Laptop Advice

pennylessstudent

Hi

I'm thinking about buying a laptop for uni but have a few questions and looking for advice on whats best please.

I'm in my final yr so is it possible to sell a laptop again after I've finished with it or do they not really sell 2nd hand?

I need something cheap, under £600 would be good, under £500 would obviously be much better! I'll be using it for photoshop and illustrator, possibly also fairly basic Solidworks (CAD). I've been told I would need a dedicated graphics card, is that right? What laptops can you suggest?

Thanks

macman

For a pennyless student you've got more budget for your laptop than most others...
I would suggest you first decide what screen size you want, everything follows from that. I wouldn't want to be working on PSP or Illustrator files on a 15" screen, so unless you're going to use an external monitor, I would start looking at 17" laptops. Of course this make it fairly non-portable. Which makes me think a desktop might be a better option anyway.
Any PC or laptop sells secondhand.

asininity

Wait for the "for 200 more you could afford a mac".

pennylessstudent

I've got a desktop but want to be able to work in uni in our design studio (where we don't have computers) and would like the ability to work at home over the holidays. I do want it to be portable so was thinking smaller than 17inch screen.

I worked a bit b4 starting uni so I'm not completelly pennyless but I don't have money lying around really. obviously I want to spend as little as possible on a laptop but I was thinking of a realistic budget for a decent specced machine that I think I need to run these programs.

pennylessstudent

asininity wrote: »

Wait for the "for 200 more you could afford a mac".

No chance of finding £200 lying around to get a mac, although they do look very nice and I know a lot of people that would much prefer doing the design work on them

davester

asininity wrote: »

Wait for the "for 200 more you could afford a mac".

don't start lol

Alternative is that if your having a large TV in your room too, that you plug in your laptop that way when you are at home, then you have the large screen you need for working with photos/graphics, and the portability too.

macman

I suggest you borrow a 15 in laptop and try working in those progs on such a small screen. Your eyes are probably younger than mine, but it's not a good way to work for extended periods.
Probably one of the Dell Studio machines would suit your purpose. They start at about £500. For graphics editing you probably need 4GB RAM and a decent sized hard drive-nothing less than 500GB.

asininity

Try acer, they have some cheap powerful laptops around atm. Laptops Direct.

GunJack

HAve a look at this, good spec for £380....

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172314

pennylessstudent

Are Acer a good make? I've worked with people using Acer laptops before and they were always complaining how slow they were

asininity

It depends on the spec generally and how infected the computer is, speed wise.