Ultimate Laptop Selection Guide – Things To Consider Before Making a Decision

The purpose of what I want to talk about today is to help you understand how to choose a laptop that suits you. After all, there are a lot of messy model numbers in the parameters of the computer. Points to note, some key points to pay attention to make some introductions.

User’s positioning

Be clear about what you bought it for, and want to understand that you belong to the user who bought it for a long time to play games, make videos, process post-processing, etc. This is called a heavy user for the time being. Or it belongs to users who only do programming, study, work, do PPT, process word documents, excel sheets, watch a learning video, program, and occasionally play games. This kind of user is called a light user for the time being.

Manufacturers design different products for different users by dividing user groups. For example, manufacturers have launched game books and mobile workstations for heavy users. The latter is mainly aimed at senior R&D personnel, engineers, designers, and other people with high data processing needs. Prepared, whether it is tens of thousands of prices, special audiences, and product design perspectives, mobile workstations are not considered by ordinary users. Thin and light notebooks, business notebooks, and even two-in-one products for light users.

Clarify specific requirements

When we have a clear user division for ourselves, the next thing to consider is what specific requirements we have for the computer, such as the appearance of the computer, portability (weight), battery life, screen size, etc. And a series of basic questions, there is a crucial question – price.

Are you going to buy 3000+, 4000+, 5000+, or ​​6000+, etc? The current game book starts at 5000, and the first-tier manufacturers start at 6000 because the game book has a high configuration, high cost, and naturally high price.

Today’s notebooks have generally become thinner and lighter, and basically, they no longer carry a CD-ROM slot (optical drive). The price of notebooks depends not only on the level of configuration but also on appearance and workmanship. For example, in two notebooks with the same configuration, if A The model has a plastic body with an ordinary appearance, while the model B is a metal body with a beautiful appearance and unique style. Then it is normal for B to be more expensive than A. After all, a good-looking appearance will bring high costs.

Specific configuration

Now that you know what you want to do and what you need, the next step is to look at the configuration. This step is the most critical part.

The specific parameter configuration mainly looks at the following points:

CPU

Referred to as the processor, the top priority of the computer, the performance of the CPU directly determines the performance of the computer, there are two ordinary mainstream computer processors, Intel and AMD. In the past few years, AMD has been rubbed against the ground by Intel. After Intel squeezed toothpaste for a few years, AMD has re-emerged. Now some notebook models use AMD’s mobile processors, but Intel is still the mainstream.

There are two types of processors: desktop-level and mobile-level. The desktop level is used in desktop computers. It has high performance but also consumes a lot of power and generates heat. Generally, it is not suitable for notebooks. Therefore, notebooks use mobile-level processors. Here we mainly Say Intel.

Intel products are roughly divided into three series: Celeron, Pentium, and Core. The first two are low-end, and the latter are high-end. For notebooks, a computer needs to be used for a longer time. Core Duo starts. There are many two or three thousand notebooks on the market, all of which use low-end Intel and AMD processors. Don’t consider this. Core processors are commonly i3, i5, i7, and local tyrant CPU i9 generally do not need to be considered, and the processor performance increases gradually with the size of the number. The current Intel Core has reached the 10th generation.

Regarding the naming conventions for Intel processors:

Here is an analysis of the model (name) of the processor. The first digit after Core i3/i5/i7/i9 represents the algebra such as Core i7-8700K represents the eighth generation, and the last three digits are the Intel SKU model division, the larger the number, the higher the level, the higher the frequency, and the stronger the theoretical performance. For example, the Core i5-8600 defaults to 3.1GHz, and the turbo frequency is 4.3GHz. Compared with the Core i5-8500, the default is 3.0GHz, and the turbo frequency is 4.1GHz. In addition, mobile-level processors are often followed by letter codes, usually H and U,

H: It is generally a mobile processor suffix, which belongs to a high-performance processor, but it is not the same as a desktop-level processor of the same generation, and it also means a processor that is directly welded to the motherboard.

