The Laptop Buyer's Guide!
Hey all, when i went to college, i needed a laptop and did a ton of research. Also, being one of the few laptop BF2 gamers (that i know of) i thought it would be good to give others a heads up on general laptop knowledge incase you were thinking of buying one yourself or just curious :P. This is a compilation of everything i have learned about laptops and actively prowling (and sometimes trolling!) notebookforums.com, a great resource!
NOTE BEFOREHAND: another great beginning laptop guide http://www.notebookforums.com/thread72162.html
or http://www.notebookforums.com/thread92036.html
The general feel out there i get alot from people is either "why would you buy a laptop to game when you could buy a desktop that outperforms it for half the price" or "why would you want to game on a laptop at all?". Well, both of those questions have answers.
First, while it might be true that desktops as a whole will outperform laptops for less money, there are always exceptions. Not only are there some laptops out there that compete with the best of the best (theres SLI laptops out there for god's sake these days) but they can be priced competitively if you buy them right (i will go into this further later) My year and a half old laptop gets 4500 in 3dmark05, and thats when i have only 1 gig of ram and a 1.6ghz PM cpu! the newer laptops get more than double that! Laptops today, while not at the level of upgradability desktops are, can be upgraded. Their CPU's, HD's, Ram, and even Video cards (to an extent) can be upgraded.
Also, the benefits of using a laptop for gaming are there, i swear! not only portable for lan parties (i do not consider a 20pound tower, screen, wires, and accessories portable) but if you commute lets say, from college, you wont have to be without your machine during breaks in school! Theres also the added convience of being able to read your email on your porch or while lying in bed. always fun.
Now all thats out of the way, what do you need in your laptop? Lets go through this step by step. If i leave anything out, just let me know. And just for a disclaimer, all this info is just the tip of the iceberg, a general summary if you will. if you want to know the really detailed stuff, head on over to notebookforums.com the best resource on laptops imo.
The companies (main ones at least)
Dell: A personal fave, they are tops from a purely financial perspective. While initially seeming to have the same prices as all the others, little do people know that they have tons of coupons a week. im talking, 750$ off coupons. these coupons can turn a good notebook into an INSANE steal, no other company can cut the price down as much. go to
http://www.notebookforums.com/thread95521-82.html
and look toward the last pages/most recent posts. this week's deals should be posted somewhere. these are all online ordering exclusive so keep that in mind. (note:coupons usually dont apply to their XPS line). Dell also is tops when it comes to customizing. Through the whole ordering process you can pick each part of everything. The downsides of dell are really actually subjective. Some will hate the style of their notebooks, others will love it. Also, some have had nothing but problems with their customer service. Keep in mind however that with as many people as dell serves, there are bound to be a few bad cases. I have had nothing but good experiences where they have taken care of my problems fast, and even given me free stuff if i was on hold for more than 20min (i got a free blutooth mouse!) They are my choice for 17" laptops. the e1705 coupled with the 750$ off coupon and 7900GS is the best deal in near-topline gaming laptops around. the xps1710 with 7900GTX is a great choice for a top-o-the-line gaming notebook. Their 12" 710m is a solid ultraportable as well. Their midsized notebooks are great but not the best choice for gaming. Their machines generally run cool, quite, and reliable.
Sager: A Clevo notebook company (Clevo is a basic Notebook manufacturer) Sagers are a solid choice, albiet a bit more pricey than Dell's. Their 17"'s compete directly with Dell's and Sager's mid-sized models are a great choice and superior in the gaming aspect than Dell's. Also, they offer models that have desktop CPU's, unlike dell. Alongside their conventional Dell-similar models they also have models that have Dual Hard Drives in RAID as well as Dual CD/DVD drives. This configuration however creates a louder, heavier, hotter machine. These bigger machines are more prone to breakage, as since they have so many components, there's more stuff to go wrong. Their ultraportables are lacking however. Customer service as a whole however seems to be above average, mainly because Sager machines are sold through independent resellers like PCTorque or etc, smaller companies that value Customer service more and have a more personal relationship with their customers.
Alienware: Recently bought by Dell, they still run independently. Their machines are pretty much EXACTLY like Sager machine-wise since they are too Clevo machines, although they charge more for that "style" they add (paintjobs, logo's, lights, etc). Customer service is similar or worse than Dell's (since they are such a large company and their desktopCPU-dual-harddrive-dual-CD/DVD drive machines) (paintjobs, logo's, lights, etc). Pretty much comparable to Sager, just with fancy colors and higher pricetag.
