Buying a Laptop part 3: Finding the Deal

     So far in this series, we've covered what operating system you want, and what hardware ranges you want in your machine.  If you are interested in persuing a mac, the search will be much more limited, and I'll look more into a PC, but that doesn't mean you cannot find deals.

     What's your flavor?  There's all kinds of companies making computers out there.  Most make pretty decent quality stuff, so what differenciates them?  Well price for one, customer service, warrenty coverage, arrangements of specs and hardware, after all that, I would really focus on specific models.  Check an independant review  of several models, especially the ones you are considering, because some models are flimsier than they appear, or have great specs, but due to the mother board, or hardware arrangement, they do not perform well.  Several companies allow you to customize most anything that the motherboard can possibly cater to, while others offer specific models with specs laid in stone.



     Take advantage of the promotional discounts on the website, but don't enslave yourself to it.  Those promotions change constantly, and if a deadline is coming up soon, don't fret, there will be another coming soon.  In most purchases, if you get buying fever, you won't find the best deal.  Check out Newegg.com for deals of the week.  If it's approaching a holiday, keep an eye out for those promotions too, but don't buy a laptop that doesn't have the criteria you decided you wanted.  Also don't be afraid to look at other sites like retailmenot or sites that post deals.  check their facebook and twitter, Dell has an outlet facebook account that releases limited quantity promotional codes.  Between promotions and buying from an outlet, I recently bought a laptop for $470 that would have been over a thousand brand new.  I took a risk by doing so, but I have yet to find any issues with the computer itself.



     Now I'll address your paranoia regarding used computers.  Used computers can have issues.  That statement is very true, but that does not mean that a used computer does have issues.  If you are not super tech savvy, which is most people reading an article like this, you don't have to limit yourself to a brand new off the line computer, but you don't have to flip a coin on whether it will work or not either.  Recertified.  That can be a valuable word.  Recirtified computers can absolutely have problems still, but it comes with a manufacturer's warrenty to the working condition and quality of the product.  Even if there are several problems, and you have to pay to mail it back to the company, you can usually cover that risk with the money you save on the purchase price easily.  Brands like Dell, Sony, and HP have outlets online where you can view laptops that they have available recirtified, or dented at incredible discounts.
     Happy shopping.

Buying a Laptop part 2: the hardware

     Every computer site has recommendations for what specs you want depending on what you want to do with your laptop.  Some are great assets, and others are nothing but gimmicks to upsell you to higher features.  I, by no means, am the foremost authority on minimum requirements for any software at all.  When I write this article, don't only take my word, but verify.  My aim is to point you in the right direction and stay away from too little computing ability or way too much money spending.  Buying any componants individually I find the best prices usually at NewEgg.com, Amazon.com and TigerDirect.com.  Regardless of any affiliation I have, or will make with any of those sites in the future, it is the truth that they beat any prices I've found for any hardware I've looked for.

     The Processor.  This, in my opinion, is the easiest place to break your computer or your budget.  Got too little memory?  too small of a hard drive? need longer battery?  Any of those things can be upgraded later, but the CPU (central processing unit) is fixed on the mother board (the actual guts of a computer).  Unless you are a modding computer fanatic, you aren't changing this anytime soon.  Here's a list of all the things that will confuse you:  dual core, core 2 duo, triple or quad core, hyperthreading, energy consumption, heat, Gigahertz (Ghz), among many others. 
     There are sites dedicated to testing each variation of processors in consistant conditions to find actual performance data, I highly recommend checking out whatever version you are looking at, because a 2.4 Ghz intel pentium 4, won't perform as well as a 2.4 Ghz intel icore cpu.  When it comes down to generalizations, however, if you plan on doing anything beyond business software, and checking email, I wouldn't be enthusiastic about anything below 1.8 Ghz.  That is a minimum, not a recommended number.  Anything 3 Ghz or over, and you are entering into a gaming, and video editing laptop.  AMD and Intel are the 2 primary competitors, and if you go with either of those, I wouldn't worry about brand name as long as you refer to the aforementioned performance tests.  As far as electricity goes, the new icore processors and low voltage processors will probably eat the least batteries and produce less heat.

     Memory is much less complicated than it appears.  DDR3 can only be used with certain cpus, but manufacturers know that and won't allow you to get the wrong memory on their laptop.  Buying a laptop today, the primary concern is Gigabites (Gb).  The minimum Gbs you can have are determined by your operating system, and the maximum, by your mother board's capacity.  3Gbs is okay for common users, 4 is quickly becoming the standard, and any more you can get will help if you're doing anything that is resource demanding.  Another thing they throw at you is Front Side Bus (Fsb).  Again, higher is better, but it will be very hard to tell the difference from 666 to 887, or a similar sized jump.  In any of these specs, when you start getting "knit-picky" you can get caught up in details and spend way too much for a laptop,  Look at your current machine, or of someone else's laptop that is a few years old.  You want your numbers to be higher than the standards of a few years ago, but the rest is time insurance against becoming obsolete later.

