| Your brand new laptop is already obsolete.
That's right, by the time it is unboxed and plugged in, someone, somewhere has made one
bigger, better and faster. So trying to stay up-to-date with the latest technology is a
race you cannot win. The difference between a 1800 MHz chip (or CPU) and a 1900 MHz CPU
is only about a fortieth of an eye blink. When you realize that, then you might learn to
live with a technology that is a bit older, a step or two back from cutting edge, for the next
three to four years. By then (no matter what notebook you purchase today) it will seem
too slow and not have enough hard drive space to run the latest games, office programs or your
favorite applications. The best decision you can make, knowing that this is the case, is
to...
Always buy "not the latest" technology.
If you drop back one or two levels from the high priced X,000 MHz CPU that
was just released, to one that has been out for a few months you will be rewarded two-fold.
First, older CPU cost better than half the price of the latest creations and second, they have
been used and tested. When you buy the newest and fastest you are being a tester for
their new product. Most often though, laptop manufacturers stay away from the latest
chipsets anyway as they are not made for the smaller laptop size until much later in the chips
evolution.
The price you may pay besides the cost of the unit.
I remember the client who was looking to upgrade his one-year-old brand name
laptop. We checked into the maximum allowed RAM we could install and found it to be only
256MB. Considering the hefty price that he paid for the notebook that seemed a bit on
the small side, however comparing it to the replacement price of a new laptop it seemed the
logical way to proceed. That is, until we called the manufacturer and were amazed to
find out that they wanted $850 for the single 256 MB RAM SIMM. What was worse is that
the laptop only had one SIMM slot for the RAM so his original 64MB of RAM chip was going to
come out and go to waste. After shopping around we were able to find a company that had
the RAM in stock that was willing to part with it for only $660. We recommended the
client purchase a new laptop rather than make this large investment in the (slightly) older
machine. Name brand laptops can be a real problem when it comes to getting upgrade
components since they are normally specifically built so they only work in the name brand
laptop and in that specific model. Unlike PC parts they cannot be purchased from just
anywhere and so they can charge whatever amount they want and that usually falls on the very
expensive side of the table.
Always check the Accessories price list
A good way to compare laptops to laptops is to compare their pricing for
upgrade parts even before you get stuck with a specific name brand. You will find the
accessories pricelist is a good indicator as to what you are in for when you need an upgrade
component. If you cannot easily find the accessories price list online you should be on
the alert. Even a great deal on a laptop falls short when you are forced to purchase
their parts at ridiculous rates.
Look into Technical Support before you need it
Some of the largest manufacturers of laptops and computers are cutting their
costs by cutting back on their overhead and in most cases, we have seen a downsizing of their
support staff to almost nothing. I suggest you get on the phone and call their highly
touted technical support department just to see how long you are on hold, if you are told to
do the entire process by email or if one even exists. Whenever possible see if you can
get an idea of their turn around time for getting your laptop repaired and back into your
hands. We are very happy that our average turn around time has just dropped from four
days to an industry leading three day in shop turn around. This is important as your
laptop does you no good when it is sitting on a shelf somewhere waiting to get it's time on
the bench. One of the really bad stories we have heard coming from one the real big name
brand laptop (and computer) manufacturers included a twelve page generic email telling the
client how to run a three hour diagnostic on the Windows OS (operating system) BEFORE
contacting their technical support department again. That is three hours of testing when
done by one of our technicians so we can imagine how long it would take a laptop owner while
trying to make their way through that involved trouble shooting process.
Don't assume you can just ship your laptop to the shop
A Doctor friend of ours asked about getting his fairly new "name brand"
laptop serviced. It seemed a simple enough thing, it appeared the fan on the CPU must
have stopped since the laptop system would power off, all by itself, whenever it got hot
(usually in just a few minutes). However upon calling the manufacturer we found that not
only was it going to be almost impossible for us to get the replacement part but we would
totally void out any warranty that he might have left on the unit, if we even opened the case.
The only alternative was to get the laptop serviced by them directly and keep in mind, this is
a very large world-wide highly advertised company. When we asked for the usual Return
Merchandise Authorization (RMA) number, so we could ship them the unit, we were told that the
only way to service this laptop was to walk into a service center with the unit in hand.