VooDoo: Insanely expensive...Insanely Beautiful
Hypersonic: Another Clevo, pretty good mid-sized notebooks for gaming and otherwise. A bit pricier than Sager, Less than Alienware, inbetween the two. Decent Customer Service.
Sony: A multimedia based notebook. Alot of style (i guess) and free software. Not the best choice for gaming and very pricey. Great ultraportables though. Customer Service is a hit or miss. Although agreed upon universally to have THE BEST looking screens. (X-Brite screens are the envy of all other notebook owners)
Asus: A European based company, they are a great choice for mid-sized gaming/non-gaming notebooks (15.4" etc). People seem to really love the professional style-look of the Asus's and recommend them in Customer service as well.
Fujitsu: A bit pricey, but their 17" notebooks are comparable to Dell's. Pretty good I'd say. No experience personally with their Customer service.
Acer: An asian based company, all around decent. not too familiar with it. nothing spectacular but nothing horrible either. solid choice.
IBM: A great business laptop, but not for gaming. a bit pricey too but THE most reliable, secure laptops around. If you want productivity, get these.
Hp-eMachines-Toshiba-Compaq: I stick them all together because i a)dont know much about them (except i HATE Toshiba's, stay away!) b) and what i do know about them is that they are all pretty similiar in that they are middle ground, "ok" notebooks. if you can find a good deal on one in your local BestBuy/Circuit city whatever, maybe get one, but as generalities go, stick with the above brands.
CyberPower-Ibuypower: Smaller Clevo based companies as well, i hear mostly negative things. Their laptops break, very bad CS and warrenties, although the price is decent. a general stay-away.
Screen:
Another reason why laptops are a great deal, you get a LCD screen right in the price! Size of the screen is your main factor in actually deciding the rest of the computer. Bigger the screen, bigger the rest of the laptop and usually better your freedom of choices in components. (ultra portables arnt exactly the most flexible builders out there) Screen sizes come in a few categories
19" monsters (biggest best performers, but very heavy and borderline desktops, horrendous battery life, rarely over 2 hours. 17" usually perform just as well.)
17" (best choice for the gamers. small enough to be convienent, but allows you to have top gaming components inside. battery life not ideal, usually 2 or 2.5 hours max. Companies to look at: Dell, Sager, Alienware, Maybe Toshiba)
15.4" (most common notebook size. can still game on them. not to the extent as the 17", but still very good. decent battery life. can hit up to 3-4 hours on some models. Companies to look for: Sager, Alienware, Acer, Fujitsu)
14" (now its getting tricky, probably not the best choice for gaming, although can run some new games on medium, low. 4-5 hours battery)
12" ultra portables (can play newish games, but low fps and low settings a requirement. marathon life battery life. ive seen 8 hour batteries, but 5-7 is the norm)
With all these screens, usually you are given 2 options on the type of screen, matte or glossy, (also called "trulife, or clearview" technology). what glossy is, is a clear, shiney plastic material in the screen that increases contrast, and makes colors "pop". also usually increases resolution (my 17" trulife has 1900x1200! although this might be bad for people who hate small text). downside is that it creates a glare if viewed in direct sunlight or in very bright light. its all up to wheter you can live with that or not. Matte is just normal screen.
it breaks down like this. if you want a big screen and big resolution, and want top game performance, or graphic design/entertainment center, get a 17". its portable, but the screen is big enough that i use it as a tv. 15.4's are your standard. you can game well, and its normal sized. 14" are smaller, and if you want a little thing to carry around and use to surf, email, take notes, etc, get a 12".
Components:
GPU: This is also obviously one of the most pivitol peices of hardware for gaming. This is where screen size also comes into the greatest of play as well.
A 17" notebook can fit a more powerful card in it than a 15.4", so in general, bigger the laptop, more powerful its gonna be. theres a great listing of mobile GPU's and laptop sizes they can be found in here
http://www.notebookforums.com/thread157799.html
The 17"'s can fit the topoftheline cards, while the 15.4's are gonna be more midrange but still powerful. The mobile GPU's are VERY comparable these days to their desktop counter-parts, so the same type of gauging of performance by model should be use.
