why do we have to have 1gb of RAM and over 100gb of disk space, with a cd burner and usb port for a laptop?

Question

why do we have to have 1gb of RAM and over 100gb of disk space, with a cd burner and usb port for a laptop?? and what should i have on a laptop?

Answer 1

That is the recommended minimum specification. This is simply down to burning software being extremely hungry for the computer's resources. Many would say that 1Gb RAM is enough but even with 1Gb RAM, other software will use some of it at all times (Anti-Virus etc.) and some software will use some of the RAM some of the time (Windows Explorer etc.). Therefore, you will never have the full 1Gb RAM at the desposal of the burning software. The burning software will then use some "Virtual Memory" from the Hard Disk Drive (HDD). Now, assuming you are burning a DVD and it has been encrypted. You will need to decrypt the DVD to the HDD first, that can use up to 10 Gb of Disk space for each movie decrypted. Therefore, after decrypting the first movie you have only 90Gb left and you will need a further 4Gb to 7 Gb to convert the movie files back to DVD for burning. You now only have 83Gb to 87Gb of HDD space. The burning and decrypting software can easily take around 15Gb to install. You now have 68Gb to 73 Gb left. Then you have Windows. Windows will use close to 3 Gb, which now leaves 65Gb to 70 Gb. Add all the other software (Office, DTP, movie and audio players, Acrobat etc. etc.) and you will be lucky to have over 50 Gb left on your 100 Gb HDD. I can remember when a 4Gb HDD would hold thousands of pounds worth of software and run smoothly. Today, I'd be lucky to get Windows installed on a 4Gb HDD, there'd certainly be nothing left for other software, files etc. As for the USB port, USB is a quick and convenient way to connect a laptop to a PC for uploading / downloading files. It also comes in handy if you need to print something from the laptop or even to use for a USB pen. My idea of a good laptop would be a 200Gb HDD, at least 1Gb RAM, a DVD ROM and a DVD DL (Dual Layer) HD (High Definition) ReWrite (DVD DL HD ReW), a Network Card, Firewire Port, at least 2 x USB ports and a good Graphics Card.

Answer 2

Okay my friend. If you are planning to buy a laptop, you need to consider many things in your mind, First you were asking why do we need one Giga byte for the RAM. Well, because this is the minimum capacity that you could find these days . If you are a gaming kind of user, you should consider 2 GB at least, and of course with an adequate Graphics Card whether it's Nvidia or ATI. Anyway, If you are a kind of person who use basic applications such as Microsoft Word or Media players softwers, you will be fine with 1GB. However, if you use Softwares Simultaneously, like using converting movies softwares while you are playing a video game, then of course you will need mor than 1 GB. The reason is the applications that you run on your computer need a place to work in which is RAM. For instance, Microsoft word basically use 37 MB of the RAM and Real player uses about 150 to 300. it depends on what you are playing. So, if you are using many applications in the same time they will use a lot of memory in the RAM.
Also if you are a heavy user you will need a core due CPU, because it works like 2 CPUs .
At the end my friend, If I am buying a lap top, I would get 1 GB of RAM, and Core Due CPU, and a good life battery, because I use office and media softwares in the same time, but I do not play video games! :D

Answer 3

Just because that's what they say you need. Heh.

Really though, modern operating systems (Vista, XP, Mac OS, Linux) run better with more RAM. Bigger hard drives give you more space to store files, such as music and video (the operating system itself will also take a nice chunk of hard drive space, as will the applications you install). You don't need to get a laptop with a lot of RAM and a big hard drive, but it makes a huge difference a couple of years down the road. And getting any computer without USB is a waste.

Also, any laptop should have either an Intel Core Duo/Core2 Duo or AMD Turion x2 if you plan on using it as your every day computer. Dual-core processors aren't much more expensive than single-core, and run between 20 and 90% faster overall, depending on what you're doing and what operating system you're running. And if it's not much more to upgrade, get a DVD burner instead.

Answer 4

You don't HAVE TO have that.
A computer with 256 MB of RAM, 20GB disk space, 500 MHz processor, no cd burner and 1 USB 1.1 would work just fine, but you'd be pulling out your hair because of its slow-ness (i don't know if that's a word.) That's why they put that much RAM, disk space, and processor for a laptop, not only to sell it more expensive (well a little bit of that too.)