Laptop question

[Lookn4help]

My favorite laptop has stood up as long as it could....it's just old and can't be upgraded any further and the newer products don't run on it etc..so my question is if you were to "build your own laptop" what would you want.
4G Ram
320 G Hard drive
64 bit windows 7
cd/DVD R/RW burner
good graphics card (I don't game unless you consider poker gaming)
NO IDEA what I need to make it as fast as possible
Any other suggestions appreciated.
Other than Apple or Soy any suggestions of brand?
Thanks

 

[77sticks]

4g of RAM with expandable to 8g is plenty enough.

Hard drive will depend on you. Do you have a lot of songs, pictures, programs? Do you only use the laptop for poker and surfing the internet?

The gfx card that comes with the laptop will be plenty enough if you just use it for poker.

I haven't had much work with Windows 7 yet so for OS. Majority of the newer laptops have Windows 7 installed.

Dell has always worked great for business use. I have a HP laptop that I use daily. I have had it for 3 years with ZERO problems.


I just re-read and you asked what I would prefer. :mj07:

So...

4 gigs of Ram
1 TB hard drive
Standard gfx card that comes with the laptop will be just fine for you.
Dell or HP

 

[dawgball]

I highly recommend people asking this question to get a smaller hard drive and buy an large external hard drive. This way you have less complications when you go through your next replacement cycle.

4 GB RAM should be sufficient for the next few years. This is one of the key factors to making it fast.

Upgraded video card will help as well.

I have very good constistency with Dell and their customer service on replacements or fixes is very good.

 

[kcwolf]

I wanted a mini as it is handy. Use it for research only. I have YFI from Quest, had this deal and ordered it at Dell. I assume it will meet my needs?

Order Detail

Order Number: 928645963 Estimated Delivery Date : 11/11/2009

Quantity Item Description

1 Inspiron Mini 10

1 Intel®Atom®Processor Z520 (1.33GHz/533MHz FSB/512K Cache)

1 1GB DDR2 SDRAM

1 10.1" Widescreen Display (1024x600)

1 Intel®Graphics Media Accelerator 500

1 160GB, 2.5inch, 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

1 Non-WWAN Base, WLAN Antenna, 1GB

1 Obsidian Black

1 Genuine Windows? XP Home Edition SP3

1 Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9, English

1 No Mobile Broadband Selected

1 Wireless 802.11g (1397) Mini Card

1 No Internal Digital TV Receiver

1 Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam

1 Microsoft Works 9 DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD

1 McAfee SecurityCenter, 30-Day Trial

1 28WHr Lithium-Ion Battery (3-cell)

1 1Yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Service

1 Qwest Promotional Offer


Order Subtotal: $249.00
Shipping and Handling Total: $0.00

Tax Total: $14.94
Total Amount: $263.94

 

[Franky Wright]

Dawg,

What sizes do you recommend then for the external and internal hard drives?
Can you explain the replacement cycle and why that makes a difference?

Thanks,

Franky

 

[dawgball]

Dawg,

What sizes do you recommend then for the external and internal hard drives?
Can you explain the replacement cycle and why that makes a difference?

Thanks,

Franky

Get whatever is included for free as your internal hard drive (usually around 160GB).

For external: I recommend that it is USB-powered and portable. 500GB will be enough for the vast majority of people unless you are storing movies.

Even if you are storing movies, you could have a 500GB for everything else, then a separate hard drive for movies.

Something like this.

But I do not own that one, so I am not necessarily recommending this one in particular. But it fits my description.

Replacement cycle: computers get old and you have to replace them. I go into every computer purchase with the thought of replacing it in 2-3 years.

This helps me spend less money on the front-end on features that I don't really need and it keeps me from always buying the latest and greatest (you can also use this logic with TVs) which is going to be "last year's technology" in about 6 months.

Confusing sidenote: I do recommend upgrading to Windows 7 if you are buying a PC right now.

This works with desktops, too. Buy external drive, buy a nice monitor, and set yourself up to swap out the actual computer every few years with ease.

This post is pure opinion, though. There are some who think this is terrible advice.

 

[Lookn4help]

Computer questions

Computer questions

Thanks for the help all. Never thought of external hard drive. I use the computer everyday for anything from browsing to excell worksheets and documents out the KLJJHNN. Thanks again.

 

[bsucards]

Get whatever is included for free as your internal hard drive (usually around 160GB).

For external: I recommend that it is USB-powered and portable. 500GB will be enough for the vast majority of people unless you are storing movies.

Even if you are storing movies, you could have a 500GB for everything else, then a separate hard drive for movies.

Something like this.

But I do not own that one, so I am not necessarily recommending this one in particular. But it fits my description.

Replacement cycle: computers get old and you have to replace them. I go into every computer purchase with the thought of replacing it in 2-3 years.

This helps me spend less money on the front-end on features that I don't really need and it keeps me from always buying the latest and greatest (you can also use this logic with TVs) which is going to be "last year's technology" in about 6 months.

Confusing sidenote: I do recommend upgrading to Windows 7 if you are buying a PC right now.

This works with desktops, too. Buy external drive, buy a nice monitor, and set yourself up to swap out the actual computer every few years with ease.

This post is pure opinion, though. There are some who think this is terrible advice.

Sometime next year, I think I might look at the Windows Home Server option with dual drives or something. I actually picked up an HP slimiline desktop that has a slot for a pocket drive from hp that slides in to the pc and connects to an internal usb port, but you can take it out and plug it in like a usb drive on another pc. But I think it would be nice to just have it all backed up to a server in a central place, I have 2 laptops and 1 desktop now for everyone.

 

[Terryray]

always check Dell small business section. Sometimes better prices there, especially for laptops. When they ask what your business is, just say you bet on sports!

If you don't cycle out your computer every 2-3 years, you should re-install your operating system--so that external hard drive makes sense, in any case.

To be more safe, backup and/or store stuff with an online storage company. Then you don't have to worry about backup HD failures.

One of mine failed and now I'm doing the laborious data recovery with PC Inspector File Recovery (the only decent free software for this out there).

And don't forget the external HD is still a HD, so it has to be defragged and such occasionally.