|
Gauge -> RE: Who knows where this goes. (8/20/2006 11:34:36 PM)
|
OK... since you are going to lay out several hundred bucks for a computer, you have to ask yourself a few questions first.
1. What am I mainly going to be doing with the computer?
2. How important is gaming or video performance to me?
3. Do I really need all the latest bells and whistles or can I get by with something that will do the job and be reliable?
Those are just a few questions to start with. The other things you should think about are the following things:
Having a big hard drive is great and chances are, with what you say you are going to use the computer for, you will never come close to filling it. So, the best advice... get whatever size you can afford.
How to backup your data. This is the biggest thing that I have run into when someone calls me and tells me their hard drive crashed... I ask them if they did regular backups of their data... almost everyone has said that they didn't. My rule of thumb is that if you store something on your computer that you would be very upset over losing, do regular backups of your critical information. There are many ways to do this now days and again it is what you can afford. a DVD burner would be ideal because DVD's can hold (I think) 4.5 or so gig of information, the dual layer DVD's can hold around 8 gig. Don't quote me because I am just recently getting into the whole DVD writing scene, but they are not hard to look up. A flash drive is nice especially if you are going to want to transfer data from one computer to another and do it quickly. A flash drive is a USB device that acts just like another hard drive in your computer except that you can remove it and install it very easily. Another thing for backups are external hard drives. They are what they sound like... a hard drive that attaches to your computer with a USB connection, you can buy them already made or you can buy the enclosure and the hard drive and make it yourself. Either way, it makes having a safe place for your critical data pretty easy.
Network and wireless network capability are pretty much standard with most laptops now so, just make sure that you do have one or the other. Both is a nice thing to have, so... if it costs you another $50 or so, get it.
Did I mention backing up your data?
Make sure that you get a decent printer, if you are mainly printing documents and they must be high quality a laser printer is the best. Inkjets will get the job done too but at a slightly lower quality. Get what you need and don't get sucked into a combination machine (printer, fax, copier) unless you really need it.
Oh yeah... two other things that are pretty much a must own are a high quality surge suppressor and an emergency battery backup. With a laptop, your battery should kick in if there is a power loss so the battery backup is not critical. The surge suppressor is though. Do not think that the ones that you can get at the Dollar store will do you any good. Most computer manufacturers sell them. This is an item that I will tell you that you should NEVER skimp on, so get the best that you possibly can. Register it and send in all the documentation that comes with it because most of the really good ones have a replacement policy if your equipment fails because of an electrical spike while using their product.
Did I mention data backups?
If you have any more questions, feel free to email me.
|
|
|
|
