(no subject)

[kokopellinelli]

Hey, LJ Friends. So, I am in need of opinions.

One of these days, I'd like to get myself a laptop. I've never had one before, and I'm not really sure what I need. I'd like something with plenty of space for music and pictures, internet capabilities, and CD burner. Something with sufficient battery life and that won't explode. I'd like it to not cost my first-born (assuming I ever have a first-born. If I never have kids, I don't guess this will matter so much).

Do any of you have suggestions? Do you really like YOUR laptop? What is it? How much did it cost? Is it pretty? That last one isn't really important, but I admit, the thought of a shiny new laptop in a pretty color does sort of set my heart aflutter!

Any thoughts would be welcome! Thanks!

Comments

[dark-wolf.livejournal.com]

My hp was kinda nice. It has a short-ish battery life (2-3 hours) but is strong enough and didn't cost much (around 800). Honestly, what I found the most important in getting that laptop (my second one) was the noise factor. I'd much rather have a smaller, comfortable and quiet laptop, than the older stronger one I had. It's not so great when you have a laptop that sounds like a hairdryer and burns the hair off your legs, a bit embarassing to pull out in cafes/public places.

[kokopellinelli]

In some of the reviews I read, it recommended getting a lap-cooling fan. I might think about that!

[beowulff.livejournal.com]

Pretty much every laptop nowadays has internet capabilities, both wired and wireless, so that shouldn't be a problem. Be sure to check the WiFi is at least 54 Mbps though. Also, I think you'd have to look hard to find a laptop that doesn't have a CD burner - many will have DVD player/CD burner combos, but I think full DVD burners are becoming more common now. Get one of those if you can.

Otherwise, what you should look for depends on whether you plan on playing games and such as well. If so, look for a dual-core processor and a separate graphics chip (ATI or NVidia) for maximum game performance, but it'll be more expensive. If you're not looking for gaming performance, and you only want to do some internetting and maybe a little word processing, don't worry too much about the processor, and save yourself quite some money; any recent processor should do fine for you.

I would make sure you get a decent amount of RAM though, at least 2 GB if you can, as for your purposes adding RAM will likely make your laptop run smoother than adding a faster processor will. And if you want to store lots of music, movies and pictures, go for the biggest hard drive that will fit your budget, 100 GB at least, but more is better here. No matter how much space you have, you'll always find a way to fill it.

As for brands, HP is good, but may be a little expensive for its performance; supposedly it's the quality that you pay for here. Sony, on the other hand, mostly appears to let you pay for prettiness instead of performance, so stay away from them. Tric now has an Acer laptop, which she is quite happy with. Acer appeared to have pretty good value for money, and they seem to be building themselves a pretty decent reputation as laptop builders. Can't tell you much about other brands, but I'd advice you to stay away from no-brand laptops. Unlike normal PCs, where if a part fails you can always replace it with another, this is not so easy for laptops, so you're a little bit more dependent on a maker's service level.

Hope this is enough info to get you started, good luck :)

[kokopellinelli]

Ooh, very helpful, Wulffy. Thanks! :)

I was looking at some laptops last night and "building" a custom one, just for the heck of it, until I came to a screen that told me to choose my "external" monitor. Any idea what that means? It showed a couple flatscreen monitors on stands, and also some things that looked almost like surge protectors but with USB ports instead of outlets.

I was under the impression that a laptop has no need of external monitors because its monitor is built-in. That was confusing.

[dark-wolf.livejournal.com]

They are probably just trying to sell you extras with your laptop. Most laptops nowadays can connect to an external screen (pretty convenient) but you don't need one.

I've heard good things of acer too. Good advice from beo yeah!

[kokopellinelli]

I've been combing the Acer site...it's kind of confusing and I have to download the price lists, but I don't have Excel on my computer so...that kind of sucks. I've never even heard of Acer!

[beowulff.livejournal.com]

To view Excel files, you could either download OpenOffice (free, open source office replacement), or upload them to Google docs (might require a Google account, not sure). For price lists, however, you're probably better off checking the site of your favorite reseller or online shop.

[beowulff.livejournal.com]

You're quite welcome :)

You can assemble a custom laptop? That's pretty cool :) I wonder if that won't be more expensive than a comparable pre-configured system though.

About the screen, pretty much what DW said: no, you do not need an external screen, although if you plan on using your laptop mostly at a desk, an external screen and external keyboard might provide better ergonomics. However, that's probably not what you're getting a laptop for anyway, and you probably don't want to spend the extra $200-$300 for that.

The "surge protectors" with USB ports are probably USB hubs. If your laptop doesn't have enough USB ports, you can use those to hook up more USB devices. Some monitors even have these built in to their base.

Most laptops I've seen have at least two or three USB ports, often even four, which should be sufficient for most practical purposes - you're not likely to haul around all sorts of peripherals along with your laptop anyway. Besides, if you ever feel you need more, you can always go to the nearest electronics store later and pick up a no-brand USB hub for $10-$15 or so, so don't worry about those now.

[kokopellinelli]

Yeah, you can make a custom one, but I was really only doing that to see what my options are.

I hope I can get a laptop soon, but it's not a given, so I was just messing around. Again, I really appreciate your advice! Half the time, I don't even know what any of that techno-speak means!