need help deciding hardware

[Jm Photography]

can someone help me out in understanding the benefits of using an external monitor to help with editing? My laptop screen is too small for my eyes and there are a few dead pixels other than that i need more accurate color and bigger screen.
is there anything i need to know?
here is some tech specs of my laptop

Widescreen WXGA TFT-LCD 15.4 "Ultrabright and technology with 1280 x 800 resolution; original support for a content 720p
230 gig hard drive
1 gig ram
intel dual core

[basroil]

Always use an external monitor if you can. You can properly calibrate it, and if you get a 2209WA or other IPS/PVA screen, then you can finally get great colors. Your laptop seems to be rather old though, and it may not be able to support screens larger than a 1600x1050 without some minor lag or heating issues.

[Jm Photography]

I am a noob at computer lingo but what does this mean?

Video
o
RGB (monitor) output port
o
S-Video output port

[basroil]

Pretty much nothing actually...

rgb there probably means VGA output (blue trapezoid with 15 pins), and that can be used to connect with monitors

ignore svideo, it's crap.

[Jm Photography]

Oh i was worried it was something major, are acer monitors any good?

[basroil]

Oh i was worried it was something major, are acer monitors any good?

Eh...

Go for the dell 2209WA if you can (just look a few spaces down in this forum and there is a massive thread on it), it'll be about the same price as many similarly spec'ed monitors from other companies.

Overall, dell and HP tend to have better colors than acer and samsung, and acer/samsung ones are mainly for the standard/gaming crowd, not really for photography.

[Jm Photography]

do want lol, walmart has it too so discount=ftw!