Laptop for a student!

Matthias

Matthias

Matthias

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Joined
24 Aug 2014
Posts
9
Hello there!

I am a second year student, doing Graphic Design and working in the Graphic Design & Digital Marketing agency at the same time.
I was never convinced by laptops, I always thought that if I will have a monster PC at home - then this is where I can do all of my work. It turns out that laptop would be extremely handy as I will spend most of my day at the office/classroom. Since my uni is not getting new pc's, I have to get a laptop to compensate their crappyness.

The laptop would mostly be used for graphic design (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign). I will also be using it for web surfing, social media, emails and anything else I would need to work on digital marketing.

Being relaxed in the creative industry is also crucial so I want a gaming laptop so I can play games from time to time on the go.

Let's get down to specs; since I'm not new in this, I have few requirements.

Screen: 15.6" - not smaller, not bigger. Matte finish, anti-glare. The sRGB colours as close as possible - at least above 65%

Processor: i7, quad, 8 threads - will be useful for raster and vector apps

RAM: 8GB is absolutely fine, anything above that is just a bonus...

Has to have one SSD (min 128 GB) + 1 TB HDD or SSHD.

No preference on the Graphics Card. The better the card, the better the gaming experience.

Finally - my budget is £1000. The research I have done has proved that I will need to go little bit over my budget but that is fine. I have a laptop in my mind but I am curious what you guys will come up with.

Another reason why I am asking for help is also the fact that I am not very familiar with UK laptop retailers and I don't really know where to look for the cheapest products.


Thank you for help, I really appreciate it.
 
Hi Matthias,

Am sure you are looking for impartial views from end users, but we will highlight the 2 units from Gigabyte that look to fulfil your criteria.

First one ticks all boxes but is slightly over budget (but with OcUK price at the moment you are genuinely making a saving)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-019-GI&groupid=959&catid=1828

Second recommendation is under budget, in a slimmer chassis, but you would need to add SSD (2 spare bays inside, or use the hot-swappable optical drive bay). Unit is supplied without operating system, so you can choose Win7 or 8 (other operating systems are available of course)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-026-GI&groupid=959&catid=1828

You will obviously notice different graphics in each of these recommendations.

If you have any further question feel free to ask.

Regards,

Gigabyte UK NB Team
 
This one is a challenge and it's actually the spec of the screen - not much information is detailed about these and you being a design student I appreciate this is impartial.

The closest I could find (as it is an IPS display) was this but it is way over budget:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-017-GI&groupid=959&catid=1828

Atom80 maybe you could shed some light on the screen specs for the laptops you've posted?
 
Thanks for the response guys!

Atom, as far as I am aware - both of your laptops have no IPS display which is quite important to me.

Spacedskunk - yes, that looks a lot better but it's a bit too expensive for me :/

I was hoping someone would mention MSI GS60 Ghost as a good laptop. What do you think?
 
Spec wise it is good, again looking at reviews though the screen might not meet your expectations as it isn't the most neutral of looks unless you can compromise and any design work you remaster on your desktop?
 
How about the

Asus NX500

or

Asus ROG GX500?

Both have 4K screens, pre-calibrated to be very good colour and some very nice specs, fast, light, very nice.

They have the Asus ROG G750 on OC, its nice but the ones I mention above when they come out will be great and maybe just what your looking for in a screen as well as the other specs.
 
The GX500 looks very nice. Although I am not sure if I need that 4k so much. I am also a little worried about the price when they will come out.
 
Matthias said:
I looked at the reviews and it had quite good sRGB coverage. It does have an IPS though. Any ideas what I can do at this point?
Click to expand...

I just looked up and managed to find it is an IPS display, I think it's the colour temperatures on reviews I've seen give it a certain non-neutral look, however I'd imagine you can alter the graphics card settings to compensate. I'd say it was a good choice then, definitely.
 
