Computer guru's? Advice requested on Lap-top computers, please?

[shadowkat]

Thanks for all the computer advice! You guys have been incredibly helpful. Due to numerous issues - including the fact that my landlord has to come into my apartment August 8th and rip out the wall the computer is located next to, have decided to take graffitandsara's advice and get a lap-top, keep the other computer for rudimentary junk.

But being a bit of a computer dolt, in case you haven't noticed, need a little advice:

Here's a Dell Computer Lap-top I saw advertised as Outrageous Deal 6000:

1.Processor: Intel Cenrino Moblie Tech - Intel Pentium M Processor 715
(1.50GHz, 2MB Cache, 400 MHz FSB) - what's this mean? And do I need 1.60 GHz?
2.Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
3.Display: 15.4 Widescreen XGA Display (What's the best to have here?)
4.Memory: 512 MB Shared* (What's shared mean? I know 512 is good - it's the amount of memory on the computer at work. )
5. hard drive: 80GB * Hard Drive (Does it matter if I have 40 GB or 80 GB?)
6. media bay: 8x CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW*) - Do you need 24x or 8x? (I don't really burn CD's) Is this the disk drive? Or is it something separate? (Yes, the last lap-top I worked on was my father's Compaq in 1996, we didn't have stuff like this back then, those were the days.)
7. graphics card: Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 (Do you need the 64MB DDR ATI's Mobility RADEON X300 PCI Express x16 Graphics or is this enough for my needs?)
8. Wireless: Intel PRo/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11b/g) - what is this? Is it an internet card? Or something that allows you to operate the computer without plugging it in?
9. The whole warranty package - 1 year on each.

Any advice, welcome.

Going to try and get before August if possible. The gods seem to think I need a new computer and it should be a lap-top for some reason or other.

Comments

[atpolittlebit.livejournal.com]

Just some quick comments:

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition is fine unless you plan at some point to network the laptop. Then it needs the XP Professional edition.

512 MB shared memory should be plenty for most anything you do. Shared just means that the system can allocate memory to other functions if needed.

A 40 GB hard drive should be fine unless you do a lot of image stuff. I've been doing a lot with photos and they just eat drive space.

The 8x CD/DVD drive should be fine. Even though you don't currently burn CDs, I've found them to be a really easy way to do data backups. The CD/DVD drive has pretty much taken the place of the old 3-1/4" floppy drives.

The basic graphics card should be all you need. The more powerful graphics cards are needed if you plan to play video games or do a lot of graphic intensive work.

Wireless means it comes ready to connect to a wireless network. But you still have to have a network to connect to. It's a separate function from the internet connection. If you use dial-up (or decide to upgrade to DSL/cable) those connect into the laptop directly. You'd have to add a wireless router for the wireless card to work for you.

Hope that helps.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

5. hard drive: 80GB * Hard Drive (Does it matter if I have 40 GB or 80 GB?)

This really depends on what you do with multimedia. If you carry a lot of video or graphics, or if you load a lot of games or software applications - space can get eaten up pretty quickly. If the price jump from 40GB to 80GB isn't that much, and if you have any aspirations - go get the extra storage.

I have a 60 GB Hard drive, and I download and watch a lot of TV shows. The only way I've been able to get by, is by deleting a lot of them. When I would have wanted to archive.

If you don't game, if you don't watch movies/video on your PC, if you don't store a lot of music, or do graphics, you can be okay. But generally, there's no such thing as too much storage.