Cpu's: You got a choice here. Desktop Cpu's (AMD x2's, FX's, P4's, etc) give good performance (esp the FX's) but run HOT and low battery life. Notebook specific CPU's (AMD Turion, Intel PM/core Duo) run cooler and are more power efficient. IMPORTANT thing to know here. Even though notebook cpu's are clocked slower, they can perform just as well as the desktop CPU's. Infact, the Intel PM and CORE DUO's literally RAPE the p4's in performance and even kill the AMD FX's clock for clock. for a rough comparison, multiply a Intel PM or CoreDuo's clockspeed by 1.8 to get a comparison next to a p4. for example. a botton of the line 1.6 PM can be compared to a 2.88 P4. A top of the line 2.16 dual-processor Core Duo can be compared to a 3.88 pentium D, although will still likely beat it due to its superior architechture. If you dont need dual-processing, stick with a PM. A 1.6 will do you fine and wont limit FPS, plus you can pinmod a cpu for performance of a top-of-theline cpu! (read down below in "after purchase" section). If you do multi-processing etc get a core-Duo.
Hard Drives: Notebooks use 2.5" drives rather than the 3.5"'s desktop's do. Hard-Drives are the main bottleneck of any system so this is an important part. Keep in mind however that rotation speen (RPM) isnt everything. While important, platter density is just as important. Platter density is how much you can store per inch on your drive. Higher the capacity of the drive, more platter density (since the physical size of the drive stays the same for all capacities). A 100GB HD will perform better than a 60GB HD. The trick is to balancing RPM's and platter density. A 80GB or 100GB hard drive with 5400 will be decently fast enough as they have higher platter density. However, if you get a 60gb hard drive, try getting a 7200RPM one as a 60GB 5400 RPM drive will lack both in RPM and platter density.
RAM: best rule for buying a laptop. BUY THE LOWEST AMOUNT OF RAM YOU CAN FROM THE MANUFACTURER. companies almost ALWAYS overcharge on ram. for example. On newegg, a great OCZ, 1gb pc4200 sodimm 533 ram is about 70$. On dell, to upgrade from 1gb of the same ram to 2gb costs you 300$!!!!!!. So try getting the lowest amount of ram possible and simply buy what you need later. Also, remember that most laptops only have 2 ram slots, so try buying 1gb sticks, as if you get 2x 512mb or a 1gb and one 512mb stick, your gonna be unable to upgrade without having to sell off one of those sticks, and plus with the 1gb, one 512mb config, you cant run dual channel.
Battery:A standard battery will do you fine, if you stay plugged in most of the time (which is gonna happen, trust me. I thought i was gonna take my laptop to class everyday for notes but i got lazy and found it easier to write by hand) a standard should do you fine, and will last you those times when you do go wireless. An extended battery is great for people who need a laptop all day (although not out-of-hibernate all day) wireless.
Audio: Most laptops have decent onboard audio, and laptop speakers are getting better and better these days (i love my dell 9300's speakers, even has a subwoofer in the battery). If you wish, you can nab yourself an external soundcard like the audigy 2 zs notebook sound card. be warned however, most companies are switching to the EXPRESS CARD format, for which alot of stuff hasnt been made for just yet. before buying external accessories, make sure its compatible with what you're buying.
Wireless: The lowest standard a/b/g internal wireless option is usually good enough if you have a wireless network and are just using the laptop in or right-outside your home. If you want super range, get an external wireless card, preferably with an external antenna connector so you can hook up a pringles cantenna
(i do not condone the use of your neighbors wireless networks without permission!!!)
Anti-Virus/Word Processor software: Eh, I dont like McAfree or Systamantec, I find them useless, intrusive, easily bypassed, and resource hogs. Just get a free anti-virus like AVG or AVAST, and a free firewall like Sygate or ZoneAlarm. For Word Processing, you dont need to buy that expensive Microsoft word. Try OpenOffice. Its an opensource word/powerpoint/excel/etc that can read all Microsoft formats as well as save in them! and its FREE! works great!
Some after-purchase stuff: With your new computer, right when you get it, it is a good idea to reformat right away. Its usually going to come preloaded with extraneous software your not gonna need that will be annoying and hinder performance (alot of its gonna be trail-software anyways). The company will give you an application cd you can use to go and install the programs you want, and theres tons of good open-source software outthere anyways.
Another useful thing to do is pin-modding. this is where you take a low-end Cpu, and turn it into a high-end CPU at no cost (its a process near identical to which intel itself uses). check out how to do it at http://www.notebookforums.com/thread80879.html (works for any notebook model but might void your warrenty so do it when your computer starts to get obsolete)
Also, if you want your computer to use less power while still having the same performance, check out
http://www.notebookforums.com/thread70943.html
If theres anything i left out or you want to know, just tell me! Also if you have some specific questions, join notebookforums.com or just PM me! sorry for the long ass post!
