Computer Services Department

Laptops and Recommended Specifications

Many computers that our department sees, including newer ones, run pretty slow sometimes. The reason for that is not enough memory (RAM) for the system to run well. Other problems occur because the owners never do updates on the Windows or the computer drivers themselves. Here are our recommendations: 

Computer: Desktop or laptop (Laptop recommended)

Processor: Laptop - Intel Centrino or AMD Mobile Athlon XP. The Celeron is pretty worthless. The AMD Septron is pretty good, kicking the Intel chip out of the arena.

Desktop - Intel Pentium 4 or the new duel core chip, the AMD Athlon 64 duel core. Again, avoid the Celeron chip.

Memory or RAM: At LEAST 512mb of memory. Get another 512 because it is cheap. Make sure the machine will take 1gb of ram. Some don't.

Hard Drive: Get the biggest you can. Laptops are usually limited because they are more
expensive than the desktop HD. At LEAST 60gb. Desktops can come with a 120gb
or more. But you can't carry them to class.

Screen Size: Now here is where it can get weird. For laptops, you don't want to be
carrying around one with a 17" screen. It weighs too much. Look for the 15.4" wide screen as the biggest one. For class use, the 12 or 14" wide screens are lighter and run much longer on battery.

Desktop - get the 17" flat panel monitor. Nice and big and the flat panels use less space than the CRT monitors.

Other Drives: Get the CD-RW/DVD or the DVD-RW/CD-RW drives. Not much difference in price. The DVD burner is better for making backups. Plus you can play and make
movies with the DVD burner.

Networking: Make sure the laptop has built-in wireless. They just plain work better. The
desktop I recommend getting the Linksys USB wireless adaptor instead of the internal card. Because of the walls in our dorms, the wireless signal can have difficulty transmitting. You can use your USB adaptor with a long cable and put it in the hall for a  much better signal.

Battery for Laptop: Get the biggest battery they make for it, plus the one that comes with the unit and you should have enough energy for a day of classes. Charge them up at night and you are ready to go in the morning.

OS: Most come with Windows XP and computer users will not have Linux. Mac OS is really good too. Just make sure that you run the updates on a regular basis.

Anti-virus: Most new computers come with a 30 to 90 day trial of antivirus. Unless you
are willing to pay up front the cost of the subscription, please uninstall it and install the AVG Free Antivirus first thing. Don't wait until you forget and the trial runs out and you get a virus because you wanted to wait until later to do something about it. free.grisoft.com is the address.

Word Processing: Microsoft Office is a real nice package. Academic priced at under $150 for the Student/Teacher edition. The computer company can include it for around $300 or more. I would buy the academic version. However, if the other specs have tapped you out, or you simply don't need a high end office suite to type papers on, then go download and install OpenOffice 2.0 from www.openoffice.org. It is really nice and better yet FREE. You have a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation and draw program, as well as a math and database program (included). Open source is cool too.

If you cannot afford a new laptop or even the sizes recommended, then at least look at getting one with 512mb of ram. It will make the big difference. Use the free programs and make sure you get a nice wireless card. That way the laptop will still be under $800 if you are careful.

Questions? Contact Rob Linebaugh, Director of Computer Services, 607.729.1581 x 404.