Another question:

If a system says, for example:

Intel Pentium Dual CPU @ 1.73 GHz 1.73GHz (has the # twice)

What exactly does that 1.73 giga gertz mean? Is it equivalent to a hard drive of 173 GB (gigabytes) total? I don't undestand that part.

Or does that mean that the dual hard drive is partitioned so each one is 1.73 Ghz?

And is this size more than adequate for the things I'll use it for as briefed in original post?

Thanks.

Your second question deals with the processor and its speed and had nothing to do with the size of the hard drive. Hard drive space is measured in gigabytes (usually) and is different from this question.

As to your original question, it is hard to suggest a hard drive size without knowing the kinds of information you will be storing. I'd suggest getting the largest hard drive you can afford if you intend to use the machine in a business for 5-6 years.

As for RAM, unless you are using a 64bit processor, which is unlikely, 3 gigabytes will be about all your laptop can make use of, and that should give you a fast machine. The CPU you ask about in your second question is most likely a 32 bit processor, so the 3gigs of RAM should be plenty.

I'm sure others, more knowledgable than I will add information to this.

Thanks for setting me straight with my questions. I'm still learning all this computer stat stuff.

In regard to your comment, the laptop I'm looking at has a 32-bit operating system with 3GB of Ram. And looking further, I see the hard drive is 320. Is that a good size one?

The kind of info that will be stored is invoices & proposals (Excel), customer data sheets (MS Works), letters (Word), Accounting in Quickbooks, pictures relating to my business, and family photo stuff, music, Photoshop. I do all my marketing materials so brochures, postcards, newsletters, etc. will be a large part of it which all have colored pictures. Norton's AV is on there too.

Moving on, is the 1.73 GHz prosessor a good one (enough speed)?? The computer runs Vista.

3 GB ram is good for the 32 bit system, a 320 GB hard drive is very large so should do you for a while.

the processor is dual core it sounds like from your info which is good it means it can do more at one time and do it faster so that is good too.

Sounds like a good choice.

What you could consider is getting a stand alone external USB hard drive that you can store some of your files on that you do not need access to all the time, that way your hard drive in your actual laptop is less cluttered and it frees up space on it. Anytime you need the files simply plug in that external usb hard drive and you have all your files availabe, you can move them back and forth from the pc to the usb drive and from the usb drive to the pc as you need it. Plus you can use that usb drive to keep a back up of your important files and work.

I personally have a Seagate freeagent pro 500 GB usb hard drive which works great for those purposes plus it comes with software built in that when connected to my pc will automatically back up any of the files and folders I have told it to back up.

Thanks raven. Much appreciated. I already have an external HD that I use in conjunction with my desktop so it will serve as a backup unit for the laptop as well.

One question, what's the difference from a 32 bit processor to a 64 bit? Just curious.

this might help you

Here is a link that might be useful: 32 vs 64

This explains 64 bit vs 32bit system. It has to do with the operating sytem ie. Vista

Here is a link that might be useful: 32 vs 64bit system

Very helpful. Thanks.