• Free Computers

Lenovo Laptop Is A Good Buy

April 7th, 2011 computersnotebooks



I personally recommend Lenovo laptops

I think they are some of the best in terms of performance and durability. Yesterday I posted a video showing how someone poured a glass of water on the keyboard with no ill effects.

Notebooks (nettops/netbooks) generally are lighter and have smaller screens than laptops. They may have longer battery life.

IMHO the T-series (or maybe the new Edge-series) ar ethe best all-purpose laptops from Lenovo.

If you are mostly going to use it it home, you may want to look at the larger (and heavier) models with more capabilities (like space for a 2nd hard drive) and larger screens.

You pre-configure most laptops during the order process with your preferred Operating System.

Usually you can get a good discount on the Windows Office Suite at the same time and it comes on separate DVDs for later reinstallation.

At least 4-6Gb of RAM will be good and hte largest harddrive that you can afford is also a good idea.

When you get the new PC, you can use the Windows Easy File Transfer utility to help you transfer your files.

Alternatively, you can buy a cheap ($15-20) external USB enclosure for a 2.5″ hard drive (make sure you get one that supports your old hard drive (SATA or IDE) and simply put the old drive in that and copy over all your user files by attaching the old drive to the new computer.

Laptops Things To Research And Consider

April 7th, 2011 computersnotebooks

If you really want a new laptop there are so many things to consider. I believe you are fine buying one from any of the leading laptop manufacturers. The only thing I would look at from them is warranty differences. As an example, Costco will give you an extra year if you buy it with a American Express card.

Things to research and consider: You will no doubt get Win7 Home Edition. You will have to decide on a processor. Intel is the most expensive, then AMD and a celeron chip the cheapest. Dual core is better than single core. RAM is another one. If you run a 32bit processor the most RAM you can use is 4G. A 32bit can not use anymore. Get at least 2Gigs of RAM. How many USB ports do you need? What kind of ports do you need? Budget style notebooks often ship with only 2 USB ports, with no serial, parallel, or DVI ports and only a single VGA port (if a video port is even included). Screen size? How big can you afford? Integrated wireless and bluetooth is something to look at as well as if it has a track mouse. Lastly, Battery life is a critical consideration but not a deal breaker. When purchasing a laptop, if the only battery option doesn’t provide the lifespan you require, you can always buy a second battery.

Most of the salesman at reputable places like Staples or BestBuy are pretty good. Talking to them is free and telling them what you need the computer to do will be a good source of knowledge.

Good luck shopping

Atom Processor Worth It’s Price?

March 21st, 2011 computersnotebooks
The Atom isn’t Bad 

It was designed to be an ultra-low-power processor to be used in a tiny netbook. I have a slow Atom in my Acer netbook and it is slow – but it works fine for what it was designed for: email and web surfing. I use only that netbook for several weeks in Europe and managed to use it for sorting and even minor edits to photos without a problem (500GB HD helped). I have a Core Duo CPU in my laptop that I left home because it was much too big and heavy…

atom-computers-notebooks

atom processor-computers-notebooks

Intel isn’t abandoning the Atom – it’s been a huge success for them. They’re just making the Atom faster. They’ve also got a low power version of the Core CPU called the Core Solo (aka SU series) that’s in some “long life” notebooks but not really netbooks that I’ve seen. Actually there’s an Acer 11.6″ “notebook” that’s got the Core Solo SU in it that replaced my Acer 11.6″ that had an Atom in it, but the battery life isn’t as good as mine is with the same battery.

So no, I don’t think you’ll find a Core 2 in a netbook soon – too power hungry, generates too much heat for the small size needed. You’ll find a faster Atom though – or you can get a small notebook with a low power SU version in there.

What’s Better Netbook Or A Budget Laptop?

March 20th, 2011 computersnotebooks
Whats better netbook or budget laptop?

Buying it initially to travel with so I have internet access where wifi is available, but later will use it at home for surfing the web, checking email etc. Not into gaming or watching movies etc,but I’ve heard the netbooks are pretty slow even for surfing the web.

Maybe a thin notebook instead

I have both a low-end 15″ Emachines (Acer) laptop (paid $298 at WalMart in March – incredible deal) and an Acer netbook. The netbook – which is a 11.6″ size – is perfect for traveling. It has a full-sized keyboard and a decent sized screen; any netbook smaller than 11.6″ will have a smaller keyboard that you may find a challenge to type on – or at least I would, as a touch typist. I like having both. The Acer is indeed a bit slow. For surfing the web, it is mostly adequate and I have lived with it while traveling for weeks at a time, but you have to watch what is running. Some websites with nasty flash ads eat up a lot of CPU and slow it down, so running some sort of ad blocker helps. I’m usually glad to get back to the regular laptop.

cheap computer - computers notebooks

cheap computer - computers notebooks

A compromise might be one of the thin-and-light notebooks out there, that are kind of a mix of netbook and notebook. They aren’t SMALL per se but are generally thin and light and easier to travel with than a regular notebook – and tend to have very good battery life (a huge plus of my netbook as well). The CPU in the thin-and-light is probably an Intel “SU” series which is a low-power CPU that’s faster than the Atom you find in most netbooks but slower than a CPU you find in a regular notebook. Here’s an example of a thin notebook: (Not saying I recommend that one – but it’s the style I’m talking about.) It has a larger screen than a netbook. If you want to use it at home with a larger screen, you could always plug it into an external LCD monitor. If I had to live with only one laptop for everything, this is probably the type I’d get.

How To Connect To A Portable Computer

March 20th, 2011 computersnotebooks
How To Connect To A Portable Computer

There are a couple of ways to connect with a portable computer when away from home. The portable computer can connect to a Cellphone-dependent system either via a built in Cellphone device, or one that you purchase and add on later. These are usually a tiny dongle which plugs into any USB port on the computer. These depend upon a cellphone signal being present, and you subscribe through the cell phone carrier of your choice at a price point which depends upon the “data plans” they offer, and the device must be compatible with that service. Some “pad” devices and notebooks come with this device already built in.

How to Connect to a Laptop

How to Connect to a Laptop

The other, more universal method is by again, using a built in or add on WiFi wireless device. This method depends upon there being a free and open WiFi “hotspot” where you wish to use the laptop. Many fast food, hotel/motels, tourist spots have these open WiFi connection points and there are a few, mostly at restaurants which charge by the hour or day.

If you have a nationwide dialup internet service, and your computer has a modem, you can also use dialup service at most places in the world, although it is far slower than the above mentioned methods.

My experience is that mostly business travelers use the cellphone-dependent method. For someone who just occasionally uses the laptop/notebook away from home, the WiFi generic method is probably the best way as it usually incurs no charge to use the service portably.

 

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