     Hard drives are where companies really try to get your attention and push for HUGE quantities and make you feel like you are skimping if you go with a medium sized drive.  I like the idea of a boot drive, with your operating system, and essential software, and then an external or secondary drive that holds data like music, videos, pictures, and other files.  This will allow faster access times, and if you have to reformat your boot drive and start over, all of your files are intact.  It's also handy because you can plug an external hard drive in any computer and get your data.  A boot drive should range anywhere from 40-120 Gb, where your storage drive would have whatever storage you may need.  This works out nicely, because you can buy a smaller drive from the manufacturer and save money, and buy your secondary drive aftermarket, which is usually cheaper.
     Solid state drives (SSDs), work differently than hard drives, but accomplish the same thing.  The main reasons they are becoming popular is that they CAN function much faster, and use less electricity doing so.
     I'll be honest, I LOVE solid state drives.  I recommend them.  They are an easy way to jump start any computer to get a little faster with one purchase.  I don't, however, at this time recommend buying one that comes in any laptop.  Right now, the market is such, that any stock SSD will be overpriced and not the highest performance.  There are numerous brands that make good quality solid state drives, like intel, or OCZ.  Remember that almost any laptop will have a 2.5 hard drive slot.

     Batteries are an important part of the purchase, but every laptop consumes different amounts of power.  Because every battery is proprietary to the manufacturer of a laptop, it is usually a pretty good buy upgrading it at the time of purchase, rather than buying another later.  I will add that you typically cannot count on getting close to suggested battery life times. 

     Most video processors that are equiped on new laptops are going to be sufficient in what you are doing unless you are a video editor or a gamer.  Let me also address what it means if you are a gamer.  It does not mean that you play addictinggames.com or flash based games, or simple games.  This is referring to people streaming against other real players, where a hundredth of a second could be the difference between victory and defeat.  Other features to consider: bluetooth, wireless-N, webcam, back-lit keyboards (to see the keys in the dark), facial recognition, thumb print scanner, and tons of others.  None of these features are necessary to make your computer work well, but have benefits that you can weight for yourself. 
     Here's a link to one site's Performance comparison of CPUs.  Be sure to read part 1 of this article, where you can find help deciding what operating system you need, and part 3, where we'll take the laptop specs you've chosen, and try to find the best deal.
     If you have any questions please ask.  Let me add to your information collecting.

Buying Laptops part 1: the operating system.



     So in the nature of this blog, I'm going to find information on various topics and arm you with what you need.  Today I'll be addressing some information about buying a personal laptop and specifically decyphering between operating systems.
     Windows PC, Linux machine, or Mac?  The reason all 3 formats exist is that they all fill gaps in the market place, and none of them is the obvious choice.  I will start by pointing out that all 3 are closer to being like each other more and more as time goes on.  Why choose one over the other? 

     Windows is still the standard.  Virtually any program you'll really want will be available for windows, or there will be a comperable program in its place.  Virtually any manufacturer (or you) can build a computer and load windows on it.  That creates competition which drives down price, and opens the market to new devices and options quickly.  It also, however, creates problems where Windows has to be flexible enough to be compatible with all sorts of hardware, much of which doesn't exist when they program it, which in turn allows much room for error.  Manufacturer's try to test their systems with compatibility and mostly do a great job, but mistakes are much more likely than a Mac, where the computer and OS are built for each other.



     Linux is an open source operating system, which means people can take it, add to it, create variations of it, and distribute it, and it's all free.  I lean towards ubuntu, because it is popular, and I'm most familiar with this variation.  Pretty much any windows machine can be a linux machine.  There are many popular flavors of Linux, like Ubuntu, Red Hat, and many others.  If you are unfamiliar and afraid, there are tons of forums blogs and books to help out, Linux is not a new product that hasn't had time to find bugs or anything.  There are windows patches, simulators and work arounds to be able to run most anything windows can run.  The advantage here, is:
A) not paying for the OS,
B) the OS consumes fewer system resources, therefore running faster and leaving more room for programs. and
C) not open to the same viruses that Windows is.

     Macs clearly maintain the prestige in the industry, and for good reason.  They offer very very few products, but they all work incredibly well.  With the same computer stats, a mac will often run faster and with fewer errors.  The trade off is primarily cost, and stepping to a computer that isn't the "standard" which may or may not apply depending on the industry you are in.  They take a little to adjust to, operations are not hard to learn, but different from the windows experience. 
     Remember that because Macs have a tendency to work fantastically, windows machines are not automatically not good, but there are a lot more choices, and with the choices come the possibility for errors on your and the manufacturer's part. 
   I personally go with a Windows PC, because technology changes too quickly to sink as much money into a Mac as it takes, but it may very well be worth it to you.  I also choose to not use Linux, not because it is not great, but because my laptop came with Windows 7, and it hasn't posed any problems for me yet that Ubuntu would solve.
     Have information to add?  Think I'm wrong about something?  Please let me know.

    

Life was meant to be eclectic

What is eclecticism?

     -using what are considered the best elements of all systems.
     -selecting what seems best from various styles, doctrines, ideas, methods, etc
     -to select
     -to gather

If you're not gathering information, advice, and help from more than one source, you are drastically limiting yourself.  Look at the book of wisdom. 

Proverbs 15:22
     Plans go wrong for lack of advice;
      many advisers bring success.
Proverbs 24:6
     So don’t go to war without wise guidance;
      victory depends on having many advisers.
Proverbs 11:14
     Without wise leadership, a nation falls;
      there is safety in having many advisers.



     So now we have our mission statement.  Seek many advisers.  Gather.  That is wisdom.  If you like what the president of the United States says, or what I say, or what Brad Pitt says- awesome.  Don't, however, go banking your whole life on that one opinion. 
     That is why good debaters always quote as many sources as possible, that's why scientists can't draw a conclusions about the universe from one test, why Democracies change their leaders, and that's why you can't afford to bank everything one what one person says.
      This blog is about a persuit of knowledge, a persuit of good deals, a persuit of companies and people who establish credibility, it's a persuit of a life happening on purpose.