Graphic Design student need to buy Laptop

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Dion Disco

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Hi everybody - hope you all settled in well for 2012 ;-)

A friend of mine's daughter sent me this request, she is a final year Graphic Design student.

I am sure the collective brain awesomeness of MYBB will have a better solution than what I can give ;-)

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I need some help, as you know my laptop broke and I need a laptop for tech this year.
I only have R4000 saved up and the maximum i can go is up to R5000.

I need a graphics computer with a resolution screen of around 1680×1050.
Minimum of 2gb of RAM, preferably 3gb or 4gb.
It must run Adobe, Corel and 3d wireframe programs
I will need a camera, video so that I can skype. Wifi, bluetooth, usb port, disk writer....
The screen size must not be smaller than 15 inches.
The laptop must all have an intel core of 5 and not lower.

I would really appreciate it if you know of any laptop I can have a look at

Thanx
 
There is no way that you're going to get that kind of specification laptop for under R5000, unless you struck a very good bargain or get one second hand!
 
Not gonna happen.

The closest I can find is a LG E530-GAE5BZ for R4999 from PC Zone which meets all her requirements except for resolution which is 1366x768.
 
Like Ponder and Pada said, it's impossible. At least for a new machine.

The cheapest one I can see that fill all your requirements, retails for about R7200
Proline W270HU 17.3" Notebook, Intel Core i5 2430M 2x Core (2.4Ghz), HM65, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB 2.5" Hard disk drive, 17.3" HD (1600x900) LCD Screen, Intel HD 3000 , DVDRW Drive, Windows 7 Pro 64bit

One that fit all your requirements but one (the processor) and bluetooth
MSI CX705, 17.3" LED (1600x900), C2D 2.3Ghz (T4500) ATI HD5470 (512MB), 2GB DDRII, 500GB SATA, 802.11b/g/n, BT, DVD-RW, WC - Win 7 H.Basic
 
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The only way she will get those specs/price is if she buys one in the US and gets someone to bring it over for her.
 
Tell her to take the R4000 to the casino and make it R10 000, then go to incredible connection and get the HP Pavillion Dv6 i7
 
Com'on guys, this is serious - she looks up to me as some kind of Techno Guru
I am destined to be found out and face tears of the female kind - cringe

OK - what is the best deal for R5,000 ?
 
Dion Disco said:
Com'on guys, this is serious - she looks up to me as some kind of Techno Guru
I am destined to be found out and face tears of the female kind - cringe

OK - what is the best deal for R5,000 ?
Click to expand...

High end i3's
 
Wellllllllll I can help but it'll probably be of no help at all:

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to give this out or what but there's this University in the Western Cape that's up against this mountain that looks really flat from certain angles.

Anyway the University has a little project called the "Student Laptop Initiative"

They offer 4 models from netbook to top end and I think the third option is perfect for your friends daughter though it is a bit out of her budget:/

http://www.studentlaptop.co.za/

http://www.aceredu.co.za/Aspire5750.aspx

Edit: damn... I forgot about the resolution. I'd have to agree with everyone else that that is too tall a order.
 
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My manager bought a Sony VAiO off Bid or Buy for about R6000.00. Core i7 (1st Gen) 17" (1440x900) . Brand new sealed in the box.. No issues. Had to be imported though from the US. Was a bit of a wait. And oh, this was before Sandy Bridge came out and is still running like a champ!

Google dude, you will find the right machine.. It's out there, just make.believe
 
The best that I've seen so far was the Acer Travelmate 5760 at PC-Zone on p23: http://www.zones.co.za/ * Still just 1366x768 resolution.
Or the Proline (I HATE this brand) with an Core i7 for R6000 on p28.

Unfortunately for you, graphics designing isn't a cheap profession! The hardware and software costs a fortune.
You'll be looking at like a minimum of R8k for a laptop that has a resolution higher than 1366x768, unless you go second-hand. It would be cheaper to buy a laptop with a low resolution and then to buy a 23" full HD (1920x1080) LCD/LED screen for like R1300. Also, the i5's starts at like R5,500.

If you're a student at one of the Universities, then you might be able to get a good deal. They often have like 30% off on PC hardware.

In my opinion the best that you can do at the moment with your budget would be to get the 2nd-hand Lenovo: http://www.carbonite.co.za/f10/ibm-lenovo-thinkpad-t510-23853/ - seeing that it has a workstation graphics card, which is preferable for graphics designing... and then just buy a 22-23" LCD screen with full HD resolution.
 
The best I could get you would be the Acer TM5760 core i5 2.4GHz, 4GB DDR3, 320GB HDD 1366x768 for about R6500

Or the Acer TM5742 Intel core i3, 2GB DDR3, 500GB HDD 1366x768 for about R5500

And best bet would be to just buy a LCD screen to connect to the laptop.
 
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koeksGHT said:
The best I could get you would be the Acer TM5760 core i5 2.4GHz, 4GB DDR3, 320GB HDD 1366x768 for about R6500
Click to expand...
Have you even read my post? I gave a link to that exact laptop for R5499, which is R1000 less than yours ;)

Either way, the 2nd-hand Lenovo is still the better option.
 
Thanx for all the responses so far - some nice suggestions here

Macbook of any kind would be out of the equation
All her design software is for Windows
 
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