What NOT to buy

3 posts

With all the advice available on what to buy when it comes to a laptop, I thought I'd put in my 2 cents worth on what NOT to buy. Gamers will moan and salesmen will groan, but this is not intended for them; it is intended for the beginner buying his or her first laptop.

First on my list is: The "Super Computer" laptop. If you've got a desktop computer that's been humming merrily away in your home for many years, you may feel paying top dollar for a "good laptop" a wise idea. While quality is important, it is also important to consider the fact that any laptop computer will generally have a much shorter life span than a similar desktop computer; particularly if this laptop is going to be used by someone under 30 years of age! There are a multitude of reasons for this (some of them obvious) but if you research this at all you will find it is true. If you are paying cash for your laptop, this may not be a major concern for you, but if it's going on plastic, you may prefer to have it paid off before it's time to buy a new one. I personally own three very low cost laptops ("Green" series from Elitegroup, www.ecs.com.tw ) which I have found to be very well built, and all are still running like new. (I am 49)

The main problem with low cost laptops is that they are shipped with minimal RAM. Never run any laptop on less than 512 MB of RAM. The cost of a RAM upgrade is minimal now days, and will reward you with a far superior computing experience. You can usually do the upgrade yourself. Just be sure to get the right RAM card for your laptop.

Next thing we want to be sure NOT to buy is a laptop with a Pentium 4 processor! Rather than fill the page with my reasons why this is a bad chip for laptop use, I will refer you to the CNET review of the Pentium-4 entitled "RIP Pentium 4" (google it, or look here:

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3121_7-5944171-1.html ). If I was to recommend a processor, I would have to say any of the Intel "M" class, Pentium is your best choice, or Celeron if you have minimal computing requirements. Tried and true, cool running and dependable.

Third on my personal list of bugaboos is "BLOATWARE''. Many computer manufacturers ship their computers preloaded with a dozen or more software programs already on the hard drive (mostly trial versions) besides the Windows operating system. They get paid by the software companies to do this. I have found Compaq to be the worst offender. This bloatware hogs system resources (= slow computer) and at very least clutters up the hard drive to the point where doing a simple virus scan or defrag can take ages! Un-installing bloatware is a risky business and will leave behind plenty of remnants that come back to haunt you. Look in "All Programs" in the Start menu and take a good look at what you are getting besides Windows XP before you whip out your plastic. Ironically, the cheaper laptops seem to have the least amount of this computer curse. Happiness (in my humble opinion) is a clean slate!

If you can avoid the big three listed above, half the battle is won! But as long as I'm here... I can't resist commenting on three more.

Screen savers... Don't need 'em (LCD displays don't burn in), and the "3-D" screen savers will keep your processor awake and working, rendering the image (even when the monitor lamp is off!); which will keep your laptop toasty warm while you are not even using it. Laptop batteries are quite expensive, and they HATE HEAT! Skip the 3-D screen saver and let your laptop chill out once in a while.

Add On Firewalls... A firewall is very important, and fortunately, Windows XP comes with a great one! If your computer comes with XP-Service Pac 2, your firewall is already up and running, right out of the box. If you don't have service pac 2 (unlikely), you must turn on the firewall (and automatic updates) manually. Visit "Windows Update" (top section of All Programs) the first time you go online and follow the prompts. It's free & easy!

Spyware Blockers... A computer with the XP firewall up, and automatic updates turned on should have very little problem with spyware. Spyware blockers use up a lot of system resources, and most antivirus programs now clean spyware automatically during virus scans. If your antivirus doesn't do this, use a spyware program that will clean without full time blocking. "Spybot" (software) is free and good (www.download.com !). Full time blocking is overkill, and can really slow you down. Adware is another story. Adware builds up quickly and can also slow you down. "AdAware" software, (also at www.download.com ) is free, and a monthly sweep will keep your 'puter happy. Avoid the worst Adware by NEVER EVER CLICKING ON WEB PAGE/POPUP FREEBIES!

Cheers!

William Bolam, San Diego CA

From UK, 7 posts

Agree with all that, good advice.



AMD Sempron and Turion processors are also good (Intel aren't the only game in town). If you are tempted to replace your desktop with a notebook consider the following:



1. Desktop's are still cheaper for the equivalent performance.

2. Notebook screens are small, not suited to games and TFT's are still behind CRT's due to trails, dead pixels, etc.

3. Notebook cases are small and the contents can get very hot when the CPU is pushed hard by games. Heat is the enemy of computer chips.

4. Desktop's have better keyboards than notebooks.

5. A large hard drive on a notebook (100Gb) would be pretty small on a desktop.