Do YOU know anything about computers... I don't, so please help me!?

Question

Hello!

Erm I need a laptop for Uni! It is between these two:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146022

or..

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143362

It has to be from this site though as its an exchange! I will mainly use my laptop to write lenghty essays :( . Although I'm planning to watch a LOT of DVD's and stored films. I have quite a bit of music (which are usually mixes over 1 hour long) and photos.

I don't understand any of the technical jargon about processors, graphic cards, etc etc and so cannot compare them....so pretty please help me!?

Thanks!

P.S: These are my choices based on pretty photos :)...If you have nothing much to do right now..then maybe have a glance at the laptops on pages 3 and 4 ( http://www.ebuyer.com/search?page=3&store=5&cat=10&sort=pricelow&limit=10 ) and maybe let me know if there is a better laptop than the ones I chose (my ABSOLUTE budget is £320 though!). Again thank you very much!

Answer 1

"I don't understand any of the technical jargon about processors"

No offense, but you don't sound like a very informed buyer.  If you don't understand the jargon, how did you narrow it down to these two?  Why do you think you need a laptop at all - a laptop will cost more than a desktop of comparable performance and will be harder to repair or upgrade.  Despite what you see on TV, many people use desktops and get work done on them.

One thing that occurred to me about laptops - unless you drink your Frappucino out of a bucket, the likelihood that a spill will catastropjhically your system is greater for a laptop because everything is close together.  (For a desktop, you'd likely just get the keyboard which is easy to replace.)

Are computers much more expensive outside of the US?  This is way over $600 for a machine that would probably cost about $500 or even less.

Processor - the chip that handles the basic calculations for your system.  There 2 companies producing their own families of chip:

Intel - Celeron M, Pentium 4, Pentium Dual-Core, Pentium-D; Core Duo, and Core 2 Duo processors.  (in ascending order of sophistication)

AMD - Athlon - look under resolved questions that compare Athlon and various Intel processors.  I'm a committed Intel user myself, but you wouldn't want to rely on my suspect ranting on the subject. (I heard that mobile Athlon chops burn hotter than Intel chips).  For your needs Pentium Dual Core should do it for you.   2GHz of clock speed is optimal, though out of your price league, but those slightly slower should do.  

(clock speed measures how fast 2 otherwise identical chips will complete a set of calculations; it's an inexact measurement because varying sophistication will determine the complexity of calculations for each cycle - think of a 747 and the concorde, one crosses the ocean faster, but the other arguably makes up the difference by moving more people per crossing).

RAM - these are memory chips that hold data in short term, as in data needed to run prorgrams you're using; not to be confused with your hard drive, which also holds memory.  The HD holds more, but it's slower.  Think about having to go to a library to write a research paper - you try to pull every book you think you'll need and set aside a table to write your paper.  The shelves are like the HD - they hold all the data you'll ever need, but repeat trips back and forth will consume needed time.  Your table is like the RAM - it holds fewer books than the shelves, but you have almost instant access.

At your budget, 1GB is probably all you'll get, but RAM is easy to upgrade if yiu later find that you need more.  A 100 GB drive is probably good enough.

Graphics.  all computers rely on one of 2 forms of hardware - integrated graphics or a dedicated card.  This is an academic decision since laptops w/dedicated cards will be priced out of your league.  The predominant IG set is Intel's GMAX3100

I found this Toshiba on that site and it looks w/i your budget (okay a few pounds off) http://www.ebuyer.com/product/147733

I have a Toshiba from 2003 and it still works pretty well - it's a Pentium M and plays DVD files.

I found these machines that also look close to what you'd need.

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?store=5&cat...

However, I strongly urge you to consider that you might not need a laptrop at all.  

Answer 2

For your money the best bet is the ASUS.  It's far better than any of the others in that price range.  ASUS is a great brand so don't worry about that.  

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146022  

Good Luck HTH.

Answer 3

first one

Answer 4

My advice is to get the computer with the Intel processor.  It's the second one listed in your question.  They are more reliable and last longer, generally.

Answer 5

Yes, I know lots and lots of information about computers. Just msn/email me to ask your questions and I will answer them for you!

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