What Type Of Computer Do I Need - Part 2

This post is really just a followup to What Computers Do I Need? Obviously, you have a choice between desktop and laptop. Desktop computers give you more power and disk storage for the buck. You also tend to get better sound out a desktop.

In fact, my experience with two brand new computers, one a high-end laptop and the other a high-end desktop, is that if you plan to do podcasting, vodcasting, or screencasting, especially with a webcam, you want lots of memory and as much speed as you can get. But given the type of reader that I am expecting for this site, it’s probably unlikely that any of you plan to do any of this, at least initially.

Thus, you are more likely to want to a laptop, as it affords you tons of mobility. And with the prices dropping, you can get a reasonably nice laptop with a 15″ screen (or larger) for about Cdn$700 - probably $499 in the USA. Always shop around. Don’t buy the first computer you see just because it’s on sale. Here’s what I recommend. Come up with a list of features and make a grid. Then a visit a few stores. Show the snotty-nosed clerk your list, and not matter how insistent they are that you’d prefer this special, stick to your guns and say that you want an approximate quote on your features. If you get extra, no problem.

When you’ve filled out your grid with at least 4-5 stores, then you can decide where to buy. Factor in distance; if something goes wrong, do you want to drive it over, or paying crazy prices for shipping? Are the sales staff friendly and helpful? Is the warranty reasonable? Are you allowed to open the case to install new cards, etc.?

Here is a suggested list of features for business owners who expect to be mobile and want a laptop that can be used on the go. (Keep in mind that if you read this a few years after it’s written, the list may be outdated or even useless. I’ll try to update it.) All measurements are minimums, and are just recommendations.

• 15″ screen
• 60 Gb (Gigabyte) hard drive, possibly offered as two physical drives of 30 Gb each.
• DVD reader/ writer that also plays/ writes CDs. There are a lot of different types of DVD media. I don’t think you have to worry too much about them. Just make sure that you can read AND write DVDs and CDs. Speed is an issue, and new drives come out so often it’s hard to keep track of what’s current. I have an ancient external CD reader/ writer drive that reads a 2x (two times speed) and write at 1x. That means that if was burning a music CD of 60 minutes in length, it would take that long to burn it. (That doesn’t include testing the CD media, which also would take 60 minutes.) My newer CD/ DVD drives are many times faster. So a 60 minute CD would only takes a few minutes.
• 256 Mb (Megabytes) of RAM. This is the least you should get these days, if you plan to work with a variety of software applications simultaneously. If you can afford 512 Mb, get it. If not, just make sure that your laptop lets you add more memory later. Some of the lower end machines don’t allow this.
• Wi-Fi card, either built-in or added later using a PCMCIA card. This lets you connect to any wireless network that you are near (usually within 250 ft) that you have access to (secure/ unsecure). If one of the computers in the network is connected to the Internet, your laptop will be able to connect as well.
• Network card, in case you have other computers that you want to connect using cabling. Or you can setup a wireless network.
• Soundcard and builtin speakers, with headphone jack.
• At least two USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports.
• At least one PCMCIA slot. (Although who knows if these will be phased out in a few years.)
• A dialup modem card, with phone jack, to connect to your phone, in case you do not have high-speed Internet access.
• Either or both of a built-in mini-microphone or a microphone jack (1/8″).
• Basic software: wordprocessing, spreadsheet. Many laptop packages that use a Microsoft operating system (such as Win XP) include either Microsoft Office home edition or Corel WordPerfect and related programs. Some cheaper packages include an “economy” Microsoft spreadsheet which isn’t nearly as good as Excel. If your laptop does not include any of these, you can get the free OpenOffice package, which runs on a variety of operating systems. So if you opt for an Apple Mac laptop instead, you should be able to use OpenOffice as well.
• Web browser. These come pretty standard, but they are usually Microsoft’s IE (Internet Explorer).  I personally prefer Firefox, which lets you add all kinds of free plugins, and support new web technologies much better than IE, hands down. Firefox, or its cousin Mozilla, just give you a better web browsing experience (at the time of this writing), because Microsoft still refuses to follow Internet standards. If you visit the Mozilla downloads page, you can also find versions that will run on Apple Mac OS X or Linux laptops.

Extras [optional]:

• Firewire port. Firewire is much faster than USB, and is suitable for extra external hard drives that you might use for backing up valuable data.
• Bluetooth connectivity. This is yet another form of wireless networking technology that is more popular in Europe and Asia than in North America. However, more and more smartphones and cellular-enabled PDAs have Bluetooth included. As I mentioned in part 1, if you have Bluetooth on both a PDA and a laptop, you can pretty much access the Internet anywhere within your cellular provider’s “Wi-Fi cellular” coverage area. (This may be different than the cell phone coverage area.) The Bluetooth connection lets your laptop access the Internet through the PDA.
• Infrared connectivity. This is one more wireless networking technology. With IR, you can wirelessly transmit files between your PDA and laptop (or desktop), or even between two PDAs or two laptops, etc.

I have not mentioned computer speed, as this changes rapidly. Several of the new breed of laptops are designed to be environmentally friendly and work on lower energy levels than their predecessors. As a result, the “clock speed” is specified as half of its actual value. For example, my Acer TravelMate is specified as 1.6 Ghz (Gigahertz - 1,000,000,000 cycles per second). But it is in fact a 3.2 Ghz computer, comparable to my 3.4 Ghz desktop computer.

I may have missed something here, so if you have any questions, please do ask.

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