The typical computer user’s ideal laptop would fall into one of the two most popular categories – ultraportable or mainstream. Ultraportables are pretty and trim, generally weigh less than 4 pounds, and can be carried almost anywhere. Mainstream laptops deliver a good balance of portability and power. Between the different manufacturers, models, and sub-models, consumers are faced with a variety of laptops to choose from, varying greatly in price, features, design, and performance.

Performance, dictated by the quality and power of the components, was once the major factor in choosing a mainstream laptop. For ultraportables, performance was not a selling point, because the small sizes did not permit parts that ran faster. Today performance is less of an issue, so most laptops of either type don’t need to be pushed to their limits. Although the gigahertz rating and the amount of RAM included in a laptop are still important purchasing factors, other elements like looks, multimedia features, and cheaper prices are more significant than ever to consumers. Here we’ll look at some of the hottest ultraportable and mainstream laptops on the market, and show how they are selling more than just power and speed.

Not too long ago, laptops were considered underpowered, poor relations of desktop computers. Yea, they were a great portable solution to moving your work around with you, but nobody expected them to be powerhouses. Usually, buyers found themselves paying a premium of $2000 or more for mediocre components, limited features, and so-so battery life. As far as styling went, you could forget pretty. Most laptops came in black, or black, like the old Model T Fords.

Times have changed! Now, laptops have become the primary computer for many people (I am writing this article on my laptop which is my work computer), and buyers demand more. The market has responded, and manufacturers are now offering laptops with a wide range of features for under $1000. If the laptop is selling for over $1500, it had better have a high-definition optical drive. Mainstream systems are packed with cool and powerful components but now rarely weigh over 6 pounds, while the ultraportable laptop field is bubbling with innovative features, from hyper-thin optical drives and LED backlit screens, to super small hard drives. Design-wise, laptop manufacturers are pulling out all the stops, with curving chassis, innovative alloy frames, and a plethora of color choices.

Mainstream laptops offer the best blend of features and portability. They used to be 14 inch screen models with limited resolution, but now offer high resolution screens in a variety of formats and sizes. Using smaller components and 13.3 inch widescreens is making the units lighter,, and even 15.4 inch widescreens can be used without going over the 6 pound level. Resolutions are now being advertised as “HD ready,” where the most generic resolution meets the 720p criteria.

Almost all mainstream laptops now offer built-in web cams. When is comes to still pictures, webcams give poor resolution compared with most digital cameras, but that doesn’t really matter because they are most useful for videoconferencing. Some units are even offering fingerprint readers for personalized security. And today’s mainstream laptops can utilize a single hard drive that can hold up to 320GB of data.

Whichever you decide on, a sleek ultraportable like the new Apple MacBook Air, or a mainstream laptop like the HP Pavilion dv6500t, make sure to get the maximum amount of RAM, either from the factory, or aftermarket from a reputable seller, and you will be happy with your purchase for a long time.

A customer emailed me last night asking about the Acer Aspire 5610z notebook. Our website shows memory upgrades available for this computer up to 4gb installed as 2×2gb. My customer asked if this was actually possible as she had seen several forums of people discussing an issue with the 5610z and installing 2×2gb modules. People are having POST freezes or errors with 4gb installed, however they are having successful POSTs with 1×2gb installed. Hmmm. This looks like a BIOS issue to me. the 2gb parts will work individually, but together,the BIOS is having trouble. I’m hoping that Acer will release a BIOS update that will resolve this conflict so that this machine can actually operate with 4gb installed as the manual states! Here’s a link to the memory upgrades for the Acer Aspire 5610z Notebook at our store.

And a link to one of the forum threads discussing the issue

Here’s what I came across this morning. I was doing a search on the Acer Aspire 5610z and googled the model # and received a Google Error. Huh? That’s right it was a “403 Forbidden” error. Quick test shows the same results in IE and Firefox. Here’s what the page said:

We’re Sorry

… but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can’t process your request right now.

We’ll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.

If you’re continually receiving this error, you may be able to resolve the problem by deleting your Google cookie and revisiting Google. For browser-specific instructions, please consult your browser’s online support center.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we’ll see you again on Google.

Then it asks for you to key in some text so that it knows your not a robot. Apparently this is how Google responds to spam queries. After an initial freak out, and a quick google search on the error, all looks good. No more 403’s yet, but I’m keeping an eye on it.