The calibration should not be a problem. I am looking to buy the Spyder Colorimeter because I need to calibrate my monitors at home as well. As long as it is an IPS display, colour temperature shouldn't be a problem as Spyder will solve this problem for me.

I am pretty convinced about the GS60. Now I have a dilemma about the shopping part. It seems like the prices of the MSI products are quite high here in UK comparing to other countries. I am of Polish origin and after some research, I have found out that I can get top-range GS60 (16GB Ram, 256 SSD and GTX870M) in Poland, for the same price as the lower range GS60 (8GB, 128 SSD and GTX860M) here in UK. I don't understand why there is such a big gap between these two products, considering the fact that Poland and UK are both in the Europe.

I can work on my PC during uni, but when I will be back at the office, there won't be an iMac available for me anymore which means I need a laptop quite quickly. I will wait if I have to but I prefer not to and it is really a no brainer, if you can get a top-range GS60 for the price of mid-range, you would definitely get it.
 
Unfortunately living in the UK we do get completely hit hard with the cost of electricals/gadgets, we cannot blame tax as Polish VAT is actually more than the UK by 3%. When I read an article on it before there was no clear cut tangible reason why we get charged more, the cost of running a business was brought up, the cost of logistics/shipping, legally required insurance for liability... all sorts of things were explored but it boils down to economics - we get charged more because the British population doesn't argue and they pay.

Fortunately we do get somethings cheaper over here and it's all supposed to balance out (errrmm yea) but hey ho, if you have access to a better spec laptop for the same price then yes...why wouldn't you?
 
Yeah you are right. I am just curious what MSI Vendor has to say about this topic. ARJIBEAR? Any chance he could share his opinion?

This is what I have found:

Polish Online Shop: MSI GS60 - i7-4700MQ, 16GB RAM, 128MB SSD, 1TB HDD, GTX870M with extras: SteelSeries Flux Headset, MSI Mouse, MSI Mouse Pad, MSI Dragon Wax Stamp, Protection/Carry Bag.

All that in a price of 6299 PLN = 1192.86 GBP + ~150 PLN (Shipping) = 28.41 GBP. Turns out about 1220 GBP in total including shipping. Isn't that crazy!?

Is there anyway to grab ARJIBEAR's attention so he has a look in this topic?


BTW: spacedskunk - thanks for all of the help mate, you have been an absolute star...
 
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Matthias said:
Yeah you are right. I am just curious what MSI Vendor has to say about this topic. ARJIBEAR? Any chance he could share his opinion?

This is what I have found:

Polish Online Shop: MSI GS60 - i7-4700MQ, 16GB RAM, 128MB SSD, 1TB HDD, GTX870M with extras: SteelSeries Flux Headset, MSI Mouse, MSI Mouse Pad, MSI Dragon Wax Stamp, Protection/Carry Bag.

All that in a price of 6299 PLN = 1192.86 GBP + ~150 PLN (Shipping) = 28.41 GBP. Turns out about 1220 GBP in total including shipping. Isn't that crazy!?

Is there anyway to grab ARJIBEAR's attention so he has a look in this topic?


BTW: spacedskunk - thanks for all of the help mate, you have been an absolute star...
Click to expand...

If customs then decide to charge you on the value of that product then you will also be paying import duty. If the company states the correct value of that product then the fee could be a couple of hundred £.

I guess the fees are as follows :

http://www.dutycalculator.com/dc/225308/home-garden/appliances/electronic-composters/import-duty-rate-for-importing-electrical-goods-from-united-states-to-united-kingdom-is-3.7/

That's just the way it is in the UK. Otherwise if there was no import duty then certain countries would just purchase from others as it's cheaper.

There is a reason for price differences. Nothing I can do about I am afraid.

Regards

ARJiBEAR
 
Thanks for replying and clarifying things. I will be defenitely buying MSI GS60.

I will probably come back to this topic with a review ;)


Thanks again and have a nice day!
 
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