Laptops

Mac vs PC

When going off to college, many students will want to bring a laptop or desktop computer with them. But with so many laptops to choose from, one might find themselves confused with what laptop is right for them, afterall, no one wants to spend a lot of money for a crappy laptop.

The two major powerhouses in computing today is Microsoft and Macintosh.  Both have their pros and cons, but the major you intend to pursue can affect which laptop you should get. A PC based laptop is better for engineers and power users, but Macintosh is better for multimedia based programs. I personally own a Windows computer because I like how I can find almost any program for it, and if one that I need is not available, I can easily make one myself. I did kind of want a MacBook too because of it’s fun artsy programs like photobooth and such, but I eventually settled with PC since I wasn’t going to be majoring into anything like communications or art.

When shopping for laptops, many factors should be considered to make the right purchase.  The specifications for the laptop are always given, and very important in deciding what laptop you should get, but many people don’t know what any of it means. I’ll give a brief explanation on the important things that should be considered when purchasing a laptop:

Processor speed: will be given in ghz’s, you don’t want anything under 1.6 ghz’s otherwise you’ll find the computer sluggish. Anything around 1.6 or higher is good, 2.0-2.4 or high is really good, the more the better.

RAM: This also affects the speed of your computer. This will usually be given in GB’s but I think they’re still some laptops that come out with 512MB ram (1024MB = 1GB). You don’t really want anything under 1GB so I would steer away from anything with just 512MB, some offer 2-4GB RAM nowadays, but anything 1GB or higher should be good enough. If you consider yourself a poweruser or a gamer, you might want something more around 2 or higher GB. But you can always ask them to install more RAM for you if necessary.

Video card memory: This will affect the video speed of your laptop. You don’t really need to care about this unless you’re a gamer. When watching movies, laptop nowadays can handle it, but when playing video intensive games such as Halo, you’ll notice it being very sluggish unless your laptop has at least 1GB of RAM dedicated to video.

Screen size:  Bigger is usually better, but you don’t really want to be carrying a huge laptop around with you. Bigger screen sizes are better for people who watch a lot of movies on their laptops or play a lot of games, but usually for the casual user, anything like 14.1”-15.4” is good enough. My friend just got a 17 inch laptop and at first I thought that would be cool with such a huge screen, but when I saw it, I was surprised at how big it really was. Again, you need to remember you’ll be carrying this thing around.

Weight: This is the same as before in that you don’t want to be carrying a mammoth around with you. There really isn’t any benefit in having a heavier laptop anyways, so lighter is always better.

Some people may find themselves wanting to get a desktop computer instead though. Same things apply really above, but nowadays desktops usually come cheaper than laptops. The only downside is portability.

Some other accessories you might want to invest in:

Microsoft Office <- this has things like Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc. It is very costly and there are other economical methods than buying this suite, but many people like Microsoft Word.

A laptop lock. All laptops will have a premade hole for a lock built into them which you can attatch something called a laptop lock into it and then bolt it down to your desk. This will make sure that you don’t have your huge investment stolen from you.

Carrying case – This is very handy for carrying your laptop around with you while keeping it safe.

Printer - for printing out anything you want.