1. Buying a Laptop

2. 3 Main Components The 3 main components to consider when buying a laptop or computer are Processor – The Bigger the Ghz the faster the processing speed. RAM- (Memory) The bigger the GB the more RAM and therefore the faster the carriage to the processor. HDD- Hard Disk Drive the larger the GB the more storage capacity.

3. Processors Intel Core I3,I5 and I7 are the latest intel processors and most common on the Home user laptop/ computer market. They are multi core processors which means they can complete tasks faster by sharing the work load through each core.

4. RAM The standard for RAM in all new laptops/PC’s is 4GB the amount of RAM required depends on the purpose of the laptop if you are using it for Graphics or high end gaming then more RAM is recommended. RAM carries the instructions to the Processor so the More RAM you have the more instructions it can carry at any one time.

5. HDD Laptop Hard drives are now commonly500GB in size. The Hard drive however can also effect performance speed if it is Solid State SSD it will be faster than standard Mechanical Also the Spindle speed and Cache size can effect how fast the hard drive can read and write files. Example on next page.

6. Hard Drive Comparisons Seagate - hard drive - 750 GB - SATA-300 Spindle Speed7200 rpm Buffer Size16 MB £73 Samsung - hard drive - 750 GB - SATA-300 Spindle Speed5400 rpmBuffer Size8 MB £47

7. Laptop Comparisons www.Dell.ie The best laptop available at present is the MAC book however they are very expensive.

8. Software All computers need software. Anti-Virus : Free ones perform a small task but are not much good in the long term Microsoft Office: Retails at €100 - €170 but you can get student editions. 3 rd party software e.g Photoshop very expensive but students can get discount. WWW.SOFTWARE4STUDENTS.IE WWW.DREAMSPARK.COM

9. Ubuntu Free Operating system that does everything a normal user may need to do. Faster than Windows Os and also more secure against viruses. GOOGLE CHROME OS