What? When we inquired as to the location of the nearest service center we found out
that it was not "just any" of their Service Centers but a specific one and it was the only one
in the New York area that handled laptops. It was many miles away from our client, in
the middle of New York City and would require a long involved trip
(with some of the best traffic in the world) into the big city, standing
in line and hand deliver it to Tech Support. The client is a doctor and he ended up
standing on line at the service center during his own vacation just to get the unit into the
service department. Then they kept it for two weeks too. Not to boast here, but
our standard turn around time for repairs on our own TELElaptops is less than four days.
Of course, we give out the standard RMA number via
email and accept all units through standard shipping from
anywhere in the world.
Plan for the next three to four years.
What are your needs for the next few years? What applications are you
going to be using? Are you going to be just word processing, browsing the Internet and
using email? If so, then you won't need a lot of power. But if you are going to be
doing video or music editing, CD recording, running games, graphic or photographic art
programs then, you are going to need a lot more computer. Extra memory (RAM) and a
larger hard drive for the bigger files and piggish programs. Even the latest games need
some pretty powerful components that might include the latest video board with lots of video
RAM, fast Internet connection and upscale sound card. What peripherals will you use and
how will they connect to the PC? Do you need USB ports for a scanner or video camera?
What type of Internet connection will you use? Phone line, cable modem, wireless, will
it require a network card? Plan ahead and make a list of the items you know you are
going to need and have it with you when you go shopping or talk with someone about the
purchase. Some laptops may not have the capacity to do all that you need.
Buy lots of RAM; RAM is power.
Even the slower computer chip will perform well with an abundance of RAM
memory. When you save a small fortune by not buying the latest X,000 MHz CPU you can put
about half of that money into more RAM. Doubling from the standard 64MB to 128MB or even
more will make your operating system sing. All your programs will love you for it. We
run between 256MB and 512MB on our office laptops and computers. Standard RAM prices can
fluctuate with supply and demand, but laptop RAM is a totally different type of hardware and
therein keeps a pretty firm price. I remember an earthquake in Taiwan had more than
doubled the price of RAM for several months. Unfortunately also, RAM technology keeps
changing too, so the idea of adding more RAM to your older (three to four year old) laptop may
not be so easy to accomplish.
Pay attention to the software you need.
Software is expensive when bought at retail, but sometimes a bargain
when bundled with a computer purchase. However, bundled software is no bargain if it is
software you don't need. Sure that laptop on TV shopping club comes with over 500
programs but you will probably not use even one of them. What could be worse, they may
have them all installed for you already. There is nothing worse than filling a brand new
computer with a few hundred programs that you are never going to use. What about an
operating system (OS)? Some computer sellers list price may seem very inexpensive
because it may not come with any OS installed. You can bet there will be an increase in
the price for that. If you do purchase a laptop without the OS installed you may be in
for a surprise if when you install it some of the components do not work; is it a hardware
problem or the OS installed wrong? Don't go there. Original Equipment Manufacturer
(OEM) versions of software are available from most companies that build laptops and this can
be a real savings as you only need to purchase the license to use the software and not the
retail box. For example: the WinXP Pro OS is $299 retail in a box and about $185 if
purchased OEM and installed on the laptop.
Laptops or PC?
A notebook or laptop computer offers few advantages over a desktop if you
never move it. Notebooks are "cooler" and handier than desktops, but they're also much
more expensive. Sometimes 50 to 100 percent more expensive than desktops with comparable
power. In addition, they are not easy to expand. Most laptop companies make
their real profit on the upgrade components, for example RAM typically may cost 100% more than
the same amount of RAM for a PC. Some of the clients I have known who needed a laptop to
be able to work from home, as well as work, actually got a better deal by purchasing two PCs
instead of one laptop. If you really need notebook portability, don't get one that is
too heavy, you may lose a bit in features to gain a thinner, more lightweight, notebook but it
will be well worth it once you start carrying it around.
Buy your computer direct from the manufacturer.
Otherwise you're paying somebody a retail markup. Did I happen to
mention that we manufacture our own computers and laptops?
I sure hope this helps and I hope you don't mind my sending you here for the
answer to your questions.
James Squires has been working with computers since 1974 and is the owner
and founder of TELEcomputers Services. |
