Buyng a Pc

When buying a laptop for your course there are number of things you might like to consider.
I have highlighted some quality questions you might like to ask your self.

The first thing you need to consider Do I want a Mac operating system or a Windows based system? What does your college use? Macs are traditionally used for Art based and design courses and Windows for more academic and business courses. The Mac is probably more flexible. Certainly in IADT they are always available in the library. However they are more expensive. Then again you pay for quality.

The next question. Is weight an issue? Personally I don’t fancy carrying around a large brick in my bag so when I was reviewing the purchase of a new laptop for college I looked at the range of new lightweight notebooks available. If the truth be told I was just looking for an excuse to buy one. They are available in 7” or 9” screen resolution 1200 X 1600. The issue really is weight versus screen size. Personally if I want to work on Adobe I want a big powerful desktop, a big screen and a sensitive mouse as these programmes use a lot of memory.

Specification- Do I want a single core or a dual core? Dual core is quicker and more efficient if speed is a priority for you.

As a student you will be using your laptop for Word, Excel, Power point, Email and the Internet. A web cam might be important for keeping in touch with classmates when you are working on group projects via video conferencing calls. So you might want a built in webcam and microphone.

If you are into your music you might want to check you have quality speakers. Bring your music with you in the form of an mp3. File and you can check the sound quality in the shop.

A comfortable of key board. Check out how the key board feels get one that fits your fingers notice how do the keys feel . Are the keys well spaced?
Does your new laptop have sufficient Usb ports? Can you buy a spare battery ?
I chose a Dell mini notebook link below. If you do choose a notebook make sure you are comfortable with the smaller screen, and the smaller keyboard. These notebooks now come with very high specs. You have a choice of hard drives, typically 160gb. I decided not to get hung up on the memory as memory is cheap. I wanted something durable and hardy as it will be constantly on the move in and out of bags, cars, and coffee shops. The traditional hard drives have moveable parts meaning they don’t like to be moved. Not really ideal for college life. So I chose a notebook with a hard solid state drive – these have no moveable parts. It is solid rather like a USB key. Unfortunately it has the memory of a USB key a mere 16gb. It also has 3 Usb slots and a slot for my SSD memory card that’s another 64gb if I needed it. However with the rate at which memory is developing and the falling prices on USB keys I doubt this will be an issue down the road. Currently I have a 16gb USB key and a 16GB SSD card all bought on Amazon great prices. The benefits for me outweigh the downside. This laptop is less likely to be damaged from bumps or sudden impact. This type of hardrive also allows much faster access times, data transfers and is more reliable. It uses less power therefore has a longer battery life and easier and quicker to re-charge. Recharging from flat in about 25mins – a coffee break. Also it is less likely to overheat. It is not that long ago that are standard laptops only had a memory of 16gb and 20gb. I chose to stay away from Vista for obvious reasons. I find windows XP is sufficient and it is not greedy on memory.

And No I don’t have a vested interest in sales and I am not particularly a fan of Dell either. Here is a link of the laptop I purchased