use.

* Price

Laptop prices are steadily falling, it is now possible to get a quality laptop for well under a $1000. Many are selling at the $500 - $600 range. High quality gaming laptops offered by such specialty laptop makers as Alienware, Rock, will still set you back 3 to 4 grand. Ouch!

* Warranties

Don't overlook this factor, if you're buying an expensive laptop, you might want to check out these extended warranties. If you do a lot of traveling, you might need to purchase insurance against thief and loss.

* Dead Pixels Was the Only Thing I Feared!

If you can check your laptop for any dead pixels. A dead pixel will give you white spots(pixels)on your LCD display screen. Most cases you're buying your laptop straight out of the box, booting up and finding you have dead pixels is not a pleasant experience. If you want to check your laptop screen for dead pixels, just do a search for the free 'Dead Pixel Buddy' software program and run it to check your laptop for dead pixels.

* Use The Internet For Information Or Even Purchase

I run a simple Laptop Guide on one of my sites and I also keep a laptop blog so I am constantly using the Internet to gather information and compare prices. You must shop around and check out the consumer reports on the different laptop makers and the different laptop products. You must also check out the service records/reputation of the major brand names.

I researched all the different laptops and found the one that met my requirements and price. I bought it in the real world at a local Computer store mainly because I wanted to examine the laptop's graphics and keyboard in the flesh. However, I checked out all of the product's details beforehand on this store's online site -- much easier than in a busy crowded store.

* Kick The Tires

Like buying anything, it is always a good idea to fully check out your purchase. Sample the laptop's keyboard, does typing feel comfortable? Try the touchpad, is it responsive? Open your favorite programs and check the processing speed of your laptop. Bring along a DVD and sample the sound and graphics. Take note of any problems or irritations that may pop-up, in my case it was a small right shift key but this was so minor I knew I could get used to it and it didn't stop me from buying my desired laptop.

* Research Your Laptop

Use the Internet to research your desired laptop, know exactly what components it has and know what software is already preloaded. Be careful of salespeople who will try to charge you extra for configuring or installing programs on your laptop when these programs may already be preloaded at the factory stage!

I settled on a Toshiba Satellite P100-SD3: it has Intel Duo, 1 Gig of RAM, 100 Gig Hard Drive, 17" widescreen TrueBrite Display, compatible with the new Windows Vista... it meets all my needs and I am quite pleased with my new laptop. And I will be writing a full review after I have used it for a couple of weeks... but that's another article.

If you consider most of the simple points and check out the factors listed above then making your own laptop purchase will not only be quite painless but it may even prove an enjoyable experience. Do a little homework and you will easily find the perfect laptop for you.


Article Source: http://add-articles.com
The author runs an online Laptop Guide featuring the latest top gaming laptops: www.bizwaremagic.com/best_gaming_notebooks.htm For Timely Special Savings/Deals/Coupons on Dell, Toshiba, Apple, Sony, Alienware...click here: www.bizwaremagic.com/cheap_laptops.htm This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Critical Steps to Protecting Your Computer on the Internet

Spyware, viruses and worms... oh my!

If you are connected to the internet, you need to make sure you get your computer set up properly if you want to avoid problems down the road.

With all the viruses, spyware and other threats on the internet today, no computer should be set up without the proper protection.

And that protection needs to be in place as soon after you hook up your new machine as possible.

The following five steps will make your computer a much harder target for threats. You still won't be completely immune to problems, but 99% of the time the threat will pass you by, looking for the easy mark.

1. Running a Personal Firewall

A personal firewall is software that basically makes your computer invisible to hackers, worms and other threats that can infect your computer over the internet.

Setting up a firewall is the absolute first thing you should do if you're going to connect to the internet. Without a firewall, your computer could get infected in as little as one minute after connecting.

If you have a brand new computer running Windows XP Service Pack 2, there is a firewall built into Windows. It will already have been turned on when you first set up your computer.

If you're running an older version of Windows, even an earlier version of Windows XP, there is no firewall automatically set up for you. In this case there are two possibilities:

- Your computer came pre-loaded with a firewall such as Norton Internet Security or McAfee Internet Security
- You have no firewall installed and should download one ASAP.