U: Low-voltage mobile processor. Compared with H, the power consumption is low, and the performance is also limited.

Because of the pursuit of performance, game books use the standard version of Core i5 or i7 mobile version, that is, the CPU model has the suffix of H or HQ (such as i7 8750H), and other machines such as thin and light notebooks mostly use low-voltage version CPU, that is, the model With a U suffix (such as i7 8550U), the standard voltage is stronger than the low-voltage version, but it consumes more power and generates more heat (from the power, it can be seen that the power of the i7 8550U is only 15W, while the power of the i7 8750H is not. has 45W). The latest Intel mobile processors today are the 10th generation low voltage U (ending in u) and the 9th generation standard voltage U (ending in H).

If you don’t understand the above, it’s okay, just underline the key points.

Just look at the processor model. Since the processor sources of the major manufacturers are the same, the specific CPU parameters are not what we need to care about, because as long as the CPUs of the same model are the same, we only need to see which notebook is used. processor model,

Buy the new one instead of the old one. If you want to buy it, buy the latest generation. If you have enough money, you can directly buy an i7. If you want to save money, it is recommended to go for an i5. After all, a laptop with better performance can accompany us for many more years, and it can also improve our experience when using it in ordinary times.

Looking at the ladder diagram, this is the easiest way to judge the performance of the CPU.

Use the laptop on the right, and use the desktop on the left (right click, “open image in a new tab” to view the original image)

graphics card

Graphics cards are mainly considered by game users. General office use does not have high requirements for graphics cards. Here we mainly explain the graphics cards of game books. There are also two graphics cards: Nvidia and AMD. Yes, you read that right and it is AMD, but game notebooks generally use Nvidia’s game graphics cards, and rarely use AMD’s cards.

At present, game notebooks generally start with GTX1650, and some notebooks also use the previous generation graphics card GTX1050. The computer I just bought is a 1050 graphics card. Why do I use 1050? Because it is not mainly used to play games, and it is cheap. 5999 on the i7 9750h, isn’t he fragrant? After all, I mainly need a good CPU to meet my daily video clipping use, the game occasionally plays, and I have 3D dizziness, and I don’t play chicken, so 1050 is very suitable.

The current mainstream is the following graphics cards: 1650 1660ti 2060 2070 2080 and so on.

The specific performance can be seen in the ladder diagram, which is easy to understand. If you want to know the performance of the graphics card in detail, it is recommended to search for other professional evaluation videos by yourself. I will not elaborate too much here.

Right-click, “Open Image in New Tab” to view the original image

Hard Disk and Memory

The speed of the mechanical hard disk is much slower than that of the solid-state hard disk. It mainly depends on the information about the hard disk and memory in the main parameters of the computer.

In the past, most computers were still a combination of mechanical and solid-state, or a pure mechanical hard drive, which was slower than the pure solid-state version. However, because the price of solid-state drives has dropped significantly, computer manufacturers have changed to the standard 500G. Even 1T M.2 interface solid state drives, and even some will reserve a SATA3 interface hard drive position for future expansion.

The new machines are equipped with 8G memory as standard and generally have two memory slots. You can expand the machine memory in the future. Light users have enough 8G memory. For heavy users, if the computer is used to play games because the new version of Win10 eats up memory, Direct 16G is recommended. If it is used to play and cut video for post-production, it is fine to simply engage in PR or simple PS, and 16G can be used smoothly. If it is to be used for post-production, take AE as an example, the memory is full, the larger the memory, the better, and the starting memory of AE is 32G.

Screen

Generally divided into TN screens and IPS screens, the difference between the two is mainly in the viewing angle. The viewing angle of the ordinary TN screen is small and the viewing angle of the IPS screen is large. But now I can rest assured that the current notebook computers have basically adopted IPS screens, and no TN screens are used, so there is no need to worry about the viewing angle.

