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How To Buy A Laptop - 7 Areas To slice Costs

12/04/2011 17:00

You have decided to buy an excellent laptop by using my laptop buying guide (link below), and you can't quite justify or simply afford spending very much money on it.

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Is there some way to cut the cost a small amount, without sacrificing too much?

Yes. You're making compromises. But at this point, only you can decide where you stand willing to skimp.

The $2000 laptop that almost all of my clients end up buying is tailored to last 3 or 4 years, with contented computing en route. Ok, maybe we'll have to reload Windows for the 2 year point to regain that new computer performance, but at the very least it can be done.

Here are 7 areas to bear in mind for paring the cost of that new laptop:

Overall brand quality. A bad idea in my book to skimp excessive here. Witness these blog posts about the Sony VAIO. Others on the net have had similar recommendations to protect yourself from that one. But still there will probably be a way to get a good brand without paying top dollar. The web provides tools to find the deals. Processor. I normally pick the fastest processor around the price/performance curve that sits right where cost starts increasing faster than performance gain. You possibly can cheat a little here and hopefully get 3 years from the hardware. Just don't trust upgrading the processor later - regardless of the any salesman claims. RAM. This isn't a bad area to save some money, because you can easily upgrade later. Just don't check out the manufacturer; companies like DELL will surely sock it to you on upgrades. Choose someplace like Crucial.com instead. Tip: According to price structure, getting, say 512MB in 1 DIMM now permits you to add 1 more 512MB DIMM later for any total of 1GB and still make use of the 512 that had it. If you buy 512 via 2 DIMMs, you should remove 1 or both DIMMs later to add more, thus losing value (maybe you can eBay it for a couple bucks). Screen. Older eyes might choose to lower resolution of a less expensive screen. Most laptops have 1 or simply 2 native resolutions that basically look good. These are fairly high resolutions that lots of over 40, especially women, find hard to read. Dell's WSXGA is as good of screen as WSXGA+ or WUXGA, just lower resolution. Compare before you purchase! Hard Drive. Go smaller if you'd prefer, but don't go slower. 7200rpm or faster (faster not available as of this writing) is all you intend to consider. End of discussion, don't listen to anybody. Video card. For strictly business usage on Windows 7, you can save a little here. If you're doing a lot of graphics work, watching movies, or expect you'll use Windows Vista with all the Aero interface, I wouldn't advise skimping here. Warranty. This is the call. See my post on CompleteCare. Repairs are pricey; do you ordinarily self-insure? Computing devices has a nasty practice of dying within 1 month of warranty expiration - it is known as Murphy's Law if you like.

Operating product is possibly an 8th examine consider for reducing cost. Do not extra for Windows Vista Ultimate should you aren't going to need the characteristics, and don't skimp to Vista Basic and then wonder the reasons you don't have the cool Aero interface. Again, compare before you purchase.

Oh, and here's the link to my laptop buying guide which i mentioned above. Click here.

The buying guide is tuned pretty well for cost versus performance, so use the guide and the 7 cost paring tips, then see if you can come up with the perfect fit to suit your needs and your budget.

The choice is yours. Just do your favor and choose wisely! I am hoping the resources I have given you here can help.

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