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Description of Portable PC Terms
Case
This can be the single biggest problem with a laptop. Sure,
it runs great, but if it hurts your hands to use it, you’ll
probably be very unhappy. If possible, try out any proposed
purchase first, or at least a very similar setup. Most
people are uncomfortable with keyboards that have the space
bar too close to the front of the case. See Pointing Device.
Hard Drive
Also known as storage. This is where the computer puts
programs and information for permanent storage. Always buy
as much as possible. The trend in software has been toward
larger and larger application suites, so a good rule of
thumb would be to think of the largest amount of storage you
will need, then double that.
CD-ROM Drive
This is necessary for loading many new software titles, and
can usually be used as an audio CD player as well. The x
rating (e.g. 12x) is a measure of how fast the CD spins
compared to an audio CD player. New CD-ROM drives are
starting to use constant angular velocity mechanisms (audio
and older computer mechanisms are constant linear velocity).
Therefore the data can be read faster at the edges of the
disk as compared to the inner tracks. These newer drives
will give either give a speed rating at the inner and outer
tracks (e.g. 12-24x) or will give the outer track speed only
(e.g. 20x Max). However, there is no standards body for
CD-ROM drive naming, and several manufacturers add a few to
the x rating. Access time and transfer rate are the most
important aspects of CD-ROM drive. Lower is better for
access time, higher is better for transfer rate.
DVD-ROM and DVD-RAM are new technologies in removable
storage. All DVD drives can read CD-ROM disks, so you can
get one of these instead of a CD-ROM. DVD drives are more
expensive than their CD-ROM counterparts, but a DVD-ROM disk
can hold the equivalent about 12 CD-ROMs (6 per side). This
is enough storage to hold a full-length movie. Current
DVD-RAM disks have slightly less capacity (about 8 CD-ROMs)
and the DVD-RAM drives are quite expensive, but you can use
them as a convenient backup device as well.
Floppy Drive
3.5" 1.44MB is standard. Floppy disks are used for backups,
transfers between computers, and software distribution. They
should never be used as primary storage as they have failure
rates hundreds of times higher than hard drives.
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