A couple laptops ago, I was really trying to learn more about this stuff while looking to get new one for school. I ended up talking to the IT guys at my parent’s workplaces (both of them work at places that study and/or send stuff into space, so I trust what these guys had to say) and the main thing they drilled home was the importance of getting an SSD. And after experiencing the difference of laptops with SSD’s vs any of my old laptops, I completely understand why. My old laptops would usually get slower and slower after the first year of use; they would overheat and make upsetting jet engine noises just trying to cool down; they would get to a point where they crashed multiple times a day depending on the programs I tried to run (and all this dispite how often I cleared up file space).
Today, I still have an SSD laptop I got 6 years ago that still runs almost perfectly, and the only reason I upgraded was because I wanted one that was lighter with more file space. Go with SSDs y’all, it makes a difference.
I know this is a haha funny post, but for anyone who needs it, here’s a quick-and-dirty of what you’re most likely going to see while shopping for a computer/laptop (w/Examples)!
Cores/Intel Cores (Ex. i3, i5, i9)= Processing Speed= how fast your internet and other programs run. More cores is better.
Hard [Disk] Drive(HDD)/Solid State Drive(SSD) (Ex. 250GB, 480GB, 2TB)= How much you can store on your computer (files and apps and programs). A Terabyte(TB) is 1,000 Gigabytes.
*HDD is cheaper and more storage while SSD is faster, more durable, and uses less energy.
Memory/RAM(Random Access Memory) (Ex. 4GB, 8GB, 16GB) = How many different things your computer can do At The Same Time.
Ex. A computer with 4GB of RAM will probably shit itself if you try to play a game with with the internet open.
Shopping for laptops fucking sucks ‘cause I don’t know shit about computers. I’ve never had a computer with a functional webcam or microphone or the ability to play computer games made later than 2005 or a speaker that could play anything loud enough to hear from more than a foot away. How the hell should I know what I want?!
wow that would be such useful advice if only desktop PCs were small and portable and did not require desk tops on which to place them and I could take them with me when I traveled
Video/Graphics Cards (Ex. NVIDIA, Intel HD Graphics, AMD) = How much visual complexity your computer can handle without throwing a tantrum. Only important if you play video games, do digital art, or watch a lot of movies on your computer. (When you’re watching a video and it pixelates and lags when the action stuff happens, that’s a bad/small graphics card)
((Also they highly recommended gaming computers regardless of if I planned to play any games or not, because they were specifically designed to handle large programs quickly and efficiently. I know they’re expensive, but if you’re doing anything more than basic office work or scrolling through the internet, you can totally tell how much better they handle things. As someone who uses a lot of art/design/animation/rendering programs, having things work efficiently is super important.))
So much FUD goes into this computer shopping process. This is actually one of my video series ideas – demystifying the process of picking out a computer (or parts of one), as the number of people who make super expensive mistakes even while trying their best to do research is shameful.
Shameful on the part of laptop/desktop/component manufacturers, that is.
