What Is A "Good" Spec For A Lap Top

[corkman]

I always get confused between dual core processors, DDR RAM, accelerators, various cards, etc., and when I start looking at laptops all I can see it the RAM..... but even within the RAM catagory there are lots of options..... and I haven't a clue what the various cards and accelerators do......

I just want a "good" laptop. Something with plenty of power, durablity, etc. Obviously, I want good value...... I don't need fancy things like finger print readers, virtual dolby, high definition cameras, lots of crappy fere software that I'll never use....... I just want something that I can use and rely on..... something I can install lots of different programs on, and it will still run smoothly and quickly with minimum of fuss.

I have just "upgraded" my current machine to windows 7. Spec is 4GB RAM, 160GB storage, Centrino core 2 duo CPU T5800 @2.00GH, Windows 7 home premium 64 bit. Its just a straight install of windows 7 with no frills and rubbish and its a gift to not have it weighed down with all the useless ACER software crap which is totally useless and just soaks up speed ...... so it runs nicely now, but teh machine itself is quite big, the battery is shot, and I am thinking of just setting it up to run downloading "things" to watch or listen to.

So, I want to get a smart no nonsense laptop with lots of raw power and versatility.......

Cab anyone give me the basic 101 of "what to look for in a spec" and "what the various bits do"...... please

Many thanks.

CM

Edited December 30, 2010 by corkman

[MikeWill]

Take a look here

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Just buy a new battery for your old laptop. Available cheaply via HK on eBay or someone like DealExtreme.

Perhaps a mere 1200 baht dependent on the model.

For some reason, a lot of the laptops sold in Thailand seem a bit low on RAM.

Main things: Good processor, lots of RAM and possibly a Graphics card, dependent on your pattern of usage.

But if you don't really need one, why bother. My new laptop is still sitting in it's box and my older machines are quite capable.

[MikeWill]

Main things: Good processor, lots of RAM and possibly a Graphics card, dependent on your pattern of usage.

exactly...

Lamborghini VX6 features dual-core Intel Atom D525 (2 x 1.80 GHz) processor, 2 GB DDR3 RAM (2 more could be added in a single slot), and Nvidia Ion 2 auto-scalable graphics.

[nocturn]

a good spec on a laptop involves determining its purpose.

how often will you carry it about?

what do you do on it, email and web, graphics, CAD, watch movies etc.

how much screen real estate do you need?

outputs, dvi, hdmi, vga

will you run external monitors? how many?

sound? how many outputs, surround sound? professional audio?

battery life? that means processor sacrifices, your battery will disappoint inside of a year anyway.

if you are happy with the old box upgrade the battery and wait.

figure out your minimum requirement, and then spend as much as you can to get more than that. then upgrade the ram and plan to chuck a bigger disk in in a year.

if possible avoid a shiny screen, they are there on most consumer machines to stop the foolish from ruining the lcd. many enterprise class machines are available without

whatever you buy will be obsolete tomorrow.

many people buy new machines purely on pricepoint, but end up unsatisfied, and need to upgrade sooner. Wisely buying the best you can afford will future proof you better than saving 10k baht and making compromises.

Edited December 30, 2010 by nocturn

[nocturn]

Just buy a new battery for your old laptop. Available cheaply via HK on eBay or someone like DealExtreme.

Perhaps a mere 1200 baht dependent on the model.

For some reason, a lot of the laptops sold in Thailand seem a bit low on RAM.

Main things: Good processor, lots of RAM and possibly a Graphics card, dependent on your pattern of usage.

But if you don't really need one, why bother. My new laptop is still sitting in it's box and my older machines are quite capable.

i am confused as to why you have it then.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Just buy a new battery for your old laptop. Available cheaply via HK on eBay or someone like DealExtreme.

Perhaps a mere 1200 baht dependent on the model.

For some reason, a lot of the laptops sold in Thailand seem a bit low on RAM.

Main things: Good processor, lots of RAM and possibly a Graphics card, dependent on your pattern of usage.

But if you don't really need one, why bother. My new laptop is still sitting in it's box and my older machines are quite capable.

i am confused as to why you have it then.

PC at home. Laptop was meant for travel, but my Netbook is adequate for my travel usage. So laptop stays put away. Better now?

[asiawatcher]

I don't think any of the above advices answer your question. You asked for a high spec computer and what is here are all basic.

