Laptops! Explain them to me!

copacetic

copacetic

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Howdy PC hardware people.

This part of the forum is... unfamiliar. I feel scared. :erm:

Anyhow.

I know someone who needs a laptop to do graphic design work on and I've no clue where to start as I know as much about laptops as I know about sea-slugs.

Recommended brands?

Particular models?

Bits and pieces attached to the thing that I should look for?

Can't spend an inordinate amount of money, needs to be (well) below 10K.

Thanks guys.

Cheers.

:D
 
What applications do they use for this graphics design work? Just trying to determine how important the GPU is.
 
In terms of brands, Asus then HP IMO.

Or, there are some decent Mecer laptops for about R8,000 that have i7 (very good) CPU's - quite a bit cheaper than the big brands. Don't know if I'd buy one though, still don't really trust Mecer that much. 2 year warranty though...

http://www.prophecy.co.za/asus-k52jtsx347x-versatile-performance-series-notebook-p-89174.html http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Versatile_Performance/K53SJ/
http://www.prophecy.co.za/asus-k53sjsx160x-intel-core-i52140m-23ghz-ddr31333-sandybri-p-89783.html http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Versatile_Performance/K52JT/
http://www.prophecy.co.za/asus-n53svsz385v-intel-core-i52410m-sandybridge-ddr3-p-88513.html http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Multimedia_Entertainment/N53SV/ (1920x1080 resolution 15.6" screen)
 
copacetic said:
CorelDraw and Photoshop, I believe.
Click to expand...

That would be more CPU and RAM intensive.

i7 will serve you well. As well as an upgrade to 2 x 4GB RAM for a total of 8GB.

Most laptops don't seem to be customisable so you would probably need to flog off the standard 2 x 2GB RAM that they tend to come with.
 
Thanks for the info so far.

I think I'd rather go for a reputable brand, rather than all the speed I can get from a slightly less trustworthy brand.

I think an i7 is probably going to stretch the budget a little, an i5 will be a life changing upgrade from the current P4, with 1 gig of RAM currently being used.

Yeah, I think lots of RAM will be an important consideration, although if I can find one that comes with 4 gigs for now, I reckon that'll be just peachy for a while.

:D
 
@Copa - beware of some of the i5 notebooks. Do some research before buying as you could end up with a dud. Yes, this includes HP.
 
MickeyD said:
@Copa - beware of some of the i5 notebooks. Do some research before buying as you could end up with a dud. Yes, this includes HP.
Click to expand...

I shall indeed research things thoroughly, this thread is phase 1 of the process.

What do you mean by dud though?
 
PostmanPot said:
Is this a well documented problem?
Click to expand...
The HP6540 I got kept rebooting on me at strange times. First thought it was RAM but it persisted. Tested and replaced hdd, nope. Eventually traced it to the integrated ATi interface that was overheating. Screen was also not 100% and had brightness issues. Thought it was just my bad luck in getting a dud, but some googling showed that there were other folks with issues with that model.

/note: in my post I said some i5 models... there are probably hundreds of happy i5 owners!
 
I've heard of quite a few HP Pavilion laptops (with AMD graphics cards) overheating.

I'd suggest that you get a laptop with a 2 or 3 year warranty. If the laptop is going to be used for as a workstation at an office, then try to get a laptop with a next business day repair warranty - like the ones that come with the Dell laptops.
 
From P4 to i3? Wow. How he was using those two intensive apps baffles.
An i3 or even these dual cores for him, with dedicated graphics and 2GB RAM is sufficient for this case.

I use InDesign, Photoshop, various video rendering wares and mine's fine. Check my signature.
 
You could look at Lenovo W series thinkpads, some serious work horse power there with workstation graphic cards instead of gaming orientated ones.
 
Pada said:
I've heard of quite a few HP Pavilion laptops (with AMD graphics cards) overheating.

I'd suggest that you get a laptop with a 2 or 3 year warranty. If the laptop is going to be used for as a workstation at an office, then try to get a laptop with a next business day repair warranty - like the ones that come with the Dell laptops.
Click to expand...

It's a private individual, so that's not necessary, I don't think. But I'll look for a good normal warranty of course.

Khanya said:
From P4 to i3? Wow. How he was using those two intensive apps baffles.
An i3 or even these dual cores for him, with dedicated graphics and 2GB RAM is sufficient for this case.

I use InDesign, Photoshop, various video rendering wares and mine's fine. Check my signature.
Click to expand...

Well, they were using older versions of the products, which were nevertheless taxing the P4, with the PC upgrade, so too will the software be upgraded to the new versions.

Mystic Twilight said:
You could look at Lenovo W series thinkpads, some serious work horse power there with workstation graphic cards instead of gaming orientated ones.
Click to expand...

I'll check 'em out, thanks.
 
MickeyD said:
The HP6540 I got kept rebooting on me at strange times. First thought it was RAM but it persisted. Tested and replaced hdd, nope. Eventually traced it to the integrated ATi interface that was overheating. Screen was also not 100% and had brightness issues. Thought it was just my bad luck in getting a dud, but some googling showed that there were other folks with issues with that model.

/note: in my post I said some i5 models... there are probably hundreds of happy i5 owners!
Click to expand...

I sell lots of i5's - HP's generally - no problems here.
 
MickeyD said:
@Copa - beware of some of the i5 notebooks. Do some research before buying as you could end up with a dud. Yes, this includes HP.
Click to expand...

My Samsung R580 with Core i5 (nVidia graphics) is going strong. :)

Core i5 is our biggest seller with very low return rates. However, I did hear about there being a revision of i5's and i7's having heating issues. How true this is I'm not sure. But based on personal experience, they are going well so far. :)
 
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