If you don't have any personal firewall software installed, you should do so right away. Zone Alarm is a very good firewall program that has a version that you can download and install for free.

You can download the free version of Zone Alarm from http://www.computer-help-squad.com/zonealarm

2. Turn on Windows Updates

Again, if you're running Windows XP Service Pack 2 this is already set up, but otherwise you should turn on Windows Updates. Microsoft releases updates for security problems and other bugs in Windows on a regular basis.

These updates will keep your computer running better, and they often fix security issues that could compromise your information or privacy.

If you are running Windows XP Service Pack 2, you can double-check that automatic updates are turned on by clicking Start, then click Control Panel, then double-click Security Center. The window that opens will tell you if automatic updates are turned on, and lets you turn them on if they're not.

To turn on automatic updates in earlier versions of Windows XP, click on the Start menu, click Control Panel and then double-click on System. On the "Automatic Updates" tab, click the option to "Automatically download the updates and install them on the schedule I specify."

To turn them on in Windows 2000, click on Start, click Control Panel and then double-click on Automatic Updates. Again, click the option to "automatically download the updates and install them on the schedule I specify."

Now when Microsoft releases updates, they will be downloaded for you automatically and Windows will tell you when they are ready to be installed.

3. Install & Update Antivirus Software

Most new computers come with antivirus software these days. You might have Norton, McAfee, PC-Cillin or another brand. No matter what program you have, you will need to update it when you get connected to the internet.

It doesn't matter how new your computer is - there will be new viruses, and new updates for the antivirus software, since it was loaded.

The exact process is different for each brand of antivirus program, but most of them will have an icon in the bottom right corner of your desktop, beside the time. The icon might be a picture of a shield (McAfee), a stethoscope (Norton) or something else.

In most cases, if you point to the icon for your antivirus and click the right mouse button, a menu will pop up with an update option. It could be simply called update or could be something like Live Update or Download Latest Updates. If you click on the update option (with the left button this time) it will install the newest updates for you.

If you're not sure which icon is for your antivirus software, just point to each one for a few seconds and a little title should pop up telling you what it is.

4. Install Anti-Spyware Software

Spyware - and other things known as adware and malware - is becoming as big a problem as viruses. Spyware programs can cause a lot of problems with your computer, not to mention they can track your personal information and you never know where it's being sent.

Some new computers might includes antispyware software, but most of them don't yet. There are quite a few anti-spyware programs available, some free and some not. The one I recommend is from Microsoft and is one of the free ones.

One of the reasons I like it is because it always runs in the background and will automatically catch a lot of spyware before it gets on your computer.

Many of the other programs don't catch it until you run a scan. Not only does this allow things to get on your computer, it also means you have to actually remember to run a scan.

You can download the free Microsoft Antispyware from http://www.computer-help-squad.com/antispyware

5. Set up a Free Email Account

This last item is not as critical as the first four, but I would highly recommend you set up an email account with one of the free services like Hotmail or Gmail.

Once you're on the internet, you'll find a lot of useful information that you want that requires you to provide an email address. In some cases, these people will end up sending you a bunch of spam.

If you use a free email account to sign up for anything that you don't know for sure you can trust, it's not going to fill your main email with a bunch of junk.

This goes for anything really, not just online information. If you're entering a contest or signing up for anything offline and you don't know where your information could end up being used, I would suggest using your free email address.

If worse comes to worse, and your free email address gets inundated with spam, you can always just set up a new one and let the old one expire.

Some of the better free email services are www.hotmail.com, www.gmail.com and www.yahoomail.com.

If you've had your computer for a while and never done any of these things, you should still take these steps to get it set up properly. It will definitely save you a lot of time - and possibly money - as you use your system.

About the Author

John Lenaghan offers easy-to-understand advice at the Computer Help Squad website. Find out more about these 5 steps - sign up for our newsletter and receive your free 5-part guide at http://www.computer-help-squad.com/5steps