Are you getting a new computer, do you want to upgrade a
computer you already own? There are a lots of factors to consider while
choosing a new computer. It sometimes happens this way. You get a new computer
out of the box, you love the clean, shiny machine but it becomes annoying and
irritating after some time. You discover you are not getting what you expected
or that it can’t match up to your new demands.
Technology is forever advancing, new features and new
systems. I remember when the highest processor speed around was1.2ghz. Even
android devices swinging 1.2 GHz on dual cores are not considered as strong. I
am pretty sure you’ve heard about terms such as RAM, SSD, HD, 6 Cell, Back lit
and the likes. Today, I would be explaining the meaning of some of these terms
and give some tips to help you decide when you want to choose a new device or
upgrade your device. First I’d like to talk on choosing the laptop.
Choosing the brand
There are various OEMs of laptops out there. Some are known
for their speakers, batteries, displays, processors, customer service, superb
chargers and design. Some are also known to have big flaws such as bad audio
delivery, poor batteries, poor keyboard layout etc.
So, I would advise that you first decide what you want to do
with a PC. If you want to use it to watch movies, you should get a laptop with
good speakers, nice DVD drive, high capacity Hard disk and a perfect screen
with good graphic rendering. For a gaming laptop or graphic work, get a laptop
with high RAM, processor speed and Video memory. The basic idea is to
understand the basic requirement of the task you’d be using the laptop for and
ensure that you get s laptop that has the basic things you’d be needing. For
gaming, picture, video design and editing, you’d need a good graphic card, processor,
RAM.
For simple office document work, you’d need a PC with good
keyboard layout and battery as you’d sometimes be working away from a socket
and would need all the battery life you can get from the PC.
Different OEMS have different strong grounds. You just
identify what you want and choose what you get and can easily pay for. I for
one had to make a tough decision. I wanted to get a silver rating HP ENVY. Was
allowed to do the whole customizing thing, I was left with a choice of choosing
Intel or AMD processor. Core I7 vs AMD A10. It was hard at first but then I
remembered how bad Intel processors were with PES game. I simply chose the AMD
knowing well that it would get hot while gaming and I’d need to clean the vent
and keep it cool at all times.
It is also very important to read reviews of a laptop you
have in mind. Hear from people that have used this laptops. They would point
out defects and highlight outstanding points. I found out that my HP ENVY had
an all flat touchpad like the Apple Mac and that it was tough to use. Then
another lady said it was easy to understand, 3 other people said the same and I
got the laptop. It came and I loved it.
Understanding basic
parts
The trackpad
The trackpad is the inbuilt mouse of the laptop, usually in-between
the palm rest of the laptop. The touchpad surface could either be smooth or sturdy,
have 2 or 3 mouse buttons, scroll sections, gestures etc. you can read about
the availability of this on the product information page on the OEM website. If
you want the scroll function and the laptop you chose doesn’t have it, that’s
easy. Zoom off and make another choice.
The speakers
A new development in speakers is the addition of subwoofers
and the strategic position of the speakers. My laptop has 4 speakers and 1 subwoofer.
Strategic positioning is the word, 2 speakers just beneath the screen right
above the keyboard, 1 beneath the palm rest on the left and right side and the
subwoofer somewhere under the laptop. The laptop has small studs that raises it
up. This enables the sound to boom out from underneath the laptop with loudness
and still maintain clarity. Either you love watching videos, playing songs,
skyping (oh yes!!!), streaming, gaming. Name it, a good speaker in your PC just
makes it all interesting. Read reviews about them, read reviews about audio
drivers and enhancements that they offer. BEATS Audio is awesome. IDT, Realtek
and some other I’ve seen fair well. It all boils down to your choice and what
people say about it. If you don’t give a rabbits tail about audio from your PC,
you can shun away from it and get anything that comes.
Ports and Slots
USB ports, LAN ports, SD card slots and many other ports are
usually found on computers. This ports have various functions, limitations,
requirements. So, do well to enquire on the types of ports available on the PC
you plan to buy so as to aid compatibility and flexibility when using your new PC.
If you have lots of USB 3.0 devices, it would really be annoying if you got a PC
that has all USB 2.0 ports. It would not only slow down your work. It would
make you hate the PC real fast. Wanna bet?
RAM
RAM (Random Access Memory) is storage used for
a place to hold data. Think of it as a big filing cabinet that keeps things
ready for the CPU in your PC to present it to your eyes and ears. It's
infinitely (almost) re-writable, very fast, and used differently by different operating
systems. Let me break it down. You’ve probably heard RAM classified
according to different sizes. 2gig, 3gig, 4gig RAM. To make things easy. Imagine
a small dining table. Three different chefs are needed to serve their meals on
the table. Chef A is Mozilla, chef B is WinRAR and chef C is MS Word. The name
of the table is RAM. Let’s assume you call up chef A to serve you a meal out of
its collection of meals, he comes to the table and starts unpacking his dishes.
Let’s also assume that you want water and call chef B to the dining, he unpacks
and starts serving you all varieties of water but oops, the table is all filled
up, you need to get some sauce from chef C but there isn’t space on the table
for him to quickly display all his sauces. As a result of this, all the chefs
start unpacking slowly on the table. The chefs having more use of the table
render more efficiently. The only means to ease things or speed things up is to
tell either chef A or B to pack up and allow C more space to perform. You digg?
