What size hard drive should I get for my laptop?

Hi!

In the long run, it really depends on your personal taste.

However, you'll find that 20 GB is too small of a hard drive for today's standards. Moreover, I don't think that vendors even sell laptops with a 20 GB hard drive, anymore.

Luckily though, since the rise of RAM data storage(aka USB pen drives) and external hard drives, the cost of hard drives have plummeted the last few years.

A good standard would be between 120 - 200 gb, if you're just gonna use it for schoolwork. Standard laptop models usually vary in those capacities. 120 GB would be more than sufficient.

As for RAM, most "end-user" laptops are sold with Vista nowadays. To have it working comfortably with Vista, I'd heavily suggest 2 GB of RAM. Even though Vista recommends 1GB. Even better would be to consult the nearest geek in your neighborhood and ask him/her to install XP. XP runs like a train on a 2GB RAM computer. A short notice, here though, some vendors do not want you to install anything else but Vista, so you might breach your warranty, double-check this!

Do keep in mind, though, that a laptop holds little to no upgrading options. Basically, this means that with a desktop, you could upgrade your hardware quite easily with new hardware. Laptops have most of their internal hardware embedded into their motherboards. So keep in mind that if you're going to invest in a laptop, it'll have to last for the next few years.

This means that with an expensive laptop, you're mostly paying for longevity.

Another thing that I find important, is the size of your screen! The bigger, the more hardware can be crammed into the laptop, but, the more expensive it'll get! The smaller the screen, the lighter and more "mobile" it'll be. I personally prefer 15" or 17" laptops.

To sum it up:

Hard Drive:

120 - 200 GB

RAM:

2GB

Graphics card (standard use):

128-256MB shard memory

Graphics card (games, graphical applications):

128-256 mb DEDICATED memory

Processor:

Depends, really, if it's for schoolwork, it doesn't matter all that much. A dual-core would be nice. Don't go for quad-cores yet.

Wireless network cards, Local network cards, card-readers(for your digital camera, integrated web-cams, ) and so on are standard features nowadays. Another thing to keep in mind is the amount of USB ports. These ports are the standard ports you use to connect devices to your laptop, typically printers, mice, web cams, etc... The more you have, the less you have to switch cables.

Should provide you with enough advice. If not, ask away via mail. Happy shopping!

The larger the better (250 to 500 GB) or use a external hard drive to keep the lap tops hard drive space used to a minimum.

20 GB is so small dear .... i have a 160 GB hard disk which i hope is the average size .... how ever you could go for 120GB ....

if you are planning to use vista better go for 4GB RAM ... also make sure that your laptop has atleast 512 MB graphic card

HP computers are my choice

not really with 20gb you'd lose almost 50% of that in operating system and applications, page file etc, so around 80gb would be much more realistic for your needs

no one makes 20gb hard drives anymore.

80-120gb will suit you fine. and at least 2gb of ram.

where ever you buy your computer from DO NOT BUY GATEWAY!!!!!!!

also invest in a flash drive for backing up papers or pictures.

Latest models of laptops provide around 80GB HDD size. 80GB is good size. in memory 1GB is enough but if you plan to install the VISTA operating system, I suggest to upgrade it to 2GB.

Buy

Of atleast 80 GB Or more (now a days people buy 250GB) harddisk.

2GB RAM