By Gordon Meyer (P3GizmoGuy@gmail.com)

Whether it’s a laptop or desktop system, you can never have too much RAM or storage space.  The way technology continues to develop, especially when it comes to graphics and hi-def video, which tend to be incredibly demanding of system resources. 

As for the hard drive itself, if you’re using a traditional platter-based drive, mine has to have a spin speed of at least 7200 RPM so the drive can access my data as quickly as possible.  This is critical when much of the data is video footage.

Many computers now offer “solid state” hard drives, which essentially use the same kind of chip-based non-volatile storage you find in SD modules and USB thumb drives.  These drives have two very big advantages over the older technology.  They are much faster and have no moving parts. This means they’re more stable and likely to have a longer user life.

On traditional hard drives, the data is magnetically recorded on a spinning metal disk.  If and when the motor conks out or the disc itself gets damaged by being bounced around in transit, during an earthquake (this IS California after all), or some other mishap, you have a hard drive crash and, unless you had the foresight to back up your data (see my earlier blog on this subject), you’re up S Creek without a paddle.

So solid state hard drives offer better speed and reliability.  But they also cost a lot more money.  A lot! For example, HP has a mobile workstation, the EliteBook 8730w, which comes standard with a 250GB, 7200 RPM hard drive.  Want to substitute an 80GB solid state drive?  That will add $250 to the price tag for 1/3 the storage.  A better deal is the $295 upgrade charge for the 128GB solid state drive.  But you’re still getting only half the internal storage that the standard drive offers for almost $300 more.

Screen size, weight and what kind of ports come standard are the other key criteria on a laptop.  No matter which way you go, there are trade-offs.  Obviously the bigger the screen, the bigger the overall size of the laptop, which means more weight to shlep around.  Now the 7.5 pounds that the 8730w weighs may not sound like a lot, but that gets damned heavy very quickly, especially when you add a decent laptop bag to the equation.

Basically, the trade-off here is weight vs. functionality.  The more bells and whistles you have on your laptop, the more it’s going to weigh you down.  This is why many people classify the bigger laptops as “desktop substitutes,” intended to more or less stay in one place the lion’s share of the time.

So the question you have to ask yourself is, how often will you want to take this portable computer on the road with you?  And when on the road, what will you be using it for? 

For me, any time I’m taking a computer on the road with me, my primary use is going to be email, surfing the web, using a productivity suite like Microsoft Office and watching a DVD or Blu-ray. 

Cowabunga!  I think I’ve just altered what kind of computer I’m most likely to get.  Stay tuned for my profound insights on this.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 7:51 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.