NOTE BEFOREHAND: another great beginning laptop guide http://www.notebookforums.com/thread72162.html
or http://www.notebookforums.com/thread92036.html
The general feel out there i get alot from people is either "why would you buy a laptop to game when you could buy a desktop that outperforms it for half the price" or "why would you want to game on a laptop at all?". Well, both of those questions have answers.
First, while it might be true that desktops as a whole will outperform laptops for less money, there are always exceptions. Not only are there some laptops out there that compete with the best of the best (theres SLI laptops out there for god's sake these days) but they can be priced competitively if you buy them right (i will go into this further later) My year and a half old laptop gets 4500 in 3dmark05, and thats when i have only 1 gig of ram and a 1.6ghz PM cpu! the newer laptops get more than double that! Laptops today, while not at the level of upgradability desktops are, can be upgraded. Their CPU's, HD's, Ram, and even Video cards (to an extent) can be upgraded.
Also, the benefits of using a laptop for gaming are there, i swear! not only portable for lan parties (i do not consider a 20pound tower, screen, wires, and accessories portable) but if you commute lets say, from college, you wont have to be without your machine during breaks in school! Theres also the added convience of being able to read your email on your porch or while lying in bed. always fun.
Now all thats out of the way, what do you need in your laptop? Lets go through this step by step. If i leave anything out, just let me know. And just for a disclaimer, all this info is just the tip of the iceberg, a general summary if you will. if you want to know the really detailed stuff, head on over to notebookforums.com the best resource on laptops imo.
The companies (main ones at least)
Dell: A personal fave, they are tops from a purely financial perspective. While initially seeming to have the same prices as all the others, little do people know that they have tons of coupons a week. im talking, 750$ off coupons. these coupons can turn a good notebook into an INSANE steal, no other company can cut the price down as much. go to
http://www.notebookforums.com/thread95521-82.html
and look toward the last pages/most recent posts. this week's deals should be posted somewhere. these are all online ordering exclusive so keep that in mind. (note:coupons usually dont apply to their XPS line). Dell also is tops when it comes to customizing. Through the whole ordering process you can pick each part of everything. The downsides of dell are really actually subjective. Some will hate the style of their notebooks, others will love it. Also, some have had nothing but problems with their customer service. Keep in mind however that with as many people as dell serves, there are bound to be a few bad cases. I have had nothing but good experiences where they have taken care of my problems fast, and even given me free stuff if i was on hold for more than 20min (i got a free blutooth mouse!) They are my choice for 17" laptops. the e1705 coupled with the 750$ off coupon and 7900GS is the best deal in near-topline gaming laptops around. the xps1710 with 7900GTX is a great choice for a top-o-the-line gaming notebook. Their 12" 710m is a solid ultraportable as well. Their midsized notebooks are great but not the best choice for gaming. Their machines generally run cool, quite, and reliable.
Sager: A Clevo notebook company (Clevo is a basic Notebook manufacturer) Sagers are a solid choice, albiet a bit more pricey than Dell's. Their 17"'s compete directly with Dell's and Sager's mid-sized models are a great choice and superior in the gaming aspect than Dell's. Also, they offer models that have desktop CPU's, unlike dell. Alongside their conventional Dell-similar models they also have models that have Dual Hard Drives in RAID as well as Dual CD/DVD drives. This configuration however creates a louder, heavier, hotter machine. These bigger machines are more prone to breakage, as since they have so many components, there's more stuff to go wrong. Their ultraportables are lacking however. Customer service as a whole however seems to be above average, mainly because Sager machines are sold through independent resellers like PCTorque or etc, smaller companies that value Customer service more and have a more personal relationship with their customers.
Alienware: Recently bought by Dell, they still run independently. Their machines are pretty much EXACTLY like Sager machine-wise since they are too Clevo machines, although they charge more for that "style" they add (paintjobs, logo's, lights, etc). Customer service is similar or worse than Dell's (since they are such a large company and their desktopCPU-dual-harddrive-dual-CD/DVD drive machines) (paintjobs, logo's, lights, etc). Pretty much comparable to Sager, just with fancy colors and higher pricetag.
VooDoo: Insanely expensive...Insanely Beautiful
Hypersonic: Another Clevo, pretty good mid-sized notebooks for gaming and otherwise. A bit pricier than Sager, Less than Alienware, inbetween the two. Decent Customer Service.
Sony: A multimedia based notebook. Alot of style (i guess) and free software. Not the best choice for gaming and very pricey. Great ultraportables though. Customer Service is a hit or miss. Although agreed upon universally to have THE BEST looking screens. (X-Brite screens are the envy of all other notebook owners)
Asus: A European based company, they are a great choice for mid-sized gaming/non-gaming notebooks (15.4" etc). People seem to really love the professional style-look of the Asus's and recommend them in Customer service as well.
Fujitsu: A bit pricey, but their 17" notebooks are comparable to Dell's. Pretty good I'd say. No experience personally with their Customer service.
Acer: An asian based company, all around decent. not too familiar with it. nothing spectacular but nothing horrible either. solid choice.
IBM: A great business laptop, but not for gaming. a bit pricey too but THE most reliable, secure laptops around. If you want productivity, get these.
Hp-eMachines-Toshiba-Compaq: I stick them all together because i a)dont know much about them (except i HATE Toshiba's, stay away!) b) and what i do know about them is that they are all pretty similiar in that they are middle ground, "ok" notebooks. if you can find a good deal on one in your local BestBuy/Circuit city whatever, maybe get one, but as generalities go, stick with the above brands.
CyberPower-Ibuypower: Smaller Clevo based companies as well, i hear mostly negative things. Their laptops break, very bad CS and warrenties, although the price is decent. a general stay-away.
Screen:
Another reason why laptops are a great deal, you get a LCD screen right in the price! Size of the screen is your main factor in actually deciding the rest of the computer. Bigger the screen, bigger the rest of the laptop and usually better your freedom of choices in components. (ultra portables arnt exactly the most flexible builders out there) Screen sizes come in a few categories
19" monsters (biggest best performers, but very heavy and borderline desktops, horrendous battery life, rarely over 2 hours. 17" usually perform just as well.)
17" (best choice for the gamers. small enough to be convienent, but allows you to have top gaming components inside. battery life not ideal, usually 2 or 2.5 hours max. Companies to look at: Dell, Sager, Alienware, Maybe Toshiba)
15.4" (most common notebook size. can still game on them. not to the extent as the 17", but still very good. decent battery life. can hit up to 3-4 hours on some models. Companies to look for: Sager, Alienware, Acer, Fujitsu)
14" (now its getting tricky, probably not the best choice for gaming, although can run some new games on medium, low. 4-5 hours battery)
12" ultra portables (can play newish games, but low fps and low settings a requirement. marathon life battery life. ive seen 8 hour batteries, but 5-7 is the norm)
With all these screens, usually you are given 2 options on the type of screen, matte or glossy, (also called "trulife, or clearview" technology). what glossy is, is a clear, shiney plastic material in the screen that increases contrast, and makes colors "pop". also usually increases resolution (my 17" trulife has 1900x1200! although this might be bad for people who hate small text). downside is that it creates a glare if viewed in direct sunlight or in very bright light. its all up to wheter you can live with that or not. Matte is just normal screen.
it breaks down like this. if you want a big screen and big resolution, and want top game performance, or graphic design/entertainment center, get a 17". its portable, but the screen is big enough that i use it as a tv. 15.4's are your standard. you can game well, and its normal sized. 14" are smaller, and if you want a little thing to carry around and use to surf, email, take notes, etc, get a 12".
Components:
GPU: This is also obviously one of the most pivitol peices of hardware for gaming. This is where screen size also comes into the greatest of play as well.
A 17" notebook can fit a more powerful card in it than a 15.4", so in general, bigger the laptop, more powerful its gonna be. theres a great listing of mobile GPU's and laptop sizes they can be found in here
http://www.notebookforums.com/thread157799.html
The 17"'s can fit the topoftheline cards, while the 15.4's are gonna be more midrange but still powerful. The mobile GPU's are VERY comparable these days to their desktop counter-parts, so the same type of gauging of performance by model should be use.
Cpu's: You got a choice here. Desktop Cpu's (AMD x2's, FX's, P4's, etc) give good performance (esp the FX's) but run HOT and low battery life. Notebook specific CPU's (AMD Turion, Intel PM/core Duo) run cooler and are more power efficient. IMPORTANT thing to know here. Even though notebook cpu's are clocked slower, they can perform just as well as the desktop CPU's. Infact, the Intel PM and CORE DUO's literally RAPE the p4's in performance and even kill the AMD FX's clock for clock. for a rough comparison, multiply a Intel PM or CoreDuo's clockspeed by 1.8 to get a comparison next to a p4. for example. a botton of the line 1.6 PM can be compared to a 2.88 P4. A top of the line 2.16 dual-processor Core Duo can be compared to a 3.88 pentium D, although will still likely beat it due to its superior architechture. If you dont need dual-processing, stick with a PM. A 1.6 will do you fine and wont limit FPS, plus you can pinmod a cpu for performance of a top-of-theline cpu! (read down below in "after purchase" section). If you do multi-processing etc get a core-Duo.
Hard Drives: Notebooks use 2.5" drives rather than the 3.5"'s desktop's do. Hard-Drives are the main bottleneck of any system so this is an important part. Keep in mind however that rotation speen (RPM) isnt everything. While important, platter density is just as important. Platter density is how much you can store per inch on your drive. Higher the capacity of the drive, more platter density (since the physical size of the drive stays the same for all capacities). A 100GB HD will perform better than a 60GB HD. The trick is to balancing RPM's and platter density. A 80GB or 100GB hard drive with 5400 will be decently fast enough as they have higher platter density. However, if you get a 60gb hard drive, try getting a 7200RPM one as a 60GB 5400 RPM drive will lack both in RPM and platter density.
RAM: best rule for buying a laptop. BUY THE LOWEST AMOUNT OF RAM YOU CAN FROM THE MANUFACTURER. companies almost ALWAYS overcharge on ram. for example. On newegg, a great OCZ, 1gb pc4200 sodimm 533 ram is about 70$. On dell, to upgrade from 1gb of the same ram to 2gb costs you 300$!!!!!!. So try getting the lowest amount of ram possible and simply buy what you need later. Also, remember that most laptops only have 2 ram slots, so try buying 1gb sticks, as if you get 2x 512mb or a 1gb and one 512mb stick, your gonna be unable to upgrade without having to sell off one of those sticks, and plus with the 1gb, one 512mb config, you cant run dual channel.
Battery:A standard battery will do you fine, if you stay plugged in most of the time (which is gonna happen, trust me. I thought i was gonna take my laptop to class everyday for notes but i got lazy and found it easier to write by hand) a standard should do you fine, and will last you those times when you do go wireless. An extended battery is great for people who need a laptop all day (although not out-of-hibernate all day) wireless.
Audio: Most laptops have decent onboard audio, and laptop speakers are getting better and better these days (i love my dell 9300's speakers, even has a subwoofer in the battery). If you wish, you can nab yourself an external soundcard like the audigy 2 zs notebook sound card. be warned however, most companies are switching to the EXPRESS CARD format, for which alot of stuff hasnt been made for just yet. before buying external accessories, make sure its compatible with what you're buying.
Wireless: The lowest standard a/b/g internal wireless option is usually good enough if you have a wireless network and are just using the laptop in or right-outside your home. If you want super range, get an external wireless card, preferably with an external antenna connector so you can hook up a pringles cantenna
(i do not condone the use of your neighbors wireless networks without permission!!!)Anti-Virus/Word Processor software: Eh, I dont like McAfree or Systamantec, I find them useless, intrusive, easily bypassed, and resource hogs. Just get a free anti-virus like AVG or AVAST, and a free firewall like Sygate or ZoneAlarm. For Word Processing, you dont need to buy that expensive Microsoft word. Try OpenOffice. Its an opensource word/powerpoint/excel/etc that can read all Microsoft formats as well as save in them! and its FREE! works great!
Some after-purchase stuff: With your new computer, right when you get it, it is a good idea to reformat right away. Its usually going to come preloaded with extraneous software your not gonna need that will be annoying and hinder performance (alot of its gonna be trail-software anyways). The company will give you an application cd you can use to go and install the programs you want, and theres tons of good open-source software outthere anyways.
Another useful thing to do is pin-modding. this is where you take a low-end Cpu, and turn it into a high-end CPU at no cost (its a process near identical to which intel itself uses). check out how to do it at http://www.notebookforums.com/thread80879.html (works for any notebook model but might void your warrenty so do it when your computer starts to get obsolete)
Also, if you want your computer to use less power while still having the same performance, check out
http://www.notebookforums.com/thread70943.html
If theres anything i left out or you want to know, just tell me! Also if you have some specific questions, join notebookforums.com or just PM me! sorry for the long ass post!
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