Drives

All laptops have a hard drive. Most laptops also have a built-in disk drive. Each of these is upgradeable, although some laptops are easier to upgrade than others.

Hard drives have increased in capacity over the years to the point where the minimum being offered these days is 30-40GB. That is more than enough for most users. If you plan to store videos, you may opt for an upgrade. Unlike the case with RAM, a hard drive upgrade is usually cheaper from the manufacturer as you configure your laptop. One thing to remember is that laptop hard drives have two speeds. The slow 5400rpm and the faster 7200rpm. A faster hard drive helps the overall performance of the laptop so its always a good investment. The difference is probably $20 or $30 so go for it.

For the disk drive, the minimum offering is usually either a DVD-ROM or a CDRW*. The next step up would be a combination of these two, and the upgrade only costs $20-$30. The next step up is a DVD burner, which can do everything. DVD burners are also known as DVD writers or DVD+/-RW.

Laptop DVD writers come in two speeds, 4X and 8X, which dictate how long it takes to fill a DVD with data. Most DVD burners are called single layer because they only write to one side of the DVD, and these can store 4.7GB on a single disk (the same amount of data in 6 CDs). Dual layer DVDs write to both sides and can record data up to 8.5GB.

Before buying a DVD burner, check the kind of disks it requires. Dual layer writers need dual layer empty discs. Moreover, some burners can write only on DVD-R (notice the minus sign), and DVDs made by these drives may not be compatible with older DVD players. Some DVD writers will use DVD+R (notice the plus sign) which tend to be more compatible. Luckily, most current DVD burners will write to both DVD+R and DVD-R, and that's why they are called DVD+/-RW. Even more luckily, most new DVD players can read everything.

There are two kinds of networking options, wired and wireless. Almost all laptops have an Ethernet port, which looks like the phone line plug but is a little wider. Using an Ethernet cable, you can plug the laptop into a router at home or in the wall at most workplaces, and you can access the internet. This is called wired networking.

Wireless networking is the hot fad, though. Laptops can either have built-in wireless, or have a card slot where you can plug in an optional wireless networking card. Go for the built-in option if you can, because the upgrade usually costs the same as a separate card would cost. More details about the different kinds/speeds of wireless internet are available in our Wireless Internet Primer.

Now here's the really weird thing. Intel is expanding into producing wireless products. As a marketing gimmick, a laptop that has an Intel processor AND an internal Intel wireless chip is called a Centrino. It seems like this was marketing genius because many people already think that Centrino laptops are magically better than others. That is simply not true.

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are other networking options. Bluetooth is not very popular and honestly not worth the upgrade. Wi-Fi is wireless networking but uses cards from cell-phone companies. You buy a Wi-Fi card from Verizon or Sprint and join a monthly plan allowing you to use the internet anywhere there is service (just like a cellphone). This is popular for businesspeople. You don't need a special upgrade to have Wi-Fi. All laptops have a card slot that you can stick the Wi-Fi card into.