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Laptops: how much RAM? What kind of processing chip?
Laptops are often believed to be not as fast or powerful as desktop computers. Strictly speaking, this is untrue. The truth is that equal speed laptops are simply more expensive. You can indeed buy a very powerful “dual-processor” laptop with plenty of "random access memory" (RAM) and a big hard drive, matching or even surpassing your average desktop, but it will probably cost a couple of hundred dollars more than the equivalent desktop computer. The same is true of both PCs and Apple Macs, although Macs tend to be more expensive again. Still, a couple of hundred dollars is a lot cheaper than it used to be - once upon a time you would have had to pay thousands more.
Generally a megabyte of RAM is accepted as a fairly large amount to do most tasks. Computers can come with two or three MB's of RAM, which is especially useful for intense operations, such as music or video editing and video game playing. Intel Core 2 Duo are the current top spec processors, with speeds of up to 2.4GHz gigahertz - blazingly fast. You don't need a faster Internet connection for a laptop than would be used by a desktop computer. This is a bit of a myth. If you have a very old computer, it’s true that a faster Internet connection may help the situation, but the difference is probably negligible. After all, having a broadband speed of eight megabits per second (mbit/s) is fairly pointless if your exhausted old machine can’t keep up.
If you want the cheapest possible "fast" computer, then a desktop will always be cheaper, but probably not by too much. If you can wait, it’s possible that you’ll get a laptop with the same specs as its desktop counterpart for much cheaper a year down the line. One notable disadvantage with laptops is that parts can be more expensive to replace. However, taking out a warranty with several years of cover can help.
Portable laptops with Internet to go
To get truly portable with your laptop there are two primary ways to set it up: a Local Area Network or a wireless modem. With a LAN you can use an in-the-wall broadband provider (ADSL or cable) but will eliminate wires between users living in the same house. Wireless Internet is something different - instead of getting broadband through a wire to your home you receive a signal via radiowaves to a modem. (The modem may be connected to your computer via a cable or plugged in as a card - ironically wireless Internet can still use wires!)
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LANS (Local Area Networks)
- Laptops have always been useful for people on the go, even before the wireless Internet trend. With recent technological advances, computer interaction across networks and wireless web surfing, portability is now the name of the game. In the home, local area networks (LANs) can be set up using routers, meaning you can be online anywhere in the house – sometimes from as far as 30 metres away. You will either need to insert a wireless-enabling device (a “dongle” or mini-aerial) into a USB port on your computer, or you may have a wireless card already fitted inside your computer. With these gizmos in place, there are hundreds of "hotspots" in the major metropolitan areas where you’ll be able to get online, whether in coffee shops or at the airport. Be sure to have your security settings well-configured, and bear in mind that some networks require a password for access. If you don’t know the owner of a network you are trying to join and the network is password-protected, that's becasue they don't want to share their Internet connection with you - so don't steal it!
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Wireless Internet
- More and more Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) are entering the Australian market. If you have a laptop and require regular Internet access, signing up to one of these providers makes sense. You are given a wireless modem that you can use at home, or almost anywhere across the country (give or take a few blackspots, as with mobile phones). See Broadband Buddy’s article on wireless Internet for more information.
Laptops are increasingly becoming a viable alternative to desktops, especially given the extra quality of being ultra-portable (with ever-decreasing size). Top-spec PC laptops and Apple's MacBook Pro are both capable of running multiple applications and managing the most intensive Internet content. Given their improved capacity for handling anything thrown at them, laptops may well be considered a total computing solution.
