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With technological changes taking place so fast, it doesnt take much time for latest technology to become late. Many people get confused while buying a laptop thinking of waiting for upcoming models or buy the current one available in the market.

Well !!! as far as the configuration is concerned this is my suggestion :

CPU

The latest CPU available in market is Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo . There is also AMD turion 64 bit dual core processor available which you can get at a cheaper price. The only thing you would have to compromise if you are buying a AMD Turion 2X64 processor will be the FSB ( front side bus ) and the L2 cache (512kb to 2mb in AMD ). I would suggest Intel’s Centrino Core 2 Duo processor. Well !!! announcements are already made of Intel’s extreme series laptop which will be available by September on a wide scale, also not to forget intel’s quad core processor. You might have heard about intel’s Santa Rosa Platform which will boost the core 2 duo processor’s FSB to around 800 MHZ. But be careful, many laptop’s I have seen with 800 MHZ fsb have just 2 MB CPU Cache. Santa Rosa is not widely available all over the world other than US.

If you in urgent need for laptop and dont want to wait till September you can very well go for current Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo ( Merom Processor ) with 667 Mhz FSB (maximum for merom processor ) , 4 mb L2 Cache and 2.0 GHZ(or more) speed. Remember FSB and L2 cache along with clock speed determines the performance of the CPU. Hence do ask about FSB and Cache and dont compromise with 533MHZ CPU with 2 mb Cache Memory.

RAM

Why I suggest that you can go for the current Merom CPU i.e Centrino Core2 DUO with 667 MHZ FSB if you dont want to wait till September for Santa Rosa platform is because that FSB is the only difference between these processors with some extra power saving capabilities in Santa Rosa platform. Hence minute increase of FSB can very very well be compensated by increasing the RAM. The latest type of RAM available is DDR2 SD RAM with 667 MHZ speed optimal for Core 2DUO with 667 MHZ FSB . DDR3 ram will be available early next year ,and I am sure you are not gonna wait till then.

No questions about the RAM capacity, just ask for 2 GB DDR2 Ram with 667 MHZ speed. You know the visual requirements of Windows Vista. And more and more advancement on Operating Systems will need more and more RAM

. So just satisfy your operating system with 2gb RAM.
Moreover, many shopkeepers will try to lure you with 1GB DDR2 Ram (i.e 512 X 2 ) but just ask them to upgrade it to 2GB (1GB X 2) . Many laptops have only 2 RAM slots and hence upgrading to 2 GB will cost you high amount as many shopkeepers refuse to take the 512 mb RAM. Hence, try to get it done at the shop ( from where you are buying ) , by exchanging 512 X 2 Ram with 1GB single Stick RAM.

Graphics Card

Many people say that they dont want to use the laptops for playing games so they dont care whether a Graphics Card is present or not. Well !! as per my advice graphics card is must for any laptop as its not only used for playing games but rendering your videos etc also. Inbuilt Graphics chipset will share your RAM and wont be able to provide the optimal performance in many cases. You may feel bad at times when after spending so much on a laptop, you compromised on this. Well, two options are available in Laptop Graphics.
1. Nvidea
2. ATI Radeon
Well !! look for nearly 256 MB or more dedicated memory graphics card. Dont get confused by Nvidea’s Turbo Cache and Ati’s Hypermemory concept. These have come into picture to reduce the cost of the graphics card and are synonym to technology where the graphics card also share the system memory i.e RAM. For ex-

A 256 MB ATI radeon hypermemory card will have only 128 MB of dedicated memory and it will have the capability of taking 128 MB of System memory based on the graphic requirement.

LCD size

Normally look for screen size 15″ or more based on your budget. I wont suggest going under 15″ screen for laptops unless and until you are looking for a tablet laptop as you find other ones very bulky to carry. And yeah .. go for the crystal bright or bright view screen ( screen with glossy look) as they dont put too much strain on your eyes.

Other things

• Buletooth
• Wifi ( always there )
• TV out connection
• No. of USB ports ( minimum 4 )
• DVD Dual layer writer
• 100 GB harddisk or more

Conculsion

Do buy a laptop from well known laptop manufacture like Dell , toshiba , HP etc so that you dont have much problem in after sales services.Hope the article might have been a little helpful for you if you looking for a laptop configuration . No matter how long you wait, you wont be able to get the latest technology. By the time one processor is released and get available worldwide , new one gets announced with added feature. I remember how intel centrino core solo processor got wiped out after the release of Core Duo ..and the same is happening with Core DUO with the availability of CORE 2 DUO.

Lately I have got a DELL Inspiron 6400 series laptop for myself , as i just got fed up waiting till September .. Here is the configuration.

• Core 2 DUO 2.0 GHZ ( 667 MHZ FSB , 4 MB l2 Cache)
• 2 GB DDR2 RAM (667 MHZ speed )
• ATI Radeon X1400 256 MB ( hypermemory )
• 15.4″ Brightview Screen.
• 120 GB HDD ( 5400 RPM )
• DVD Dual Layer Writer

Got some goodies Dell optical Mouse , Dell Carry case and Headphone with Microphone.

Happy buying

Did you ever got confused looking for a laptop configuration ?? Do you think your laptop configuration is still the latest ?? What according to you would be a decent configuration ?? Do share with comments !!!