If you want to go upscale for computing and stick with PC then get at least dual core 2.4Ghz speed, try to get a 7,200rpm drive and a minimum of 4-8Gb of whatever RAM. Also do not use shared graphics cards as they suck up memory. HDD you should get at least 500Gb as 160Gb these days barely covers programs. Most of the IT guys run Toshiba as they are pretty much bullet proof and robust. On any battery issues, do not leave the battery in unless you are going to use it. If you run battery - you normally get around 1,000 recharges before time to replace but only on the criteria that you use the battery - no power connected - until it dies. Fully recharge and then you will get long battery life. If you leave power plugged up and only occasional battery, the battery will die within a year.

My suggestion here also is look at a Mac. Mac's are far more powerful and higher spec, longer battery life and more capable than PC (and lighter). By the time you spec up above you could do the same in Mac around the same price and way better machines. Mac also have far better monitors. Good luck.

[MikeWill]

On any battery issues, do not leave the battery in unless you are going to use it. If you run battery - you normally get around 1,000 recharges before time to replace but only on the criteria that you use the battery - no power connected - until it dies. Fully recharge and then you will get long battery life. If you leave power plugged up and only occasional battery, the battery will die within a year.

If I understand you correctly, you're advising to unplug the battery (after full recharge) when the AC adapter is used.

Please clarify.

[gudtymchuk]

Ditto on the Mac. Have been using the same MacBook for almost 2 years without a single issue after years and years of PC/Windows frustrations. Only Mac for me.

[asiawatcher]

On any battery issues, do not leave the battery in unless you are going to use it. If you run battery - you normally get around 1,000 recharges before time to replace but only on the criteria that you use the battery - no power connected - until it dies. Fully recharge and then you will get long battery life. If you leave power plugged up and only occasional battery, the battery will die within a year.

If I understand you correctly, you're advising to unplug the battery (after full recharge) when the AC adapter is used.

Please clarify.

Best way if you want to preserve battery is to use it until it fails, then plug up the AC and continue using - do that every week and the battery will last a long time.

If you plug up AC and leave the battery in week after week the battery will retain 'memory' and it then 'thinks' it does not need charging.

Similarly, if you travel on aircraft etc, use your battery all the way - but if you have an 8 hour battery and fly for an hour, don't get to your hotel and plug up, run the battery until it is out and then recharge all night or as long as you can.

The last thing with batteries is if you charge them for say 20 minutes and then head out for a meeting, and do that enough when they need two hours, the battery again retains memory (lithium and ni-cad batteries) and they will not accept full charge thus your battery life dies very fast. Best if you are continuously on mains power and can unplug the battery, do so.

Hope this helps.

[asiawatcher]

Ditto on the Mac. Have been using the same MacBook for almost 2 years without a single issue after years and years of PC/Windows frustrations. Only Mac for me.

I changed from PC to Mac 3 years ago. I still have one PC desktop grunter to run those frustrating programs Mac deems unnecessary but now have 2 iMac's and 4 MacBooks (3 Pro) notebooks. I often question - do I miss defrag, viral scans, continuous huge updates and the answer is - why did I wait so long to change? One click on a Mac usually equates to two on a PC so saves time, work throughput is faster and the machines are far more robust than bits slung together by 50 manufacturers and sold under one brand name. Open one up and you see solid sate circuitry and almost no wires, quite the opposite on PC desktops or notebooks.

I also started on 8088 co-processors in 1980 using Wang's and back then you paid $17,000 for a 10 Meg Wang when the family sedan was just $11,000 (Ford Sedan). How things have changed!

[mysterybkk]

the best thing for you to do is to tell us what you would like to use the computer for and then it would be easier for us to tell you what is good.

the bottom line in the end is that the more you pay, the better the performance you can expect. as long as you dont buy ACER...

[corkman]

the best thing for you to do is to tell us what you would like to use the computer for and then it would be easier for us to tell you what is good.

the bottom line in the end is that the more you pay, the better the performance you can expect. as long as you dont buy ACER...

LOL .......... that's what I;ve got (an ACER)......

I am thinking seriously about the mac proposal.

To be heonst, I do not know what I specifically want it for ........... the thing I am sick of is that when you first get a machine, its runs smoothly and nicely, and then slowly (or not so solow) the performance degrades over time, in depsite not putting any more demands on the system...... until one day you say to hell with it and do a fcotry restore, and then it works perfectly.Up until now I have been thinking that maybe I have been expecting too much of it and so more power is the solution........ but over the years I have been through many upgrades...... and the machine I have now (while not top of the line) is far from low spec.

