Good laptop for full Adobe package?

[mattius1989]

My girlfriend is doing an illustration degree at university at the moment and has just won the entire Adobe package in a competition.

The laptop she has at the moment is a bit past it, and the PC I was going to give her is just an old P4 system with an 8600gt. I have previously been on the General Hardware forum looking to build her a cheap but decent rig for what she needs. But after giving it some thought, we have decided that maybe a laptop would be best. But shopping around, I see that laptops are quite expensive and its also a field of computer hardware I know nothing about (how well the components perform etc).

So can anybody give me some pointers on what sort of power she will need in a laptop to have a good experience with her new software suite? Are there any decent options for what she needs on OcUK at the moment? As it all seems to go straight over my head on whats good and what isnt...

 

[Scrutinize]

The first question and probably the most important is, what is your budget?

As you mention building a cheap rig, I am assuming your budget is the £400-£600 bracket. This rules out a Macbook Pro as you would be looking at £900 for one of these through the student programme. If this is in budget, get one of these and ignore the below.

I would look at buying a reasonably priced laptop and 22” external monitor to dock with at home (unless she already has the monitor) as this makes graphics & illustration work much easier.

I would always lean towards Lenovo ThinkPad or HP ProBook in this budget simply for the rock solid build and reliability. Nothing really suitable on OcUK unless you go for the MSI GX660R @ £949

Ideally you want a Core i3 or an i5. Avoid the ULV ones as they run at a much lower clock speed. 6-8GB memory and 7200rpm hard drive would be a bonus (I am assuming an SSD will not sit with your budget).

For up to £400 I would look at the HP ProBook 4530s. Actually at the moment this can be had for £150 all in as HP offer both £100 Cashback on the £399 purchase price and you can get a further £150 back by trading in pretty much any old working machine. http://hp-offers.com/ It is rare for their laptops to fall under both offers.

Part Number: LW766ES#ABU
Stock Code: W299726

Intel® Core™ i3-2310M Dual Core Processor,
15.6" HD Screen, Windows 7 Home Premium Edition,
2GB RAM, (Upgrading this to 8GB with Kingston memory is going to cost £30-£40 if you can do it yourself, adding another 4GB to the 2GB would also do just fine and save you some money)
250GB HDD (Not massive but hey you can use an external)
DVD Rewriter,
Integrated Graphics, Webcam Bluetooth & HDMI,
Includes Free HP Carry Case, £100 cashback, + £150 Minimum Trade-in Allowance!

The finish on these is brushed metal on the lid and palm rest etc. They shouldn’t be this cheap but HP and their resellers seem to be overstocked somewhat lol.

For up to £600 there is the i5 version of the 4530s ProBook but better value is the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E520 @ £572

Part Number: NZ33MUK
Stock Code: 6932334

Intel® Core™ i5-2410M Dual Core Processor,
15.6" HD Screen, Windows 7 Professional Edition 64-bit,
4GB DDR3 RAM,
500GB HDD,
DVD Rewriter,
Dedicated ATI HD 6630M Graphics,

 

[Django x2]

Ideally, you don't want an SSD. They have a limted lifespan and illustrator / graphics degrees is not the place (unless you just use SSD for OS and keep all documents on an extrernal or 2nd drive).