We’ve had a lot of great questions lately about what to buy for new laptops and desktops, right now is a GREAT time to buy – as long as you buy the right thing.  With that in mind, here’s a little buyers guide for laptops and desktops.

Laptops:

When you see specs, you’ll see a page similar to this:

Here’s what to look for, in english:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i5 or Core i7 are the only way to go for full-size notebooks.  Avoid the Pentium-D, Celeron-D and AMD Athlon X2’s – they all get a bit too hot and power hungry in my experience.  Stick with the Core 2 Duo, and you’ll be quite happy. With a netbook look at the Intel Atom N270.

Memory: Go with a absolute minimum of 3GB for a full sized laptop when using Windows 7.  Netbooks can get by with 1 or 2GB, but 4GB is the sweet spot for memory, and will “future proof” you for at least the next year or two.  Anything above 3 or 4 GB, really, is excess unless you are using intensive applications or gaming.

Screen: Look for “LED” in the description of the screen, the LED backlights are easier on the batteries by a long shot, and easier on your eyes.  They are by far the better technology, and should be a key requirement in your next purchase.

Hard Drive: I’d go with a bare minimum of 160GB, ideally 320GB or above.  Programs are getting memory and storage hungry, and storage is cheap – look for as much Memory you can get.

Battery: A 6 cell lithium-ion is the minimum I’d go with, unless you are looking at a small form factor laptop or netbook.  A 6 hour battery in a full size laptop with a Core 2 Duo and a LED backlight will get you around 3-3.5 hours of battery life (maybe more, maybe less), so it’s a “sweet spot”.  Only get a 3 cell if you don’t care about battery life at all – because you won’t have much.

Operating System: There’s only one choice, Windows 7 Home Premium.  Avoid “Starter” if you see it, and avoid Vista.  Vista Professional is nice, but again, don’t pay extra for it or Ultimate – unless you know the features they have that you want.

Optical Drive: Double Layer DVD+-RW is the best cost option, but there are Blu-Ray drives out there (BD-ROM).  They’re nice, very nice, but watch the cost premium.

Brands: Dell, Apple, Toshiba, and Acer all have been decent in my experience.  HP is good in my experience, but I hear lots of complaints from others – so keep that in mind.

Desktops:

You’ll see spec sheets similar to the above.  Generally you’ll get a better deal if you buy a new monitor with a new desktop, but that’s not always the case – don’t let it be a deal-breaker for you.  Monitors are cheap, really cheap – I just picked up a 24 inch HD widescreen for under $200.  Bear that in mind!

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (again), Core 2 Quad, AMD Athlon II, AMD Phenom or Intel Core i5/i7.  The Core 2 Duo and Athlon II are going to be plenty for most everyone, power users will like the speed boost with a Phenom or Core i7 though – but they come at a premium.

Memory: I’m going to again go with 4GB, just to save costs in the future.

Hard Drive: Stick with a minimum of 320GB and you should be good, most are coming with double that.

Optical Drive: Again, DVD+-RW unless you’d like a Blu-Ray drive.  My caveat with that, however, if you get a machine with a Blu-Ray drive and have an old CRT monitor – it somewhat defeats the purpose. 

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium again gets my nod

Graphics: If you have kids that will be playing games, look for the word “discrete” graphics, that is a dedicated video card as opposed to most relying on integrated graphics.  Otherwise integrated graphics from Intel, nVidia and ATI will suffice for most.

Monitor: Again, if  you get a great deal on a package deal, go for it – but bear in mind LCD monitors are REALLY cheap right now.  Don’t pay over a $150 premium for a machine with a monitor.

Brands: Dell and HP are the most common, but don’t turn away from Acer or Sony.

Miscellaneous Notes:

Keep a close eye on any value adds that really may make a difference, in my opinion the two to keep an eye out are additional warranty options and the addition of Microsoft Office.  Aside from that, avoid bundled software and bundled printers or other hardware – my experience is they are rarely worth it.

Buying on “Black Friday”?  Here’s a run-down of all the deals that will be out there and man there are some good ones:

http://gizmodo.com/5409460/black-friday-deals-the-only-list-you-need

That’s all I have for today, if you have any questions or need help buying shoot the IT department or I a line and we’ll be happy to help.

Quick Tip of the Day: Dropbox is my new favorite utility, 2GB of online storage that will keep files in sync between multiple computers.  Not only that, but you can access those files from any web browser, or a iPhone app that just rocks.  One Mac, one PC?  No problem!  The first 2GB of storage is free, or you can get 50GB for $10/mo.  Give it a shot, it’s really really good.