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Choosing the right Hardware Components for your Laptop
When it comes to choosing the right hardware comonents for your laptop, what you are going to use your laptop for will determine the type of components that you will need. This article explores the various laptop components and advises on what type of component is most applicable.
Hard Drive
There are two factors to consider in relation to the hard disk, the speed of the drive and the amount of storage space. In general the speed is the more important factor of the two for most laptop users. We would recommend that a 7,200-rpm hard drive as being a good choice, remember if you wish to upgrade at a later date this will be a costly exercise both in terms of having to purchase the drive and also for the labour cost required from a computer repair business.
When it comes to hard disk storage space again we would recommend purchasing a drive with what may initially seem to be a bit more than adequate. As the cost between a medium and larger gigabyte drive is not substantial it is worth that bit extra for the additional space as software; particularly games increasingly require additional space.
Solid State Drives
The benefit of a solid state drive is their better performance – with a solid state drive you will have faster boot times, quicker application open times and improved resume times. Another very important benefit of a solid state drive is that it doesn’t have moving parts so failure of these drives is far less likely than their mechanical counterparts.
The downside is that solid state drive is that they are more expensive and generally have less storage space.
Graphics Card
It is most often unnecessary to purchase a graphics card for your laptop as for most users the built in graphics capabilities of their new laptop is sufficient for their needs. This is still true for most gamers as long as you use the visual setting set at low there shouldn’t need to be the necessity to purchase a graphics card. However for really demanding games, 3D gaming and high intensive HD video-editing a discrete graphics processor would be necessary.
CPU
The performance of a CPU is reflected in its price. Lower end machines usually have an Intel Pentium CP or an AMD E Series CPU which is fine for most users who primarily surf the net and use social media. A more expensive option would be an Intel Core i3 CPU or AMD A Series and the difference in performance is worth paying for. Towards the upper end of the market, an Intel Core i5 CPU will give you even greater performance; expect to pay more than $500. At the very top of the market is the Core i7 system or a quad-core chip again these top performing components are really only necessary if you are a serious gamer or use sophisticated intensive software.
RAM
These days 4 gigabytes of ram is the accepted minimum amount of memory that your notebook should have. In general you shouldn’t have to get a laptop with anything greater than 6 or 8 gigabytes for your laptop to perform at the speed that you require.
Ports, Card Slots and Video Outlets etc.
You really can’t get away with less than two USB ports, most laptops these days come with two or more USB 3.0 ports – and you will need them. It’s also essential that you purchase a laptop with an SD card and a HDMI video outlet. You can get away without an Ethernet jack and Bluetooth – depending on how you use your laptop.
Optical Drive
The trend is now not to provide an optical drive in slimline and lightweight laptops as their use is declining with most software being downloaded from the net. However if you still use CDs or DVDs for storage or media playback or if you want to watch Blueray movies then an optical drive is obviously a necessity.
Display
The greater amount of pixels you have, the sharper will be the image which is particularly important if you intend to watch a lot of movies on your laptop. Once again, you get what you pay for, and once again the price difference between the more basic and better displays is not that large. If you choose a laptop with a wide screen then full HD panels are a good choice.
Choosing the right Hardware Components for your Laptop