Another problem is the color gamut problem, which generally includes 45 color gamut and 72 color gamut. The high color gamut screen written in the commercial advertisement means that the equipped screen is a 72 color gamut. To put it simply, the 72-color gamut is richer than the 45-color gamut, but as long as it is not mainly used for post-processing and retouching, as far as normal use is concerned, the 72 and 45-color gamut screens are not put together for comparison. Invisible.

The last common problem is exclusive to game books: e-sports screen, generally speaking, an e-sports screen refers to an IPS screen with a refresh rate of 120Hz or more and a 72-color gamut, mainly focusing on the high refresh rate of the screen, which makes the game The picture is smooth. And only the high color gamut screen is written, which is 72% color gamut, then the refresh rate is 60Hz. Of course, the price of the same model of notebook equipped with a gaming screen is higher than that of a model with an ordinary high-color gamut screen.

heat dissipation

The heat dissipation problem is mainly considered by the game book, and ordinary notebooks use low-voltage processors, and the graphics card is almost low-end entry-level, the heat production of the whole machine is not as huge as in the game book. This is why the internal heat dissipation structure of ordinary thin and light notebooks generally only adopts the design of a single fan or a single copper tube because this can maximize cost savings under the normal use intensity to achieve the expected heat dissipation effect. Therefore, for non-game users, heat dissipation does not need to be too much concern, and it can even be ignored.

For gaming laptop users, the heat dissipation problem is the most important thing to consider. For game laptops with unreasonable or poor heat dissipation design, there is a high probability that the machine will drop the frequency because this is the machine’s self-protection mechanism. This is because The heat dissipation of the machine is not enough, and the temperature of core components such as CPU and GPU is too high. It may be common for a machine with poor heat dissipation to reach 100 degrees in summer. In addition, long-term high temperatures will accelerate the aging of the machine or even burn the motherboard, causing the machine to be scrapped. It can be seen that heat dissipation is very important. The evaluation of the heat dissipation of specific game notebooks is too complicated, and it is not convenient to discuss here. It is recommended to go to the director’s house to have a look. Search at station B: Zhongzheng Evaluation. There are many videos evaluating new computers, which are very detailed.

A very important point about heat dissipation is to check whether the south bridge chip area of ​​the motherboard is covered with a heat dissipation module. There is a high probability that heat dissipation without coverage is not enough.

Machine brand

Regarding the selection of notebook brands, the current first-tier manufacturers include Lenovo, Dell, Asus, and HP. It is recommended to choose from first-tier brands. First of all, the after-sales service is good, there are many service outlets, and the after-sales service is more convenient. In addition, the internal materials of the machine are good, the workmanship is excellent, and the quality appears The chance of a problem is small. Non-first-tier brands like Shenzhou are very cost-effective, and the price of the same configuration is a thousand yuan or lower than first-tier brands. There are only benefits.

Here I will analyze it from an economic point of view. The original intention of enterprises to produce goods is to make profits, not to do charity. In the case that the prices of main accessories are not much different among computer manufacturers, even the second-, third- and fourth-tier brands have less purchase volume. The reason is that the price of getting goods from chip manufacturers may be higher than that of first-tier manufacturers.

Assuming that everyone’s purchase price is the same, and the profit margins between manufacturers in the computer industry are the same, then to achieve high-cost performance, we can only reduce the configuration to invisible, internal materials, product design, after-sales service, etc. The standard will be lowered in other aspects, so the probability of quality problems of these brands of machines will be much greater than that of first-line brand products. These brands are very unfriendly to users who don’t like tossing and novice users, but after all, I bought a computer for use, not for repairing it every day, right?

The above is the entire content of this issue. It is aimed at clarifying the ideas for the novice who has no clue at all, and understands what parameters need to be seen, and the performance is not very good. There are many deficiencies, deficiencies, and even possible errors in the content. If you find any Hope to correct.