Datasheet
You could put either car on a race track, although one engine will scream as it
powers you from 0 to 60 mph in 13.3 seconds and the other will purr to the same
speed in 3.4 seconds. Can you guess which one has the giddy-up? More impor-
tantly, both cars will get you through heavy traffic to the supermarket in exactly
the same amount of time.
Okay, enough about cars. Back to laptops. For basic jobs like word processing,
browsing the Internet, and playing solitaire, any current machine will do just
fine, from a $600 bargain special to a $3,000 luxury model. If you’re planning on
doing a moderate amount of basic graphics or audio editing, or if you need to
prepare and then deliver complex PowerPoint presentations, then you need a
machine with a bit more horsepower (in the form of a faster processor and more
memory). And if you’ve got to do some very demanding work and have special
needs like an extra-large screen or some extraordinary multimedia assignments
you may need to buy a Lamborghinia . . . I mean a top-of-the-line luxury model
laptop equipped with above-the-ordinary graphics and audio capabilities.
No industry standards consistently divide laptop models into classes, so I’ve
come up with some of my own. Feel free to modify them to meet your particular
needs, update them as changes occur in the industry, and use them to make
your own decisions on purchasing, upgrading, or holding on to your laptop.
The prices and configurations I am using are common in 2008. Throughout the
history of personal computers, the trend has always been this: Prices go down
and you get more and more for your money over time. But there will always be a
price and performance difference between the latest and greatest, and the rela-
tively oldest and least. Be careful out there.
Basic laptop
This is the perfect machine to use as an extension of your desktop computer
when you go out on the road or head off to class. It will process words, churn a
spreadsheet, or communicate with the Internet just about as well as any other
machine. In 2008, the low end of the market would have been considered near
the top of the pyramid a few years ago. You could pay somewhere in the vicinity
of $550 and receive the following:
An Intel Celeron or equivalent CPU, running at about 1.8GHz in speed
A set of capable but basic graphics chips built directly into the mother-
board (
integrated, as the techies like to say) and sharing the system
memory (which means the total amount of RAM available to the CPU is
reduced by the amount required by the graphics processor)
A glossy, widescreen LCD of about 15.4 inches
1GB or so of RAM, shared with the graphics processor
A combination CD-R and DVD player
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