Choosing the Right Laptop for Anyone

For many people with limited computer knowledge, choosing a laptop is a very hard decision. You may have heard that you need a lot of Ram, a huge hard drive and a fast processor. For most people this is not need. It is nice to have a good processor but will you get your money's worth if you are only checking emails. Most people have a computer to send emails, look on the internet, word processing, listening to music, looking at photos and for younger people, internet games. In this post I will explain what you need on your laptop if you are using it for any of the previous stated uses.

When choosing the hard drive on your computer, bigger is usually better as people store a variety of items like documents, pictures, music and software downloaded online. I would recommend at least 250 gigabytes (Gigs) as most people will create various types of Microsoft Office documents, especially students. If you are into music and/or take a lot of photographs, 320-350 gigabytes depending on your library size although some people have hundreds of gigs of either.

If you want to save a bit of money you can buy an external hard drive. An external hard drive is much cheaper than built in storage. Instead of spending extra on your computer for a bigger hard drive you can get the same size or more for much cheaper externally. You can find one in any store that sells electronics. I got a 1 terabyte (1000 Gigs) hard drive from Wall-mart for $99. An external hard drive may also be useful to back up your computer or make it easier to save files if you are getting another computer (in the future).  

Many people will tell you that a lot of Ram (Random Access Memory) is important, nut that does not mean to get 6GB of Ram. Most users will be fine with 2 gigs but I recommend 3 or 4, not because most computers start with that amount but it may come in useful if you are using your computer more than usually at any given time. If you are checking mail, surfing the web, listening to music music with other programs open, your computer will not drastically slow down. The Ram is pretty much the memory used when a program is open. I have a laptop with 4GB of Ram, although I do more laboring tasks like video rendering, I use about 3GB on average.

Your processor is one of the most important part of your computer. Many people understand that a faster processor links to a faster computer although it goes deeper as you get into cores. The average user can cope with a 2 GHz dual core processor. Intel's Core i3 are lower end processors that are perfect for most people but you can get the Core i5 to step it up. Anywhere from 2-2.3 GHz will do.

Wi-fi is a must for laptops nowadays, although the majority of computers have Wi-fi, look for 802.11n wireless. There may also be 'B' and 'G' wireless but the 'N' is the newest and most reliable.

Screen size is another important factor, a 13" computer is more of a portable while 15" can be is less portable and can sometimes be used to replace a laptop. The biggest screen size for most brands is 17", these are extremely big and heavy and are best used as a desktop replacement.

Thanks for reading this article. I really hope I helped with your decision on buying a new laptop.