It is easy to go onto ebay or some other auction site and see a laptop and purchase it because of the great price listed. Sometimes you find a great deal, other times you get burned. If you have a lot of extra money and plenty of time to vent your frustration… hop online and buy the first thing you see. If you have a little time to prevent yourself from spending a bunch of extra money, you might want to consider some of the ways people who think they are saving a lot of money actually end up spending more than than someone who planned ahead.
The first and most common mistake people make is simply this; they buy the wrong laptop. They see a laptop for $250 and think it is a great deal, but didn’t really think out what they needed. They find this great deal they have didn’t come with a CD burner which they need for their line of work (like graphic design) or it didn’t have basic Word Processing programs they need. This error can occur in a variety of forms. Make sure you know what you need before you go out and buy.
The next most common mistake is buying a used laptop with “issues.” Yes, this happens a lot. It may have a dead battery which costs $80 to replace or a CD Rom which is going out. There can be a lot of issues to make the used laptop a little cheaper. Sometimes, this can save money if it isn’t an issue that matters to you and other times it will cost you more because you will want to replace/repair the problem.
Another way to get to spend more money than you bargained for is to buy a laptop without an Operating System. You might wonder who’d do this sort of thing. If you look at laptops from various retailers that are used, you will find close to half of them do not have an Operating System. If you have a copy of Windows XP or ME or 98 from your last system that died… (meaning it is not currently being used on another hard drive) this can be a great way for you to save money. However, if you do not, be prepared to spend an extra $100.
Really, the best way to get the best deal on a used laptop is to know what you need to do and make sure the laptop you are buying can do those things. If you buy a laptop which only meets half your needs you will be forced to spend a lot of time and effort making the laptop work properly in the long run. Why not just start out that way. Know what you are planning to do and find a retailer who you can trust to help you find a used laptop that can do all of it for you. Buying a used laptop is a great way to save money IF you purchase thoughtfully.
Jesse Harwell owns several websites including http://www.usedcollegelaptops.com aimed to help the consumer spend their money as wisely as possible on computer purchases.
Selecting motherboard is really simple. As name suggests “Motherboard” acts as a protective mother of CPU, RAM and other add on cards since these
components stand firmly on motherboard.
Number of devices have been integrated on motherboard
over a period of time. Now a days motherboard with onboard features is more popular in Branded PCs. Onboard integrated peripherals are offered by many branded PC manufacturers to
provide you latest technology if you buy a system from
a big computer manufacturer recently.
It is recommended to select motherboard with maximum
number of ports preferably with 2 serial, 1 parallel
and 4 USB ports. Most of the recent devices have USB
port. Also check the upgradation options such as
memory support and number of available PCI slots etc.
Technology changes so rapidly that manufacturers add
the new features such as serial ATA, USB 2.0 and RAID
on the motherboard to stay ahead of the competition.
Many manufacturers even provides FM radio on the
motherboard to survive in the race making it fully
entertainment machine.
Important Motherboard Tips:
1) Do the survey by reading the reviews on
motherboards and then look for either same motherboard
or compare it with it’s competitors product in the
market.
2) Don’t buy the costliest motherboard if you are not
going to use additional features. Always check cost to
benefit ratio and make the selection just by assessing
the utility value.
3) If you are dedicated gamer or fan of overclocking,
verify whether the space around CPU is spacious enough
for you to install a larger heat sink-fan combination
for cooling. Go for motherboard, which has the
facility to overclock FSB in steps of 1 MHz and core
voltage adjustment.
4) Confirm that chipset on the motherboard is
compatible with the speed of the processor and speed
of FSB. It is very important to check the
compatibility to improve the system performance.
5) Select feature rich motherboard for future up
gradation. Also ensure that it has enough PCI and
memory slots for future expansion.
6) If planning for expensive motherboard go for the
motherboard with onboard video chipset and an AGP
slot. Don’t forget to check whether AGP slot supports
latest transfer rate.
7) Also see whether motherboard has onboard sound and
integrated Ethernet.
Check the type of memory that supports motherboard.
9) DDR RAM is the most popular option today. Most
motherboards have at least two slots. But expensive
motherboards have 4 slots. The total amount RAM you
can install is also dependent on the motherboard
chipset.
10) The smooth transfer of data without errors is the
most important function of the chipset. This function
of the chipset decides overall performance of the
system. That is why the maximum speed a processor that
the chipset supports is very important. In case of
future upgrades you will need to change only the
processor. This will save your time and money.
Krishna Pai is a webmaster and a writer. Get Computer Tutorials, reviews, Hardware & Software Tips, How to guides at
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