Remember This Before Buying a Laptop
Laptops have become a staple for everyone. All areas of work now require a laptop. Whether you’re an accountant, a programmer, or a photographer. Laptops are also often used to play online games by gamers. But it is often difficult to find a laptop that suits our needs. We don’t know what kind of laptop specs we should buy to meet our needs. In this article, I want to try to share what components you should look into when you buy a laptop.
Processor
The processor is your laptop’s brain. There are two most famous processor brands: Intel and AMD. But in this article, I only discuss the processor from Intel. The most common Intel processor that often exists in laptops is Intel i3, Intel i5, and Intel i7. Let’s clear something first, the number of the “i” version does not represent the number of cores. That means Intel i7 doesn’t have 7 cores and Intel i5 doesn’t have 5 cores. Most of Intel i3 are dual-core and Intel i5 or Intel i7 is quad-core.
This is the easiest way to explain it: i7 is more powerful than i5, and i5 is more powerful than i3. The higher the number, means more computing power. But the difference in Intel processor is not only from the “i” series alone. There is also a so-called generation. Processors from Intel have a generation marked in their names. For example:
Intel Core i5–8250U
It means that this Intel processor is the Intel i5 processor in the 8th generation, because of the number 8 after the dash symbol (-). Every new generation definitely has better technology than the previous generation. So make sure that your laptop has the latest generation of Intel.
RAM
RAM or Random Access Memory is the memory used by the programs or applications that exist on your laptop. The more programs that you run, the more memory you will use. RAM usage is also determined by the program or application that you run. Programs or apps that deal with graphics or displays usually eat up more RAM, like Autocad. Personally, I recommend you find a laptop with at least 4GB of RAM. Unless you are a Linux user who uses Ubuntu OS. Based on my experience, it’s hard enough to run Windows 10 with just 2GB of RAM. As a result, I did add my RAM to 4GB. If you are a programmer, I recommend you find a laptop with a minimum of 8GB RAM. Yes at the beginning it seems that 4GB RAM is sufficient. But believe me, as you do the development process, as you grow in your programming career, there will be more and more tools that you will use. Like Genymotion or Android Studio for mobile developers, extensions on vs code or Google Chrome for frontend developers, and so on. So make sure that your laptop has enough RAM for your work.
Storage Capacity
There are 2 types of storage capacity: HDD (Hard Disk Drive) and SSD (Solid State Disk). Simply put: SSD is better than HDD.
With SSD, the application’s opening time in your laptop and the boot time on your laptop will be faster. For example, the average Windows 10 boot time with HDD is 1 minute on average, while it’s only 20 seconds with SSD. SSD is also more resistant to vibration. Even though it’s still will be broken if you shake it too violently (duh!). But SSDs come with a high price and most laptops with SSD only have 512GB for their largest capacity (for now). If you need a large capacity for storing movies, photos, or games, I suggest choosing an HDD with 1TB or 2TB capacity. So make your choice for your storage issues, whether you want it faster or larger.
GPU
GPU or Graphics Processing Unit is a processing unit that manages the performance of video or graphics. GPU is commonly used by games or high graphic apps like Autocad or Adobe. There are 2 most famous brands for GPU: AMD and Nvidia. The most common GPUs from AMD are the Radeon series whereas Nvidia is Nvidia GT and GTX. To be honest, I don’t really understand which GPU version is better. Normally, I see the comparison between GPUs via the following site:
Another tip for choosing a GPU is to choose the game that you really want to play on your laptop and see the minimum GPU version. Then choose a laptop with the same GPU, a different brand but with the same quality, or the same brand but better by using the link I shared above.
Conclusion
Choosing a laptop should be done carefully considering their price are not cheap. Lest we choose a laptop that isn’t suitable for our needs. Components such as processor, RAM, storage capacity, and GPU are the things that we should really be considered. For that reason, I’ve created a website called Laptop Search Engine for Indonesian people to help users find the laptop of their dream easier. My search engine can filter the result based on processor, RAM, storage capacity, GPU, brand, and price. Please visit my website at:
Of course, search engines still have many shortcomings. For that reason, I‘m very open to your feedback and suggestion. For my fellow engineers, feel free to check out the repository: https://gitlab.com/ferzos/laptop-search-engine. For feedback and suggestions, you can email me at ferdifenrir@gmail.com
Thank you for Reading 😁
