Laptop Essentials! Five Basic Accessories to Think About

By: Garry Allen

Everybody, it looks like, has a laptop today, and if you don't
have one, you most likely are thinking of buying one. As if it's
not difficult enough to choose from the many types and brands of
laptops out there, you are also confronted with the many
accessories that are available for one to. Of the overwhelmingly
large amount of accessories out there, it can be certainly
overwhelming to figure out what you really need for your laptop. Clearly, it is completely dependant
upon your needs and plans with your computer, but there are five
essentials you may want to consider to start with first.

Laptop Essential 1: If you are planning to use your laptop at
home with any kind of regularity, you will want to consider
getting an external keyboard and pointing device (mouse). Why?
Well, believe me, if you have ever tried typing on a laptop for
any more than an hour, then without a doubt you know that your
neck, shoulders, and wrists can start to feel wiped out, to say
the least. Well, the solution is to buy an external keyboard,
which you can plug into the back of your laptop, as well as a
mouse. And if you use your laptop in the office you can raise
the screen up with books or risers of some sort to make looking
at the screen a little more ergonomic. Of course you can also
purchase accessory swivel stands for your laptop as well if you
want them.

Laptop Essential 2: When you're home you will most likely want to
connect other peripheral devices to your laptop, like a printer,
maybe a DVD player, or even a CD burner. This can create a lot
of clutter with all the wires you need to plug in and unplug if
you want to take your laptop out of the house or move room to
room or even take it to the office. So to resolve this problem,
you will absolutely love a docking station.

Now a docking station basically turns your laptop into a desktop
computer when you're home and when you're ready to take it away,
you simply slip it out of the station and off you go.

Another alternative along the same lines is a port replicator,
which has computer ports. You connect your external devices to
the replicator and then to your laptop. When you want to move
your laptop, you simply detach the one port replicator, rather
than each external device.

Laptop Essential 3: Now this isn't as exciting as some of the
other accessories, but I assure you, you will be thankful you
have it, and that is an external hard drive. It's certainly not
going to make your day, and it certainly won't throw any
excitement in your life, but the morning you wake up and your
laptop won't start will be the day you are overjoyed that you
decided to get that external hard drive.

Here's a little tip to go along with your new external hard
drive: never pack your backup drive and your laptop in the same
case when going on a trip, keep them separated. If you happen to
lose your bag with both the backup drive and the laptop in it,
you're going to have a really bad day!

Laptop Essential 4: This little device will allow you to hook up
everything you need. So make sure you go out and get yourself an
external USB hub. Desktop computers sometimes come with several
USB ports, some with as many as 8 or 9. But, laptops since they
are smaller, often only have a couple of USB ports. USB hubs
will usually have four or more ports that will connect through
one of your laptop's USB port making them very easy to use to
hook up multiple USB devices.

Laptop Essential 5: You need to think about the worst thing that
can happen with your laptop. Now you probably bought your laptop
so you can work out of the office, or your home, or wherever you
need to, right? Well, since you will be out and about, you will
definitely want to think about insurance for your laptop. The
manufacturer's warranty usually doesn't cover anything beyond
parts, and an extended warranty will certainly not cover theft,
though it may cover you for breakage or fire.

Finally, there are literally thousands of different accessories
available for your computer. Of course some you might need and
others you won't. It really depends on what your plans are for
your laptop as well as where you plan on using it. Nevertheless,
these five things are indispensable to making your laptop as
functional to you as possible. While there may be some variation
to what you need, most of these items will be valuable to anyone
who owns a laptop, no matter how you expect to use your portable
computer.

About the author:
Garry Allen is a successful Webmaster and publisher of Best-Rated-Laptops-and-Computers.info.
Providing you with more information on computer technology and
answering the question what's the best rated
laptop that you