The Chosen one

Which laptop to buy?? Simple Question. Difficult answer….

“Well, since you are going to use it, you better surf the web and select the model. I will then procure the same for you.” This is what I told my college going son. But it was not to be that way. He just passed on the entire burden of hunting, comparing and selection, all completely and entirely to my shoulders. And , as always, I had to take the bull by the horns.

I started framing the specifications. Speed of CPU is the first variable. In the market, I found speeds from 0.8 GHz  to 2.53 GHz in laptops. I found that most models currently being sold  were 1.4, 1.6, 1.73 or 1.86 G Hz. The more expensive ones were 2.0 GHz and upwards. Considering the extent of pipelining and rate of obsolescence, I decided to avoid CPUs below 2.0 GHz. Coupled with cost considerations, this more or less froze the spec at 2.0GHz.

Next came the meory.  Apple ibook G4 had a RAM of 256MB. The new Macbook has a RAM of 1GB. For my son’s laptop I decided that 2 GB RAM would be required to cater to streaming video. Of course, this should be upgradable  to at least 4 GB, if required in future.

Having a Fingerprint Reader would be a novelty in a laptop. Would also provide the whole family with exposure to a new level of technology, digital access, password less system management. Truly personalised machine.

Microprocessors I know a little bit about. First of all it just has to be “64 bit”. Anything less would not be acceptable. Pentium (90nm technology) is obsolete and will not do. Celeron has design issues and I have an inherent bias against the same. That leaves only the 65 nm(Intel DualCore,  many Intel Core2Duo, AMD Athlon, AMD Turion) and the newly introduced 45nm (some Intel Core2Duo) CPU microprocessors.  I decided not to go for The newly introduced 45 nm technology  is yet to stabilise, is disproportionately expensive and going for it before summer 2009 does not appear to be a very good idea.  That further narrows the field as far as CPUs go. Out of AMD Athlon & AMD Turion,  AMD Turion X2 processor is considerably more advanced than the Athlon.  After a lot of search and comparisons, the final choice is AMD Turion X2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor RM-70 ( 2 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache, Up to 3600 MHz FSB, 64-bit). This is also considerably superior to the 2.0 GHz Intel DualCore T3200 processor (laptops based on which are available at comparable price). What finally clinches it for the AMD Turion X2 Mobile processor is the fact that the upcoming HP Touchsmart TX2 notebooks (how nice!!  and ooh!!, how expensive!!!)are all based on the Turion series.

And finally, the Operating System has to be WIndows Vista.

It is this with specifications that I started scouting the web for the best deal. The websites compareindia.com , abletech.com.my , cafegadgets.in, gadgetguru.in have helped me considerably in my effort.

I finally zeroed in on the Compaq CQ45-106AU. I have been  able to get this at a good price along with a extended warranty (carry-in support) for three years.