BTW, the Acer Aspire 5610z search came up with some interesting results. . . .

It has been a buyer’s market for premium DDR2 memory lately. Your choices range from modestly over-clocking memory modules, which command only a slight premium over value memory, to cutting-edge modules with high heat spreaders that can hit clock speeds up to 533 MHz (DDR2-1066) and require voltages higher than 1.8 volts. Recently, we’ve seen DDR2 modules from Corsair rated to use as much as 2.3 volts.

What are the advantages of premium memory? High-end DRAM chips are bin-sorted, a term used by manufacturers to refer to sorting chips that can run at differing speeds into “speed bins” which hit higher frequencies and voltages. These chips can run at lower latency timing than standard DRAM. Finding exactly the right timing settings can be tough. It’s often a trial-and-error process that involves many test, reset, and reboot cycles.

Most standard or value-grade memory won’t run at the lower latency at which premium-grade memory runs. For DDR2, that currently means latencies lower than the standard 5-5-5-15 timings.

If DDR2-800 5-5-5-15 doesn’t make sense, then read on to learn how to decode it and why it should matter to you. But first let’s clarify how memory works.

Memory accesses don’t happen in one step. Memory is laid out on a chip in rows and columns, which require repeated pulses of electricity, referred to as “strobing,” to reach each location. When memory is accessed, each cycle of strobing takes a fixed amount of time, explained as follows:

tCL Column address strobe (CAS) latency; or the number of clock cycles required to access a specific column of data. (The t prefix refers to time.)

tRCD Row address strobe (RAS)-to-CAS delay; or the number of clock cycles needed between a row address strobe and a column address strobe.

tRP RAS pre-charge; or the number of clock cycles needed to close one row of memory and open another.

tRAS The number of clock cycles needed to access data in a specific row of RAM.

Now let’s break down the particular DRAM label above. 800 is the effective clock speed in megahertz. That’s the actual clock speed multiplied times data per clock cycle (200 MHz [for DDR2-800] X 4 [4 samples for DDR2 per clock cycle]). DDR2-800 has a maximum bandwidth of 6.4 GBps. “5-5-5-15” is referring to a tCL of 5, tRCD of 5, tRP of 5, and tRAS of 15.

Because latency is measured in clock cycles, the smaller the numbers, the faster it is. Therefore less time is required for memory accesses. The time is measured in nano seconds, with a typical system making millions of memory accesses every second. Latency and memory speed trade off with each other. For example, the same DDR2-667 memory module can run at 333 MHz with latencies of 5-5-5-15, or at DDR2-533 speed at 266 MHz with latencies of 4-4-4-11. Since higher clock frequencies represent smaller time intervals, the total time is basically the same for both these speed settings.

The serious over-clockers out there will want to push their memory speeds up to 1,100 MHz or more. Over-clockers also need to run their memory at higher voltages, so it’s important to have a good motherboard with a beefy voltage regulator, and a BIOS setup that lets you tweak your memory settings. For an example of a motherboard that allows very high memory clockings, look up the eVGA nForce 650i Ultra motherboard.

What you get with premium memory is the ability to run at higher clock speeds and lower latencies. If your applications are sensitive to memory performance, premium memory can pay off. Games, 3G rendering, and media trans-coding are all sensitive to memory latency. A typical users’ regular web browsing, office applications, and streaming media typically are less sensitive and will work just fine using standard RAM memory.

I’ve spent some time making some lenses on Squidoo for our products. This is basically just a way to get the word out on other markets about our computer memory products. After making a new of these lenses, I found that there was no good Lens Group to add them to, so I had to start my own group (sigh). So now I find myself the manager of a Lens group. If you have a lens that you’d like to add to this group, you can find it at:

Squidoo: Computer Parts Place

And here’s a list of the Lenses that I’ve created so far. More will be posted as I create them:

Dell Dimension 2400 - Computer Memory Upgrades

Dell XPS 710 - Computer Memory Upgrades

eMachines T5082 - Computer Memory Upgrades

Toshiba Satellite A135-S4427 - Computer Memory Upgrades

HP Pavilion A305W - Computer Memory Upgrades

Compaq Presario SR1803WM - Computer Memory Upgrades

Acer Aspire 3680 Notebook - Computer Memory Upgrades