Home User Buying Guide
When it comes to home entertainment laptops, connectivity is an important element. How easily the laptop can interact with your other multimedia gadgets such as the TV or stereo equipment is everything. HDMI, Bluetooth, and other video and audio out ports are all potentially vital features for a well-functioning entertainment laptop. But there's more to the perfect multimedia laptop. Here are our requirements and recommendations on a great multimedia computer.
Key features
CPU and Memory
To be able to play and edit media files a proper multimedia laptop should not compromise on performance. Using Intel processors such as the Core 2 Duo will give your laptop good prospects for delivering the best entertainment experience. Dual-core AMD Turion processors are slightly slower, but more than adequate in most circumstances.
Memory - Make sure to get at least 2 GB of RAM with your new laptop. A decent amount of memory is required to run multiple programs at once without experiencing slowdowns. This is especially true with Windows Vista, the most common operating system on new computers.
With a fast processor and 2 GB memory you will easily be able to watch HD video files, import, store, and edit images and listen to music. Now, if you want to do all those things at the same time, so called multitasking, lots of RAM is required. Video encoders and converters like Premiere Pro and image editors like Photoshop can use copious amounts of RAM - don't hesistate to upgrade when possible.
Storage
Storing lots of music, videos, and high resolution photos will quickly use up your hard drive space. If this is what you plan on doing there's no upper limit for how large a hard drive you will need. However, you can always expand the storage space with external storage such as a USB hard drive, so it's not as critical as other components that can't be upgraded later
Display and Graphics Card
Entertainment laptops are often used as a media player while connected to a projector or the home TV-set. However, if you are planning to use the laptop as main screen, the bigger the better. If you plan to do any gaming on the laptop, you need a dedicated graphics card from Nvidia or ATI - these will also assist in HD video playback.
Connectivity
HDMI, VGA, S/PDIF, WiFi and other acronyms for output/input ports may be important for an entertainment laptop, depending on where you want to plug it in. Check your current equipment for reference before buying a new laptop. If you want to plug in your computer to your brand new HDTV set, for example, it's advisable to look for a laptop with an HDMI port.The bottom line: Connect to the home theater setup via HDMI. FireWire or USB lets you import your own camcorder videos. DVI and VGA video are primarily meant for hooking up computer monitors, but may also be connected to a High Definition TV.
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