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Small laptop with 2gb

  • 05-01-2008 6:22pm
    #1
    TheNibbler
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 271 ✭✭


    Have pretty limited knowledge of computers but am looking to get a laptop in the next few weeks. I mainly need it for college, specifically for a project I am doing at the moment. I am studying Psychology and this project involves the use of a computer programme which measures people's reaction times (ie they are shown a stimulus and have to press a key on the computer as quickly as possible depending on the nature of the stimulus).

    My supervisor mentioned in passing that laptops are generally unreliable at measuring the speed of reaction accurately. However, a friend of mine says I should be fine if I have 2gb ram and a 2ghz processor (roughly). That means pretty much nothing to me so just wanted to check if that makes sense at all?!

    Don't want to spend too much (800-900) but also want it to be as small as possible. Understand that a small laptop with a large amount of memory is going to be expensive so I guess I'm looking for a laptop that is an optimum balance between those three criteria!

    Any recommendations would be a great help.


Comments

  • #2
    BostonB
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,056 ✭✭✭✭BostonB


    TheNibbler wrote: »
    ...
    My supervisor mentioned in passing that laptops are generally unreliable at measuring the speed of reaction accurately. However, a friend of mine says I should be fine if I have 2gb ram and a 2ghz processor (roughly). That means pretty much nothing to me so just wanted to check if that makes sense at all?!...

    I can't see why a laptop would be any difference from a desktop. Or why a better specification would make a difference to measuring the speed of reaction. You'd be better looking stripping XP down to its minimum services and size, perhaps loading it all into a flash or even ram drive. I'm sure if you did some searching on the web, for other projects, work that requires speed of reaction accuracy you'd find out how others do it.

    You can pick up a 2GB, 14" or 12" for 500~800 depending on spec. I've seen cheapo Advents 12" in PC World, and the Dell Vostro 1400 is cheap enough. I've done much looking though.


  • #3
    Ghost Train
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 30,477 ✭✭✭✭Ghost Train


    any pc/laptop from the last five(probably even 10) should be able to take measurement to thousands of a second.

    if you're using some particular software or input hardware, then that might be a factor in getting a fast machine


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