AJ's Blog (Archived Blog): Another Laptop Computer Tip

If you are looking to purchase a laptop, hopefully you've read the previous post written by Jon San Filippo called "5 tips for buying the right laptop computer". Those tips were great, however, I would like to add my 5 cents worth. Although much of the information is accurate, some things have changed concerning minimum system requirements. He stated that 256 Mb of RAM should be plenty for mundane tasks such as email, spreadsheets, wordporcessing and etc. That is true to a point. If you know for a fact that that is all you are going to use the laptop for, why spend the money? Many people state their intention of using the laptop for basic office applications, but many of these same people come to me and ask why their system locks up or why their applications aren't performing as quickly as they expected. These individuals, in many cases, have ultimately chosen to use the laptop for other applications such as gaming, photo editing, editing multiple documents at the same time, etc. In my opinion, if you are a typical computer user, you should opt for a minimum of 512Mb of RAM. This should allow you to perform all of your basic tasks and will even allow you to play quite a few computer games. Before you buy the games, or any other applications for that matter, look for the minimum system requirements needed to run the program and ensure that that you meet these requirements. Ideally, you should ensure that your system exceeds the minimum requirements, especially in the RAM (memory) and the graphics card.

If you know for a fact, without a shadow of a doubt, that you will use the computer for only basic mundane tasks, save yourself some money and go buy a cheap desktop at an online auction like E-bay or at a garage sale. Sometimes stores like Bestbuy or Wal-mart have sales on desktop systems for less than $300. But if you know that you will need something portable to haul around, then you will need to consider getting a laptop.

If you are convinced that a laptop is what you need, then you need to check out HP Home & Home Office Store. In fact, HP notified me today by E-mail in regards to a sale going on in their HP online store. This is a huge discount and is only good for the next 2 weeks. Here is the information: