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After years of sharing the malfunctioning family computer, I am finally looking into buying my own computer, preferably a laptop. I'm no wizard with buying computers so I don't know what is a good deal and what is not. I want a computer that will be able to play games, access the internet, etc. etc. with no problem at all. I'm currently looking at this computer: Compaq 15.4" Laptop featuring Pentium Dual Core Processor T2370 (C769CA). The first line, which I'm thinking is a good indication, says: "With an Intel Pentium Dual Core processor T2370 and 3GB of memory". Any suggestions out there?

What's your maximum budget? Also, where do you live? Will you be playing the latest games?

Avoid the Compaq, because of their failure history. You won't notice the cpu much, but you will notice the black screens and cooling problems.

Couple things to be sure you're aware of if buying a laptop

• You can't easily (or at all!) change the video card on a laptop as you can on a desktop. So decide up front on internal vs. external video card and which you should get, cause you'll probably have to stick to it
• You pay a premium (often a hefty premium) to get the same performance from a laptop as you get in a desktop. The main reason: the design priorities are different in desktop vs. laptop
  • The top priority of a desktop is performance. Period.
  • The top priorities on designing a laptop are reducing power consumption (save that battery!) and problems in packing everything needed into reduced size and deal with cooling and heat dissipation. MAYBE after those, comes performance priorities on a laptop.
  • I recently priced out roughly comparable Dell Optipex 330 vs. Dell Latitude 830. As I recall, the Latitude came out to about 30 - 40% premium over the Optiplex.

Whatever you do, get as much RAM as you can, either from the manufacturer or from a computer hardware store. More RAM will save your HDD from being accessed frequently and prolong battery life. Also, consider a single-core CPU if you're not going to be doing heavy gaming or video editing since it'll help save power and reduce the amount of heat dissipated.

i gotta dell d620 -$250

Do NOT password that computer without careful planning. That is the most difficult of all laptops to fix a password problem.
Good luck.