I am planning to buy a new laptop as a desktop replacement and for occasional travel. I will use it mainly to surf the web, occasional music downloads and MS office applications (PowerPoint and Word). I do NOT run gaming applications. During travel I may watch a DVD or two. I have my eyes on a 15 or 17" Dell laptop with Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM, and 80G HDD. Which of the following would be worth spending extra dollars on to enhance the performance/speed of my computer (mostly for web surfing): processor speed, front bus speed, L2 cache, HDD speed, video card memmory, RAM, RAM speed? Is there a "rate-limiting" process when surfing the web other than connection speed?
2007-02-18 09:22:27 · 10 answers · asked by chessman1111111 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Laptops & Notebooks
I would upgrade in this order:
RAM: Always can use more, even with the applications you specify.
Video card: Same reason as above.
Warranty. Get at least a 2-year plan. You do not seem to travel much, so I would not get any more than 2 years.
There are some great coupons for dell right now at http://www.24houredeals.com/Dell-coupons-23-mer.html
Good Luck.
2007-02-19 10:05:33 · answer #1 · answered by iamqueww 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
For what you want to do and you said no gaming, you can get a laptop very very very very inexpensive. Although the dual core is great you would be wasting money if your surfing and playing music you don't need it. If I were you and wanting to do what you want to do I would go on ebay and get one cheap. If however you want new you can't beat hp (Hewlett packard). You can get one exactly what you want and dell is ok but when you look at the customer satisfactation data hp is better which is why I choose hp. What I like about hp is the gaurantee, the customer service and the quality.
I compared dell, alienware, hp, gateway and I couldn't believe the price difference. Alienware has lots and lots of negative comments gateway was 2nd worst, dell was good and hp was best. See site below when there click on laptops. You can customize it online and as you add things the price goes up or as you take things out it goes down.
2007-02-18 09:37:15 · answer #2 · answered by Workfortoday 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It sounds like you have a solid system. You didn't mention what version of Windows OS you are using. If you are using Windows XP then 1GB of RAM is fine. However, if you are using Windows Vista then 2 GB of RAM is better. The only exception is if you are using Windows Vista Home Basic which does not have Aero. Connection speed is pretty much the rate determining factor in websurfing. You can try a 802.11n wireless router/adapter but the "N" standard has not been finalized yet. Personally, I would invest the extra cash on a spare battery or a battery with extended battery life.
2007-02-18 09:34:08 · answer #3 · answered by What the...?!? 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ok, forget everything about getting a PC laptop. for the things that you are doing, the perfect computer is the apple macbook. Its a simple consumer laptop that is good looking, functional, and powerful.
for the things you are doing, i would get a white macbook with basic ram with maybe a minor harddrive update and graphics card update. you can easily buy microsoft apps that are fully functional and compatible with windows based pcs.
Make sure you buy it from applestore.com because you can easily get student discounts even if you are not a student. Just click on student discounts on the right side of the store page and enter a zip code and chose a college. easy 200 - 300 bucks off your computer.
Hope this helps
2007-02-18 09:30:36 · answer #4 · answered by bigjaredfish 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They were the top-rated laptops (other than in the bargain laptop category, which they don't fit) in the latest issue of Consumer Reports. (I am sitting in the living room right now with my two daughters and we are all working on Mac laptops.) With any laptop, I would spring for the extended support, because they are just more vulnerable than desktop systems. Apple Support is very helpful and you can also bring your laptop into an Apple Store.
2016-05-24 03:52:54 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If its pure speed you are after...as far as running applications go RAM is the best bang for your buck.
Any decent new laptop these days has no "internet speed limiting" drawbacks. Its all about your connection.
2007-02-18 09:30:10 · answer #6 · answered by Kevin Doyle 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i would have to say that the easiest and cheapest way to get more speed is to just buy some RAM chips so atleast get 2gb of ram but the more the better plus thats about the only thing you can upgrade in a laptop (usually)
2007-02-18 16:15:02 · answer #7 · answered by thatguy 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The extended warranty was a very good idea.
I would make sure you yet all the driver and setup disks, including the Vista or XP disk with activation key. I would also request dell not install the crapware they normally install.
Decrapifier
http://www.yorkspace.com/pc-de-crapifier/
http://www.yorkspace.com/2006/04/38
2007-02-18 09:42:36 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The best thing to spend your money on is an extended warranty.
Most laptops are designed to fail within 18 months and are very expensive to repair outside of warranty.
2007-02-18 09:27:20 · answer #9 · answered by gumtrees 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
here's a link on ebay AU where you can read reviews of them by ebay members
2007-02-20 03:32:25 · answer #10 · answered by mike m 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