Recommend Must-Have Accesories

Hi, I'm a new member here :hi2: and I am completely new to notebook computers.

What accessories/external peripherals do you think that all notebooks must have (opinion thread)? Please recommend me ( more users suggestions are welcome).

Must Have

• wireless mouse,
• external hdd with case, flash drive
• dac, amp, headphones, mic
• screen cleaning cloth (Microfiber), dust cleaning (canned air)
• laptop backpack

Recommended (if you don't care about portability)

• gaming mouse (wired)
• mechanical keyboard
• cooling pad, tim

Wat Dis?

• Boot CD?? <== Anyone tell me what this is for?

note: a bit off topic on page 7 (continues on page 10)

 

Here is what I personally pack:

Mouse for gaming, when I need more precision or when I'm stuck using someone's laptop that has an awful trackpad (it just happened today).
Flash drive, it's great to transfer data between computers, etc.
Microfiber cloth, great for keeping the display free of dust (also great for glasses if you are wearing some).
External hard drive, for backup, that one is optional imo though.

Other totally non essential stuff I carry:
Audio DAC and a pair of good headphones.
Bootable flash drive with parted magic
Flash drive with the programs and drivers I use often (yes my friends ask me to fix their stuff so having those handy is pretty useful for me).

 

@tijo
Well I have a external hdd, microfiber cloth, 2 usb flash drives.
But what is audio DAC and may you recommend me good earphones (maybe a link to buyer guide or review or you can make one yourself )?

 

A DAC is a digital to analog converter. It is basically an external soundcard, I use mine (FiiO E7) with a pair of Sennheiser HD25-1 II. A DAC is great if you have a crappy soundcard that you need to bypass, that was why I originally got mine, my current laptop is more than capable of delivering good sound, but I still carry the DAC since I like it the way it sounds with my HD25 better than my laptop's soundcard. You can check head-fi for headphone guides, but you'd better decide on your budget first.

 

I ll check head-fi soon. Well I have SonicMaster Premium with MaxxAudio 3 not sure if that's good or not, do you know? About your gaming mouse can you refer to a place to recommend me some (just like for the headphone) unless you know a lot about that.

 

Most laptops available now have decent sound, I haven't come across with something truly terrible in a while. For the mouse, it's something that ideally you want to try before buying to see how it feels in your hand. One that is often appreciated is the Razer deathadder, the Logitech G500 is also a good one. The one I use is a Mionix Naos. You can look through the forum, there are a ton of threads about gaming mice, but the best advice I can give you, is get something that feels good to hold or you.

 

Well I'm not worry about the speaker now anymore:

But I'll have to find decent headphones though and which board have threads about gaming mouse?

 

All gaming mice and decent mice are good for gaming now. Best thing is to just go to a computer store or a Best Buy and just see which feels comfortable in your hands. That's the most important part, what feels comfortable. You only need 1500 DPI anyway for gaming, and nearly all mice have at least that or more.

As for headphones, just figure out what price range. Any headphone from Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, Beyerdynamic, and AKG will be great. Of course no one can tell you what to get, the only way is to figure out what your needs are and then go to a stereo/audio store and listen. Trust me, don't base what headphone to buy based on Head-Fi or what anyone says. Go to a shop, and LISTEN. Bring your portable MP3 player or phone with the music you like and listen. Most audio stores now will have headphone setup where you can listen for yourself. Also nearly any mobile electronic store will have headphones now too.

 

A couple of flashdrives to backup your important data periodically (organize your data on your computer so that the important stuff is located in a small sized folder and thus easy to backup.

Headphones.

 

@hulawafu77
Thanks I'll consider that then look for deals and discount for those after I finding one that is nice. But the thing is, there's many factors to consider about a product so that's why I ask. Also what do you think that all notebooks must have? (question from first post)

 

My essentials for notebooks is a mouse pad, external DAC/Amp, Headphones, a wireless mouse, good mic if you are using headphone and not a headset. I always buy thermal grease like ICD7 so I can reapply thermal grease for both CPU and GPU. Also I like having a few air cans to blow out the dust occasionally on my fans. I also have a soft micro cloth for cleaning my LCD.

 

My daily kit for my laptop is my XTrac Pads Fat Mat (mousepad)
My Razer Orochi (Wireless Mouse)
and KBC Poker X (Mechanical Keyboard w/ MX Red switches)

My full kit has
NuForce uDAC-2 (External AMP/DAC)
Wacom Graphire 4 (Input Tablet)
Logitech Triple-Fi 10 (IEMs)
PlayStation 3 Controller
A cheap external microphone
External 500GB HDD
Boot CD's
A few USB Thumb Drives
Screen Cleaning Cloth
Dust Cleaning Compound

 

For running around with my laptops, all I ever really use is the laptop's charger and some sort of bag to hold it all (either my backpack or laptop bag). That's all I use when on the go; however, if I didn't have a Thinkpad or other business laptop with a TrackPoint, I'd carry around the Logitech M515 that I have, or some other portable mouse I have laying around.

At home, I have a few items that I use with my desktop / laptops:

keyboard (Logitech K120)
mouse (Logitech G9x)
router (refurb. Cisco E1000)
couple of flashdrives and SDHC cards
HDD dock (Thermaltake ST0005U)
laser printer (HP LaserJet P1102w)
headphones (either Sennheiser HD 429 or Sony MDR-NC7)
graphics tablet (Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch)

 

For bassheads, perhaps a Digizoid 2.3 headphone subwoofer

 

Things I use (my usage is 95% general office productivity, 5% photo, video editing):

External mouse w/ mousepad
External hard drive (necessary with any computer IMO for backup purposes)
Headphones
Sleeve/bag to carry it all

 

I'd recommend a good old fashioned platter drive for back up as well as redundant flash memory. Since there are advantages/disadvantages to each, i like to keep all of my important photos, videos, docs, etc on both flash storage and HDD.

 

So does that mean headset are inferior to headphone in terms to listening quality; i wonder if there some sort of mod that attaches mic to the headphones. How long does thermal grease typically last?

Is that a type of mouse pad, where can i find more discussion about it? What are iems use for?

Not sure if some of them are accessories but may you tell me what's the purpose of hdd dock?

Plug to a dac/amp right?

May you be more specific such as the brand or model but you dont have to specify if you dont want to.

Do you mean an external HDD?

 

An HDD dock allows you to plug in a bare notebook or desktop hard drive into a computer like if it was like an old video game (think SNES and the like). Basically it's a great device for when you want to use a bare drive as an external drive, need to recover files off of someone's computer, all that jazz. It's already paid for itself and then some after using it a few times to recover some peoples' dead computers

Whether or not it's a "must-have" depends entirely on you. I would count the rest of the stuff I said as accessories to my computers since they're not stand-alone devices in the sense that I can't just magically have my printer print something without my computer telling it to do so. Router would be useless without something connecting to it, and flashdrives are just as valid to call an accessory as a backup hard drive.

 

Oops I remember I said external peripherals forget what I said. I think the hdd would be cooler on the dock than inside the notebook right? since the hdd is plug to the dock more processing is require (i think) so is the transfer speed (think its called read/write)slower?

 

Assuming that the room temperature is less than the temperature inside your notebook, then sure, the dock would be a cooler place. Your limit on read/write is only limited by the weakest link, which will be the connection between your computer and the dock. The HDD in the dock connects to a regular SATA port, but the dock connects to the computer via USB 2.0, USB 3.0, eSATA, or whatever it happens to use (mine uses eSATA or USB 2.0).

 

An HDD dock or a backup HDD drive (like the Seagate - which i own or Western Digitial)

I'd also recommend a notebook cooling pad. I have a large 17in rig, so I like the coolermaster U3.

 

The digizoid 2.3 headphone subwoofer *can* be plugged into an amp, but it doesnt *need* an amp - you can use it just by itslef on your laptop.

 

So there's no slow down if the processing is longer (computer => dock => hdd) if you use a link that is equal to your hdd correct?

I notice around nbr users would by u3 and then change the fan because the stock one sucks o.o. Should I get one I have 15.6in?

I guess I'll just use 2.3 headphone subwoofer plugged to the laptop

 

If the link has the same speed as internal SATA, sure. But no external connectors have matched that speed (maybe Thunderbolt will, but I haven't seen the data yet).

 

The coolermaster U2 is slightly smaller than the U3, so it depends on how you like to set yours up (whether or not you care if there is extra space). I read the same complaints about the fans myself, but personally I think they are fine.

For coolers in the 15inch size range, you have a lot more options. Zalman also makes some highly recommended coolers.

 

I found for very useful external peripheral the USB 3.0 to SATA Power cable. With this tool I can connect any time a 2.5" HDD to laptop and I do not need to buy fancy, thick and expensive external HDDs.

 

@Kuroi-Tsubasa; Atom Ant
I'll just use docks or cables for a hdd only to back up stuff but I have and 2 tb external hdd atm so that probably good for now

Well mine is 15.6 not sure if it will fit those cooler, do you think it would fall off?

 

It definetly wont fall off the larger models. Best thing to do is take a measuring tape and measure the dimensions of your laptop, then compare it to the dimensions of the the cooling pad. That is what I did to my find my U3

 

I assume you have a headphone which is good enough to play the low low frequencies

An inexpensive, but very good earphone for bassheads is the JVC HAFX3X earphone, goes for about $25 on ebay now, new. Very good reviews at head-fi.
I have the lower model JVC HAFX101, and I like it a lot, will get the HAFX3X

 

Looks nice, and it's small. How is it powered?

I take it that you have this Thermaltake unit and like it?

 

Yep, does the job well. When I was shopping for one, I had this or a Rosewill unit in mind; however, the Thermaltake had eSATA+USB2.0 whereas the Rosewill only had USB2.0 and the Thermaltake had a MIR to bring the price down to below that of the Rosewill unit at the time.

I don't use it that much anymore since I stuffed my spare laptop drives inside my desktop, so right now it's just sitting idle and unplugged. Did help me recover my files from my W520 when I bricked the Windows install on it a couple of weeks ago, however .

 

What if if I don't have good headphones (and earphones (if it works with that))?

 

I wouldn't put the cooling pad in the must haves..

 

Mechanical keyboard I think is a must have if you can touch type fairly well, not the razor / gaming brands, but brands like ducky and filco are much more solid.
They are way better than rubber dome. When people say there ain't going back once you start using mechanicals, I didn't believe it until I owned one myself.
My favorite switch is RED but I really love the blues as well.
The reason why I recommend an external keyboard is because the laptop keyboards generally will lose its "feel", some keys will require different pressure to register the key and the typing experience just becomes BAD.

As for mouse, I generally won't recommend wireless simply because wired is REALLY better than wireless. Some steel series mouses have built in acceleration as well, I would stay away from them. Go around the website for a windows 7 mouse fix as well, it will help your accuracy.
Don't waste a good mouse without using it on a nice surface. I prefer to grab a mouse mat that is thicker than normal mouse pad. It's essential especially if you need to do some gaming.

Headphones are generally too big to carry around imo, I prefer a nice earphone but choosing a good one can be really difficult and expensive. It also depends on what type of game do you play on though. I play RTS, so I don't really need to have the bass being too strong over the other sounds.

external HDD is nice of cause. Always put my movies, music, games for later saved up onto the external.

Lastly, a NICE carrying case. The stock ones are generally only made to carry your laptop, with the charger and that's it. I personally like a backpack version, so you can put more inside. Let's say you are going off to somewhere else with your laptop, you can put the notes and other stuff along with it.

 

May you elaborate please? Also it just what I found throughout the topic...

Okay so mechanical keyboards have better response time when pressing a key and it last longer than an a laptop keyboard, right? If that's true I'll really try to get one and may you refer me to a place where I can understand mechanical keyboard better (what red and blue switches are)?

So direct connection is always better then Also what is built in acceleration?

Too bad I have the stock one (not even sure if one is made for mine), i guess I try getting the backpack once I carry a lot of stuff at once.

 

It works with both earphones and headphones. However, if you head/earphone cannot physically play low frequency, there is nothing that can be done. Get some good headphones/earphones (they need not be mad expensive) first, and then the digizoid.

 

I would get one of those soft-bottom lap tables. Excellent for lounging in front of the TV and using you laptop at the same time

 

Makes sense to me but what are the low frequency? Is there some sort of test music to see if the headphones or earphones can play those?

 

After a small bit of homework (actually maybe a medium bit ), I got used Sennheiser HD 380 Pro Collapsible at $104 and then spent a solid day trying to figure out how the NuForce uDAC-2 (External AMP/DAC) is powered. I mean I don't want any kind of A/C power cube, however small. Turns out the NuForce is powered via the USB connector (duh!), so I got a discounted open box one at $105.

re the HD 380 Pro headphones, my requirements weren't best sound, but rather: 1) isolation so that I won't bother nearby people by playing music on either of my laptops, 2) decent sound quality, 3) not too hard to drive so that the NuForce uDAC-2 will provide adequate oomph. Clearly the laptop will need an "extra USB connector via an extra power Y-type cable" but I've got that covered even on my limited connector X220.

Given your Avatar, I'm interested in your thoughts/comments. You too ViciousXUSMC, given it was your post #12 (above) that got me thinking about the NuForce uDAC-2.

Anyway FWIW an Amazon user review by Jerry Alessandro mentions many closed headphones. It's on the 1st page of reviews for the HD 380 Pro at: Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Sennheiser HD 380 Pro Collapsible High-End Headphone for Professional Monitoring Use (Black)

 

Low frequency mean bass, the deep sounds that subwoofers are for:
Low-frequency effects - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are tons of tests for low frequency sounds. Youtube should have them
Also check how well your headphone fares on these songs:
Good Bass Songs:Armin Van Buuren - In And Out Love BASS BOOSTED (Musica Trance para Woofers) - YouTube
Lil Wayne - Lollipop Instrumental - Bass Boosted Edition - YouTube
Salt Shaker - Bass Boosted - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOa5FRCJoAM

You can also check head-fi forums for recommendations for your budget. There are lots of knowledgeable folk out there.

What kind of music do you like? What is your budget? Headphone or earphone? Is portability an issue?

 

Wow, good price on the HD 380!
How did you manage to get it at that price?

I'm somewhat of a noob on this, Vicious would know better.

I'm also curious on how the NuForce uDAC-2 compares to the Fiio E07 portable amp.

 

It's used, as I said in the post that you quoted.

Quite an avatar for a noob to pick.

Maybe Vicious will say something useful on that.

I looked at pix of the Fiio E7 on Amazon, as well as dimensions, and also for the NuForce uDAC-2; my own bet is that the NuForce is the better unit for sound quality of both DAC and preamp and headphone power. OTOH if you want to beat it to death then I suggest that you read all of the owner comments for both units on Amazon.

What you'd mainly be looking for is a comparison type owner review similar to the one by Jerry Alessandro on the 1st page of Amazon owner reviews for the HD 380 Pro.

 

@ OtherSongs

The Fiio E7 and uDAC-2 both have similar power ratings for the amplifier stage (I believe the Fiio is actually slightly more powerful). The uDAC-2 does have a higher sample rate in the DAC stage but honestly 48kHz is all you really need (I hardly notice much of a difference between 48 and 96 with my Schiit Bifrost). Now I should add at this point that I have never used a Nuforce product, but, I have heard a fair bit of negative feedback from head-fi and other in regards to how Nuforce tends to add coloration (more bass, more mids) in its DACs (imo a DAC should be perfectly transparent, no boost to any particular frequency) as well as under perform (lacks detail) in comparison to other similarly priced products (Schiit Modi, Objective ODAC, HRT MS2).

If you aren't worried about having a non portable (battery powered) DAC/amp then the current go to recommendation is the Schiit Magni/Modi combo ($200 + shipping/tax). Personally if I'm traveling with my laptop I'll usually only bring my O2 amp (or not) and V-moda M100's.

 

Mechanical keyboards have a much better typing experience than average keyboards, even the expensive logitech keyboards that have lots of fancy features on top.
It will last much longer than a laptop keyboard and the usual keyboards you buy in stores.
You can read more over here:
Mechanical Keyboard Guide

Different switch will give you a different feeling when you type. Black for example, when you press a key, it goes all the way down without anything pushing you back, but it has a stiffness to it, so you have to apply some pressure when typing. Red is similar, but it is lighter (less pressure needed). Blues and browns feel very different to black and red, they made a click sound around mid way you are pressing the key and you would know the key is register. Blues increases the pressure feedback as you press the key lower, while brown is same pressure all the way down. Blue is also the loudest switch.

It's not easy to buy a mechanical keyboard, you can try one in a gaming store I guess, for a razor blackwidow which uses a blue switch.

Wireless mouse is really just for convenient only, a good mouse should be a wired one.
built in acceleration kinda removes your precision on your mouse clicks and mouse movement, which is especially important for RTS games imo.
Basically a good mouse is:
A solid build, with a shape that matches your grip type
A good sensor, DPI around 1800 or more is ideal (for me)
no mouse acceleration for more precision
weight (I prefer a medium weight, some like it heavier/lighter, which is why expensive mouse allows you to add or remove weights)

Even if you aren't into gaming, these equipment are likely to improve your computer usage experience and you can always use it on the next computer that you buy. A mechanical keyboard can last really long, I have a friend who has used one for 10 years and still functioning well.
I am using my deathadder for around 4 years and still working fine

 

I would add though that a mech keyboard isn't really something you carry with you on a daily basis though, they are kind of big. A good keyboard on your desk if you use your laptop often is a good idea though. At my office at university, I do have a keyboard, mouse, monitor and a few other devices that all plug into my docking station. Speaking of which, if you're going to use your laptop in the same place often and your laptop supports it (very few do), a docking station is a very nice thing to have so you can avoid having to plug peripherals one by one. The only caveat is that aside from business notebooks and very few consumer notebooks, you can pretty much forget the docking station.

 

I've used mechanical keyboards for a long time ... all different kinds - alps, buckling springs, blacks, reds, blues, and browns. Though they are nice to type on, I find good quality laptop keyboards a joy to type on too like the Lenovo T series, and the Dell M4700. Crunchy goodness!!

One gadget I recommend is a WiDi adapter. I can watch anything wirelessly on my TV while sitting on my couch doing work on my laptop. I love it. It's awesome!!!

 

1st thanks for the interesting response.

Audio component specs are generally a waste of time, and often misleading. The main "spec" I was interested in was how the uDAC-2 is powered; which is by limited USB power which means that that will be it's main limiting factor. But it also means that it is ultra portable, which is what I want for a laptop "must have" accessory.

2nd (to OP) before we turn this into a thread on better laptop sound, I saw your response that you prefer wired mice and plan to use one with your laptop.

My suggestion is to rethink that. A wired mouse means more clutter when you're out with your laptop, a wireless mouse means less clutter. Try buying a Microsoft 4000 mouse. It's a really decent wireless mouse, and costs under $20.

I have a small NuForce Icon HDP which I use with my desktop PC. I've also seen lots and lots of positive posting about NuForce at AVS | Home Theater Discussions And Reviews

The main problem I have with laptop use of the HDP is the large A/C adapter it comes with. The "small" size of the unit is already max limit for laptop portability, but the adapter takes it way over the top. Hence my purchase of the uDAC-2.

head-fi has the worst signal to noise ratio. I once tried the place for a month and gave up.

I looked up all of the equipment you mentioned on Amazon (simply because it's easy to do). The V-MODA Crossfade M-100 Over-Ear Noise-Isolating looked interesting and I read some of Amazon's owner comments/reviews. It's more expensive than the Sennheiser's that are now in the mail to me; OTOH if I don't like the Sennheiser HD 380 Pro headphones I'll again be in the market for closed headphones that will work with the low power of the NuForce uDAC-2.

 

Mechs definitely aren't the be all and end all of keyboards, there are good keyboards out there that aren't mechs and that obviously will be cheaper.

 

I definitely would not consider mechanical keyboards as must have accessories. I've yet to use laptop keyboards that really posed serious issues. And I've been gaming on laptops and using laptop keyboards exclusively and I have yet to run into issues with ghosting etc.

My least favorite keyboard so far was the G73JH keyboard, but even that served me well for work and school, countless papers etc. Also maybe just me, but I prefer laptop keyboards and others like em over the loud mechanical keyboards.

As for NuForce, I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. Their products don't measure very well. nwavguy demonstrated that to me at least, without any doubt. There are better, and cheaper DACs than NuForce. For example, the Fiio products are cheaper and better.
- But for must have accessories on laptop, I'd recommend the Asus U3 Xonar over anything since it provides headphone and microphone and gaming support. And it's great for on-the-go.
- If you want a larger desktop DAC, then I think you should look for something that can be a center piece for your home audio system, not just for headphones. Again, there are better products than NuForce for that. I'd recommend considering Schiit products, far far far far superior.
http://schiit.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=0&products_id=14
- That's a great beginner, USB powered DAC that you can use to feed your audio system and headphone amp. That is a much better solution than anything from NuForce. NuForce has openly admitted they don't care about measurements and just go with whatever they "think" sounds good to their "ears." Well, that's is just terrible science/engineering then.
- Put it this way... Stereophile found NuForce to have among the highest jitter they have ever measured. And these are morons who believe power cords affect audio. This company engineers/design by ear, ludicrous.
- Not only that, NuForce products have a reputation for having imbalanced volume control. NuForce, avoid them.

 

The Fiio E07k is also USB powered.