So I thought that perhaps things are simply not "configured" for my use..... but I do not do anything but of the ordinary ...... I run some software like AutoCAD and engieering simulation programs sometimes, and I run the usual MS office packages but I never have problems. What bugs me is clicking on outlook and it taking several seconds to work, or getting a non-responsive program (ctrl+alt+del and "program not responding"...... and al lthat kind of none sense. I just find it infuriating and truthfully while it is not that much of an issue technically, it just bugs me so much that my mind set is then distrubed before I can get back into work mode.

So........ I reckon a trip to the mac shop is needed........ this of course brings with it another problem...... well actually the same as what this one started with. Apart from "assuming" the more expensive ones are the better ones, what are key things to look for in a mac note book? I don't need a cutting edge multimedia experience (at least I don't think)..... just power and reliability, so that when I click "burn" on a cd, or run try to run something with a long run time (such as a simulation) it just gets on with it, with minimum of fuss, and lets me continue doing other things

[steve187]

The reason your laptop requires a fresh install of windows, is windows registry getting clogged up, and slowing the machine.

One answer to this problem is to install all the programs you require, then do a full back up using a third party program,further back-ups can be done if a few new programs are installed. When the computer gets a little slow do a install using the back-up.

Mac do not suffer from this problem, as far as i am aware (i'm not a mac user) mac Thailand range here - http://store.apple.com/th

[PhiPhi]

Quick observation on laptop batteries. IBM T41 circa May 2005 battery life still 2 hrs battery life, Acer circa Aug 2007 2 Mins. The difference is that via software I could set the IBM not to charge unless the batt was < 80% whereas the Acer would constantly charge and was useless after 6 months. I paid about 67k baht for the IBM and 57k baht for the Acer, the Acer has never failed me nor has the T43 but the IBM takes a licking but still keeps ticking and is still helping me to make a living, the Acer o the other hand is relegated to bit-torrent duties.

As to the original question good spec, here's my punt.:

i5 Processor (top model i3 at a push)

2GB RAM (4GB Preferred)

Graphics ATI Mobility 4650 or greater

HDD 500 GB

Wireless 'N'

Sim Card Slot

HDMI or Display Port out

Solid Chassis and feel.

Good luk

PhiPhi

[mysterybkk]

the best thing for you to do is to tell us what you would like to use the computer for and then it would be easier for us to tell you what is good.

the bottom line in the end is that the more you pay, the better the performance you can expect. as long as you dont buy ACER...

LOL .......... that's what I;ve got (an ACER)......

I am thinking seriously about the mac proposal.

To be heonst, I do not know what I specifically want it for ........... the thing I am sick of is that when you first get a machine, its runs smoothly and nicely, and then slowly (or not so solow) the performance degrades over time, in depsite not putting any more demands on the system...... until one day you say to hell with it and do a fcotry restore, and then it works perfectly.Up until now I have been thinking that maybe I have been expecting too much of it and so more power is the solution........ but over the years I have been through many upgrades...... and the machine I have now (while not top of the line) is far from low spec.

So I thought that perhaps things are simply not "configured" for my use..... but I do not do anything but of the ordinary ...... I run some software like AutoCAD and engieering simulation programs sometimes, and I run the usual MS office packages but I never have problems. What bugs me is clicking on outlook and it taking several seconds to work, or getting a non-responsive program (ctrl+alt+del and "program not responding"...... and al lthat kind of none sense. I just find it infuriating and truthfully while it is not that much of an issue technically, it just bugs me so much that my mind set is then distrubed before I can get back into work mode.

So........ I reckon a trip to the mac shop is needed........ this of course brings with it another problem...... well actually the same as what this one started with. Apart from "assuming" the more expensive ones are the better ones, what are key things to look for in a mac note book? I don't need a cutting edge multimedia experience (at least I don't think)..... just power and reliability, so that when I click "burn" on a cd, or run try to run something with a long run time (such as a simulation) it just gets on with it, with minimum of fuss, and lets me continue doing other things

well, i guess that helps a little bit. i can already see that if you plan on using autoCAD then you will need fast RAM, a multi-core processor and a good video card.

if you are just going to check your email and browse the web then a simple cheapo acer for 14k will do fine. however, if you plan on seriously using autoCAD or other graphics intensive programs then you might want to go down a different route, such as a desktop PC where you have much more options in terms of power. the thing with notebooks is that by having everything squeezed into such a small rectangle you have to sacrifice performance. i dont even own a notebook, i do everything on a PC with a massive graphics card and plenty or RAM.

if you have budget constraints then maybe a mac might not be the best thing for you, but if you can afford to go all out with an i7 processor, 8GB RAM, the best graphics card and SSD storage, then by all means do that.