Laptop, Graphic Design/Photography/Gaming

nucoben · 28 Dec 2010 at 22:45

Hey, I've been looking at laptops for quite some time and am having a lot of trouble. I would go for a 17" Macbook Pro since it seems to be the standard in the Graphic Design/Photography Industry, but it doesn't seem to be worth the money.

What I'm after is a large display (17"+) which can run at a high resolution (I've been mainly looking at 1920x1080) with a decent processor and a graphics card which will allow me to keep up with my brothers who are both gamers.

I'll mainly be using the laptop for multitasking with programs from Adobe Creative Suite, playing modern games on bearable graphics settings and playing Eve Online while just listening to music & browsing Chrome.

I'm after one that isn't horribly chunky and may fit into my bag (despite the 17"+ display) - the reason I'm after a laptop is because I want to be able to take it to class in Uni next year.

I've pushed my budget to £1000 but that's really stretching it.

So far it's come down to these two: http://i.imgur.com/tmJm2.jpg. (The Acer's screen resolution is 1920*1080)

I would love to buy the Acer, but my brother has told me that with a dual core processor it might have a lot of trouble with modern programs and games - also the graphics card is barely an upgrade from my current laptop (Geforce Mobile 8600) I've seen the Acer instore and loved the laptop itself. He suggests that I get the Dell instead because with a quad-core it'll be more future-proofed and the graphics card is much better. Problem here is that I don't like the idea of it only running at 1600x900 since my current resolution is 1440x900 and I'm tired of that. I haven't seen the Dell in person so I'm a bit unsure about it.

Also, running on a higher resolution on the Acer with a weaker graphics card - would this have a large impact on it's performance?

Any new suggestions or opinions on the matter would be greatly appreciated including alternative laptop options - thanks for any help and sorry for such a long read!

Energize · 28 Dec 2010 at 23:09

Hardly any games make use of quad core to any significant degree I wouldn't really bother how many cores it has.

What may concern you is the very poor battery life that an 18.4" laptop will have and massive weight which will make carrying it around campus a chore. That may not concern you if you just use it in your flat as a desktop replacement though, because you'll find that having a laptop in the lecture theatre is pointless for anything other than browsing facebook.

reflux · 28 Dec 2010 at 23:12

Don't get anything bigger than 17'' and be aware that a quad core will eat battery. I've got a 15" HP with a quad core i7 that I use at work for photoshop, illustrator and indesign and it deals with them all pretty damn well but battery life is only about an hour.

nucoben · 28 Dec 2010 at 23:20

Battery life and weight isn't really an issue for me - my current laptop is almost never unplugged for more than an hour. It just needs to be easily portable so I can take it to lectures/friends houses easily.

I'm a bit uncertain on the dual & quad core issue - I've heard that a lot of the newer programs and games are adopting quad and that dual won't run so smoothly. (Black Ops and BC2)

Energize · 28 Dec 2010 at 23:30

nucoben said:
Battery life and weight isn't really an issue for me - my current laptop is almost never unplugged for more than an hour. It just needs to be easily portable so I can take it to lectures/friends houses easily.

The question is does the uni have plugs in the lecture theatres, because many don't.

reflux · 28 Dec 2010 at 23:37

Portability is an issue mate, because I lugged a 17" Dell XPS around campus and to friends houses and I started getting tired of it pretty quickly. Add to that, all the lecture theatres I went to lacked plugs and even in the practical design sessions in the computer clusters it was difficult to find a power source. Space was also difficult to find for a 17" beast.

Tbh I would recommend buying a fairly cheap dual core laptop for takin to uni, and building or buying a decent desktop rig to keep at home. That's what I had latterly and it worked well. My dual core core 2 duo laptop still munched through design work pretty competently, and whilst more cores is always better, you have to balance that with other things.

nucoben · 29 Dec 2010 at 14:02

The Uni I'll be going to is perfectly suited for laptops in lecture rooms & classes, and I won't be moving around the campus since it's mainly based in one building anyway so that's not a problem.

I'm after a laptop alone - having a desktop too would be quite inconvenient for me. I've had a desktop and laptop for a while now and find that I only use the laptop anyway - I'll sell them when I get the new one.

Thanks for the help so far anyway, still having a lot of trouble finding what I'm after though. I came close when I found a refurbished HP Envy 17 for £899 but turns out the link was outdated. Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated.