Laptop Buying Help

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Hey guys,

 

So I'm looking to buy a new laptop and will need to run programmes such as AutoCAD and a range of Adobe, primarily Photoshop CS5, but maybe others like InDesign/Illustrator.

 

Will it be possible to do this on a laptop for under £500?

 

I don't really have any clue where to start... absolutely any advice/recommendations would be great and hugely appreciated! Especially is anyone uses such design programmes on their laptops!

 

Cheers guys!

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Would this Acer do the job for AutoCAD/Photoshop etc...

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Notebook-i5-480M-Processor-DVD-Super/dp/B004VE72QQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1316625978&sr=1-2

[Emasher]

NEVER buy ANYTHING from Acer. Unless you're okay with the computer only lasting a year or two that is.

 

Also, always buy laptops from the manufacturer. You'll usually get better deals and you'll be able to customize it.

 

Now, you don't need an incredibly powerful computer to run Photoshop. For quite some time I was able to run Photoshop CS4 on a G4 with no real problems. It was slow, but perfectly usable. That said, if you're doing anything incredibly involved with it, like working with images that are multiple thousands of pixels by multiple thousands of pixels, you're going to want a decent CPU. With CAD, unless you're doing something incredibly simple, you're better of with going for the fastest thing you can afford. If you don't absolutely need portability (for instance, if you're a student, or you travel a lot), you're much better off building a desktop to suit your needs, as you can get decent specs for MUCH cheaper, you don't have to worry so much about heat, and you can more easily upgrade everything latter on rather than buying a whole new computer.

 

However, if you're dead set on a laptop, here are a few things to look for:

 

Not Acer or Dell.

At least an i5, preferably a sandy bridge one, and preferably a quad core.

At least 4GB of RAM, go up to 6 or even better 8 if you're rendering.

With CAD files you're going to want a big hard drive, 500 GB should be lots.

 

The specs on that Acer are actually not bad, but the build quality is going to be terrible, so its still probably not worth it.

 

One other thing is to keep in mind that Photoshop is starting to use hardware acceleration, so you would benefit from a proper graphics card. I don't know about AutoCAD, but I do know that its primary competitor Vectorworks is using hardware acceleration more and more, so I expect AutoCAD probably uses some, might be worth checking out.

 

NEVER buy ANYTHING from Acer. Unless you're okay with the computer only lasting a year or two that is.

 

Also, always buy laptops from the manufacturer. You'll usually get better deals and you'll be able to customize it.

 

Now, you don't need an incredibly powerful computer to run Photoshop. For quite some time I was able to run Photoshop CS4 on a G4 with no real problems. It was slow, but perfectly usable. That said, if you're doing anything incredibly involved with it, like working with images that are multiple thousands of pixels by multiple thousands of pixels, you're going to want a decent CPU. With CAD, unless you're doing something incredibly simple, you're better of with going for the fastest thing you can afford. If you don't absolutely need portability (for instance, if you're a student, or you travel a lot), you're much better off building a desktop to suit your needs, as you can get decent specs for MUCH cheaper, you don't have to worry so much about heat, and you can more easily upgrade everything latter on rather than buying a whole new computer.

 

However, if you're dead set on a laptop, here are a few things to look for:

 

Not Acer or Dell.

At least an i5, preferably a sandy bridge one, and preferably a quad core.

At least 4GB of RAM, go up to 6 or even better 8 if you're rendering.

With CAD files you're going to want a big hard drive, 500 GB should be lots.

 

The specs on that Acer are actually not bad, but the build quality is going to be terrible, so its still probably not worth it.

 

One other thing is to keep in mind that Photoshop is starting to use hardware acceleration, so you would benefit from a proper graphics card. I don't know about AutoCAD, but I do know that its primary competitor Vectorworks is using hardware acceleration more and more, so I expect AutoCAD probably uses some, might be worth checking out.

[Retro_Link]

NEVER buy ANYTHING from Acer. Unless you're okay with the computer only lasting a year or two that is.

 

Also, always buy laptops from the manufacturer. You'll usually get better deals and you'll be able to customize it.

 

Now, you don't need an incredibly powerful computer to run Photoshop. For quite some time I was able to run Photoshop CS4 on a G4 with no real problems. It was slow, but perfectly usable. That said, if you're doing anything incredibly involved with it, like working with images that are multiple thousands of pixels by multiple thousands of pixels, you're going to want a decent CPU. With CAD, unless you're doing something incredibly simple, you're better of with going for the fastest thing you can afford. If you don't absolutely need portability (for instance, if you're a student, or you travel a lot), you're much better off building a desktop to suit your needs, as you can get decent specs for MUCH cheaper, you don't have to worry so much about heat, and you can more easily upgrade everything latter on rather than buying a whole new computer.

 

However, if you're dead set on a laptop, here are a few things to look for:

 

Not Acer or Dell.

At least an i5, preferably a sandy bridge one, and preferably a quad core.

At least 4GB of RAM, go up to 6 or even better 8 if you're rendering.

With CAD files you're going to want a big hard drive, 500 GB should be lots.

 

The specs on that Acer are actually not bad, but the build quality is going to be terrible, so its still probably not worth it.

 

One other thing is to keep in mind that Photoshop is starting to use hardware acceleration, so you would benefit from a proper graphics card. I don't know about AutoCAD, but I do know that its primary competitor Vectorworks is using hardware acceleration more and more, so I expect AutoCAD probably uses some, might be worth checking out.

Thanks for the reply!

 

So really what laptop makes am I looking at... HP/Samsung/Sony... I'll have a look to see what laptops there are within my budget with the specs/info you've suggested.

 

I mean ideally I might look at getting a Mac, but I can't afford it/would then have to look at commiting to them.

 

There are PC's at Uni to use Photoshop/CAD on, but really yeah I was looking for a laptop, so that I could continue my work at home... without having to sit alone upstairs on the home PC... where I'm easily distracted.

Plus the home PC is functioning really badly/incredibly slowly... I suppose I could look at buying a replacement, but a laptop just seemed to make a little more sense.

[Emasher]

If you're in Uni, a laptop is definitely a good idea.

 

Regarding getting a Mac, you're much better off getting a ThinkPad. Better price (for the same specs), trackpoint (which is much better than even Apple's trackpads), better build quality, etc. Although, aside from maybe the X series, they're probably still out of your budget.

 

If you're in Uni, a laptop is definitely a good idea.

 

Regarding getting a Mac, you're much better off getting a ThinkPad. Better price (for the same specs), trackpoint (which is much better than even Apple's trackpads), better build quality, etc. Although, aside from maybe the X series, they're probably still out of your budget.