Computer Components

Pcmcia Notebook

Notebook as a Tool of Time Management

Notebooks have emerged as a bare essential for the business executives who carry their work along with themselves. Notebooks which are also known as laptops can facilitate the work process thereby saving substantial and valuable time. In short, it is used as tool of time management.

Owning a notebook is a dream of many, but since it is very expensive nobody buys it unless it is indispensable to them. However, some people having shoe-string budget look for a good notebook. They are the ones who need detailed and comprehensive information on notebooks and laptops before they settle for one.

Basically, buying a notebook or laptop largely depends upon the personal choice, specific requirement and social status of a person. Besides, different manufacturers are introducing notebooks of different look with a wide-range of features. However, some notebooks are launched in the market to cater to a particular segment of buyers keeping in mind of their specific needs. Accordingly, these laptops differ in flavor, class and quality.

Let`s take a look at the various types of notebooks that are available in the market today. Keeping various factors in consideration the notebooks can be broadly divided into four major categories, such as:

Budget laptops - Typically, these laptops cost around US$ 1000 to $ 1200.

Mid-range laptops - Notebooks of this category can be found with a price-tag of about US$1200 to $1600.

Ultra-portable laptops - These light-weight laptops ranges from US$1600 to $2200.

Laptops for the people with a class apart. With all the standard and advanced features in these notebooks, they cost above US$2200.

Performance test of laptops:

Notebooks can be tested on the basis of certain benchmarks such as Multimedia content creation 2003 and Business Winston 2002. These tests determine the performance ability of different notebooks with regard to regular productivity applications and multimedia content application.

Similarly, 3D Mark05 and 3D Mark06 are used as standards to measure the gaming and graphic potential of different notebooks.

Likewise, PC Mark05 is taken as a yardstick to test various components of notebooks such as hard-disk general usage, multithreading, web-page rendering, file decryption and 3D pixel shader.

Moreover, the battery back-up and wireless connectivity can be tested using Battery Mark02 and QCheck as the benchmark.

Finally, Vista Compatibility Check can be undertaken to test if the notebooks have Vista-readiness. Under this test, the performance of the laptops is assessed on the basis of Vista drivers and Vista upgradeability.

Features:

When it comes to features, the list seems endless. Some expensive notebooks have the most advanced features such as built-in webcams, fingerprint readers, TPM and so on. So far as the features go, they can be divided into five different categories, such as:

Physical - Screen size and weight of the notebook

Connectivity - Bluetooth version 1/2, infrared, MMC reader, S-Video, DVI port, FireWire. The number and type of USB ports and PCMCIA slots.

Components - Type of optical drives, whether the notebook has a DVD combo, a CD-RW or a multi-recorder DVD-RW. The hard-drive capacity and any additional component such as wireless optical mouse or an MMC adapter.

Software - Software have always been an essential part of the package. These include recovery CDs, driver CDs, OSes, etc.

Protection - All types of protection available in a notebook, be it a finger-print reader, BIOS level HDD protection, touch-pad lock, TPM, or even rescue option available at the time of boot up.

Pricing and Warranty:

All notebooks ranging from $1200 to $4500 offer warranty of 1 year and some laptops have the option of additional extendable warranty.

So, the above discussed comprehensive analysis and performance tests will definitely help those who are planning to buy a laptop.

This article is under GNU FDL license and can be distributed without any previous authorization from the author. However the author's name and all the URLs (links) mentioned in the article and biography must be kept.

About the Author

This article can also be accessed in portuguese language from the Article section of page www.polomercantil.com.br/notebook.php
Roberto Sedycias works as IT consultant for www.PoloMercantil.com.br

Can I use wireless card in notebook that already has integrated wireless?

Notebook is having intermittent problems connecting to network and I want to use pcmcia card to see if the integrated wireless is at fault,

That shouldn't be a problem. However what you need to do is go into your system BIOS and disable the on board card.

To do this you need to look at your system's screen when you first turn it on and before it starts Windows. Watch for a message that says "Press "X" to enter Setup Utility" . Where I just typed the "X" varies from machine to machine. Sometimes it's the F2 key or the F1 key or it could even be the Delete key. Whatever it is press that key and you will be brought to the setup screen. You will need to browse around to find the section where you configure the "on-board devices". Once you find it follow the instructions for disabling the on-board wireless network card. Make sure that you save your changes when you exit the utility and when you do so your system will reboot. When you boot into windows this time the wireless card won't be there.

A word to the wise however. When you are messing around in the BIOS utility make note of anything that you change in case you need to change it back. Disabling the network card won't be an issue but if you make changes somewhere else you could potentially make your system unbootable. I'm not trying to scare you but If you make a mistake and hit the wrong key or something and don't know what you changed or how to change it back, simply exit the utility without saving your changes. You can then start over.

Good luck
Captain Computer

HP MoGo PCMCIA Mouse