What to Look for in a New Laptop

Whether you're a student heading back to school or a frugal consumer just looking to upgrade that old, moves-at-a-snail's-pace laptop that's dying a slow death on your desk, figuring out what to look for in a new laptop can be a bit of a chore. The first thing we all have to think of in these tough economic times is budget. It has never been easier to find a quality laptop for less from the top major brands as it is today.

Here are some guidelines regarding what to look for when you're buying a new laptop:

To get the most bang for your buck, you'll want to purchase a system that has more than enough speed and space to allow you to fully utilize your brand new laptop. Standard laptops come with about 60 GB to 160GB of hard disc space. If you are going to be using the laptop to work on graphics intensive projects utilizing a program such as Adobe Photoshop, you'll want to look for a hard drive with space towards the top end of the spectrum. If you require even more space, investing in a second hard drive or looking for a system that runs at 320GB is a good way to go. In this case considering a system with a higher end graphics card might also be ideal.

If gaming is your thing, then a laptop by Alienware would be the perfect purchase. Alienware machines are manufactured and designed specifically to accommodate the demands of graphic, memory, and code intensive computer games. As an added bonus, they also happen to look really cool too.

In terms of processors for standard laptops, you'll want to absolutely look for one equipped with a dual core processor. This will guarantee that your system runs both fast and smoothly. Along with the processor, a high RAM count is also essential to a fast moving laptop. The higher the RAM, the better your notebook will perform. Purchasing any laptop with RAM below 512 MB is a waste of money in my opinion.

The last (but most important) thing you want to keep an eye out for are quality bargains on top of the line machines. Dell offers great savings on its affordable Latitude series of laptops to lessen the overall potential burden on your wallet. Top retailers such as Best Buy and Overstock also have great deals on brand new laptops.

Another good machine that is both sleek and affordable is the HP Pavilion dv4t 1100 which can usually be found for about $1,800 and up depending on how you configure it to meet your specific requirements. Gadgetophilia.com lists it as the number one notebook/laptop on its Top Ten List for 2009.

Now, these are just a handful of examples, but you get the picture. Affordable, quality laptops can be purchased without emptying out the bank account or eating soup exclusively for the next month.

So those are the basics. One of these days I'll go into more detail about the core system requirements needed to best optimize your notebook experience. Until next time, catch me here or on Twitter @SavingsGCapes where you'll find me tweeting about all things tech and consumer electronics.