Whether you are a student or working professional, the system that you use is of utmost importance in today’s world. Many a times a lot of us get confused by the plethora of options that are available or are advertised to us. Today, in this blog post, I would like to discuss very briefly about the kind of things that you should consider while you are going to buy your computing system. Just to point out, I would try to not name out any specific brands (Nobody gave me any money for endorsing them!😋) because there could be better or worse that I might not be aware of. Rather I would try to sketch out what things that might be pertinent to you before buying a laptop or desktop.
The Purpose
I know, it might sound cliche, but the main question you want answered is that for what purpose, you are buying your laptop/ system and you should forward from that answer. Let me try to give out few possible scenarios and then what should be the considerations.
I am a Data Scientist in my working life and it is a very computationally heavy task load. Similar to my work, there could be other reasons, which might be computationally extensive, like hardcore gaming. For these scenarios, I would urge you to really really consider buying a desktop stationary system instead of laptops. Can you get very high end laptops? Certainly, but firstly, stationary systems will allow you to be much more flexible in terms of the tech stack that you are deploying and also it will be much more cost-effective in comparison to similar configuration laptops.
What are the desired configurations, you might ask. Again it’ll depend on the level you are working or using that system. For normal gaming stuff, at the current age, you might do good with 16GB+ RAM, 2.5GHz+clock speed processors (great, if it has turbo boosts when required) and external GPUs. In state of the art deep learning (a part of data science) or probably in gaming too, this might be the minimal requirements for most of the functionalities and may have much higher requirements for specific tasks. A Good coolant system and state of the art motherboard and processors would help in smooth functioning too.
I think, anybody who wants to have a very high-end computationally expensive system, they should have a stationary system. That way you also have choices and customizations for each of the individual parts that you want. Like for an example, if you are into design or coding, it might be better to buy a bigger monitor/ screen separately. That’ll be less expensive than big screen high-tech laptops.
Understanding the ratio of cores (cores basically provides multiprocessing functionality to a system; on a high level, small individual tasks are divided and distributed among multiple cores for faster processing speed overall) to RAM is also very important for smooth functioning of your system. If you use external GPUs, every GPU has more than thousands of cores. What I am referring is the number of cores in your CPU processor. Your RAM should be approximately around 1.5 times (in GB) the number of cores you have. E.g. if you have 8 cores in your processor, the RAM should be at least 12GB.
Tasks that require intensive typing (coding, Gaming) need good keyboard support as well. If you are into these tasks you might want to add a mechanical keyboard into your cart. It’s costlier than normal electric ones, but it’ll save you bucks in the long run.
I don’t put a lot of focus into the internal storage of a system. Now, a lot of people prefer to keep cloud backups for their data. Buying external hard disks might be a portable, cheaper solution. Though, you need to make sure that it meets your minimum requirements.
Conclusion
This is not exactly a “how to” guide for buying computers. Everyone has their own preferences and needs. I just wanted put some guiding information based on my daily needs, usage and experiences. Hope some of these would help you in buying the perfect system for you.
Keep reading, stay safe.
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