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Browsers & Technology / Where to get advices for buying a laptop?
Which brands to avoid? I heard bad things from Acer laptops. I can choose from: Dell, Lenovo, HP, Acer, Fujitsu, and Asus models. Some of them comes with 2 years of warranty, other come with 3 years of warranty.
What amount of memory should it have? 2 GB was enough for me for my 32 bit Arch Linux systm, except when running Chromium. I have read somewhere that 64 bit OS and 64 bit apps use twice as RAM,so at least 4 GB of RAM or even 8 GB would be better. I just read somewhere that it is better to buy 16 GB of RAM.
I can choose 14" and 13.3" laptops instead of the usual 15.6", which are better to carry somewhere, but maybe the display is too small. I used a 15" CRT display till now, and a 17" formerly. I read somewhere it's better to buy a model with full HD display (1920x1080) instead of the 1366x768. Of course I can connect an external display to the laptop if display proves too small. Some of the laptop lacks of a HDMI port, shoud I avoid them?
I thought that 256 GB of SSD storage would be sufficient for my needs, and it is faster than a ordinary HDD. Do a 64 bit OS and 64 bit apps use twice as much storage space on a hard drive as well compared to a 32 bit OS?
I would prefer a low noise, less heating, low energy consumption laptop, which is reliable and long lasting. I used my former PC for 15 years till its mainboard run down finally. I can choose Celeron/Pentium Dual Core, Celeron/Pentium Quad Core, i3 and i5 series. Non-i series supports only 8 GB of RAM which can be an issue in the future, I think. I read somewhere that I should choose i3-6xxx or i3-7xxx and same with i5 and avoid i3-5xxx, i3-4xxx, etc. I would stuck on i3 due to the budget. However I think that the lowest performance laptop which can be bought today would exceed my old, run down config. I excluded/wouldn't prefer AMD quad core processors, because they consume more energy, 20 watt TDP instead of 15 watt, and there is no low-TDP mode which consumes only 10 or 7.5 watt in case of an i3-6xxx and i3-7xxx.
What about graphics hardware? As far as I know it is now embedded into the processor (various Intel HD series). But sometimes there is a dedicated GPU which can be an Nvidia or AMD Radeon. I have no clue which would be better to choose.
I plan buying in two weeks because right now I am using an even older computer which had run down supplied with an Athlon XP. Budget is 910 USD / 850 EUR.