All it means is that, when RAM is not very large, there is limited space for
apps to run, some apps eat more space than the others do. When apps don’t have
enough RAM to operate, that’s when you get the sluggish hanging called a LAG. So,
if you wanna get a device and would be doing heavy multitasking, playing HD
games or using apps that eat up the “table”, I’d advise you get a device with a
big RAM aka Table. It would also help to clear running applications before launching
a RAM demanding app. Also note that even a big table can get overloaded when
too many Chefs are called to the table at once.
Hard disk
The hard disk is where your operating system files, personal
files and the likes are saved. The speed of a computer is also dependent on the
speed of the hard disk and type of the hard disk. First, let’s talk about Hard
disks. This have the layers of disks and reading arm, a mechanical arm. The disk
spins and the arms goes to various disks in layers to access your files. This type
of disks use up more electricity, slower compared to SSDs (Solid State Drives).
SSDs on the other hand are like memory card hard disks. 
Imagine a small memory
card that was around 500 GB. It is faster and consumes less power. There is no
mechanical arm so there is less delay time in going between layers to access
data. Downside, SSDs are just too expensive. A 1TB HD might not get you
more than 128GB SSD. Another detail is the speed of the hard disk. Most common
are the 5400 and 7200 rpm I guess. This speed classification is only on the HD
(Hard disk). The 7200 is faster than the 5400 obviously. So, if you wanna
choose a hard disk, get SSD ahead of HD and if you’d be getting HD, get
something with 7200rpm as this increases the speed of the laptop. It’s as
simple as being able to read 1000 letters per minute compared to 500 words per
minute. I once saw an identical laptop to mine, same specs but only difference
was that she had SSD. We tried the speed. We boot the systems at the same time
and she completed booting 10 seconds before mine. We also copied the same movies
at once from our download folder to our desktops. She beat me by 2 minutes and
33 seconds. So, SSD does get you more speed. Jealousy was oozing more than my
cologne that evening. LOL
SCREEN
The laptop screen is the one part that gets used even more
than many other parts, so long the PC is being used. Lots of OEMS have broken
grounds in screen displays. Retina display on Mac, bright view on HP, vari-bright
on AMD supported PCs. There are lots of techs out there that you can get. It’s all
about paying for what you want. It would
annoy you if you paid so much for so less. You can sometimes get all you want
for so less. It all starts from knowing what you want and knowing where to get
it. I once saw a PC that had a screen that didn’t do well on full brightness. Colours
were all washed out. I’ve seen another that couldn’t replicate a particle tone
of red. Screen resolution also matters. My verdict, beyond the shiny
specifications on paper, it helps to read review about your target purchase
before buying.
So much noise has
been made about touch screen devices. Simmer sown, Simmer down. *clears throat*
Yes, it’s techy, you practically feel like tony stark on a
LOKI free morning when you use it. I don’t like it so much and I have my
reasons. I hate the smudges on the screen from various fingers piking at the
screen, I hate the drama you feature in when you run around looking for a fix
when that touch gets messed up, I don’t just like the touch idea. Irrelevant excuses?
The good reason for me to call it MY REASON. So, make yours today. On this
category, it would be nice to make up your mind on your own.
Keyboards.
If you’d be doing a lot of typing, get a good keyboard with
nice key spacing, nice key prints that wouldn’t fade off, firm keys that wouldn’t
chip off, keys that would flex when pressed and not feel too hard. As an added
blessing, get a backlit keyboard and you’d be happy just as I am while typing
this post. If you’d be doing loads of calculations or numerical documents, a
good keyboard with a numeric keypad by the side would be very nice. What more
to add? I’d think of more details later.
Webcam
Webcams have progressed from photo capturing devices to communication
devices and now to surveillance devices. AMD even featured a gesture control on
some of the HP PCs I’ve come across. If you plan on getting all techy and
waving hallelujah to make your PC hibernate, make a miracle, get a PC with such
cameras and software support. If you also plan to skype with loved ones, monitor
your room and see why your cereals don’t last, you need a webcam capable of
such. So, ask questions before getting the PC, get to know what I can and can’t
do.
Battery
Batteries come in cells. 6 cell, 8 cell. 12 cell, if that
does exist. The more the cells, the more it lasts longer. Read up on good
charging habits, enquire about battery life. Durability after years of use. I’d
recommend a 6 cell battery with 5 hours backup time and 2 year durability on
the average. And finally
The Processor
The 2 men at the table in this contest are Intel’s Core I
and AMD. Intel has the I3, I5,I7 and AMD had the A8, A10 and many more. This are
based on different types of technology and enhancement. The A10 is know to have
a speed of 2.5 GHZ and known to turbo boost to 3.2GHZ when there’s need for it.
The higher the processor speed and number of cores, the faster the PC. Simple bit.
I think that’s all I can speak on for now. I’d advise you
read reviews, ask questions on OEM websites, OEM is Original Equipment
Manufacturer. I mean HP, DELL, Compaq, Apple, Sony, Toshiba and the rest of the
boys in the class. Read and understand what each part does. Understand how it
affects the functionality, flexibility and efficiency in the utilization of the
PC.
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