Widest range of Laptops in South Africa

What is the difference between a notebook and a laptop?

There is no difference between a notebook and a laptop. These terms are interchangeable and they refer to the same thing - a laptop is a computer system that is portable, and is "small enough to use on a person's lap".

WikiPedia: " A laptop is a personal computer designed for mobile use and small and light enough to sit on a person's lap while in use. A laptop integrates most of the typical components of a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device (a touchpad, also known as a trackpad, and/or a pointing stick), speakers, and often including a battery, into a single small and light unit. The rechargeable battery (if present) is charged from an AC adapter and typically stores enough energy to run the laptop for three to five hours in its initial state, depending on the configuration and power management of the computer."

WikiPedia redirects "Notebook computers" to Laptops. Wikipedia has the following information about Notebooks "A laptop PC which measures at least 11 inches across, which is the minimum width to allow for a full-size keyboard (a keyboard with the minimum QWERTY key layout, which is at least 13-1/2 keys across that are on three-quarter (0.750) inch centers, plus some room on both ends for the case). The first Notebook PC's were the size of a standard U.S. "A size" notebook piece of paper (8-1/2 x 11 inches), but later "A4-size" Notebook PC's were introduced, which were the width of a standard European "A4" notebook piece of paper (297 mm, or about 11.7 inches wide), and added a vertical column of keys to the right and wider screens."

Laptop is the accepted term in South Africa, and it is used more often than notebook. "Google trends (2010) " confirms this trend worldwide*

* "Laptop/s" forms  86.5% of searches on our server, whereas "notebook/s" forms 13.5% of searches on our server.

What are NETbooks / mini notebooks / ultraportables?

Netbooks are very portable computers. Netbooks have limited features but are very well priced. Most netbooks do not include a CD or DVD drive. The netbook is much smaller than a laptop and the netbook is used as a network / internet computer. Netbooks complement, or augment, a user's main computer.

Which processor / CPU?
Purchase the best processor you can afford. Multi-core processors outperform single core processors. For gaming, speed is the main deciding factor. The faster the Processor and the more cores, the better the system will perform. Laptop processors are optomised to balance battery life and performance.

CENTRINO is not a processor. It is an Intel brand that refers to the Intel wireless technologies (Intel Wi-Fi and WiMAX adapters). Previously, the brand covered a particular combination of mainboard chipset, mobile CPU and wireless network interface in the design of a laptop. Centrino is therefore not a reference to the processor's performance in any way.

How much memory / RAM do I need?
The more memory your machine has, the better it will perform.

32 bit hardware has a limitation when it comes to memory. The maximum amount of usable memory is approximately 3 Gigabytes. You may add more memory, but the limit will always be approximately 3Gigabytes. There is no workaround as this is a hardware limitation.

To use more memory, a 64 bit processor and a 64 bit operating system is required.

The rule of thumb here is to add as much memory that you can afford (which the hardware allows) for the best system performance. Windows 7 64bit will perform better on 8GB of memory compared to 4GB of memory.

Which operating system do I select?

Linux is an open source operating system, making it the cheapest operating system. Linux is so versatile it can be used by beginners.

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