Hi,
I soon will be picking up my first laptop mainly for graphic design/creative work and to also serve as a second system. I don't have a set budget though I can't see the point of spending top dollar on something beyond the scope of my primary system, especially when you consider the main reason for the intended use (mainly static 2d design work/some 3d in the future). However, that said I intend to keep this a very long time, so I believe it's worth getting something with a bit of punch and that also has some upgrade path, e.g. memory not being soldered/components being readily available.
Thoughts on the main components:
CPU: probably aiming for at least an i7/R7
GPU: I won't be playing games on it much and probably only the older and less intensive ones when I do, though I don't think I'd want anything lower than a GPU with 6GB of VRAM in case I begin to use other apps like After Effects more often.
Memory: if upgradable then I could get by, for now, with as little as 8GB though I would prefer 16GB. Pushing above to 32GB, while I don't think would necessarily be a bad decision, probably would be a little more than I need right now for a secondary system, and, of course, would whack the cost right up.
Storage: nothing lower than 512GB, preferably more.
Screen: I was gravitating towards a 17.3" or as large as is possible though I'm now starting to consider something smaller, e.g. 15.6 - 16.1". The refresh rate, however, must be around what I currently use which is 170Hz, so I guess 144 would be the minimum requirement. As for resolution, I'm not sure. On one hand, I'm thinking of aiming for at least my desktop resolution of 1440p - maybe even 4K (?), while on the other, I wonder if 1080p would be enough on such a small screen?
Finally, probably overstating the obvious here, but would it be a bad idea to pick up something like a Mac, e.g. Mac Book Mini, even though my primary system uses Windows? I appreciate some apps and programs won't work or work well when files are swapped over, e.g. working on the Creative Cloud, but I was wondering just how illogical of a decision it would be long term.
Makes/models which seem to be popular when looking around are the Lenovo Legion, Asus Zephyrus, Dell XPS/Precision, and, of course, the Macs.
Any help/thoughts are greatly appreciated!
I soon will be picking up my first laptop mainly for graphic design/creative work and to also serve as a second system. I don't have a set budget though I can't see the point of spending top dollar on something beyond the scope of my primary system, especially when you consider the main reason for the intended use (mainly static 2d design work/some 3d in the future). However, that said I intend to keep this a very long time, so I believe it's worth getting something with a bit of punch and that also has some upgrade path, e.g. memory not being soldered/components being readily available.
Thoughts on the main components:
CPU: probably aiming for at least an i7/R7
GPU: I won't be playing games on it much and probably only the older and less intensive ones when I do, though I don't think I'd want anything lower than a GPU with 6GB of VRAM in case I begin to use other apps like After Effects more often.
Memory: if upgradable then I could get by, for now, with as little as 8GB though I would prefer 16GB. Pushing above to 32GB, while I don't think would necessarily be a bad decision, probably would be a little more than I need right now for a secondary system, and, of course, would whack the cost right up.
Storage: nothing lower than 512GB, preferably more.
Screen: I was gravitating towards a 17.3" or as large as is possible though I'm now starting to consider something smaller, e.g. 15.6 - 16.1". The refresh rate, however, must be around what I currently use which is 170Hz, so I guess 144 would be the minimum requirement. As for resolution, I'm not sure. On one hand, I'm thinking of aiming for at least my desktop resolution of 1440p - maybe even 4K (?), while on the other, I wonder if 1080p would be enough on such a small screen?
Finally, probably overstating the obvious here, but would it be a bad idea to pick up something like a Mac, e.g. Mac Book Mini, even though my primary system uses Windows? I appreciate some apps and programs won't work or work well when files are swapped over, e.g. working on the Creative Cloud, but I was wondering just how illogical of a decision it would be long term.
Makes/models which seem to be popular when looking around are the Lenovo Legion, Asus Zephyrus, Dell XPS/Precision, and, of course, the Macs.
Any help/thoughts are greatly appreciated!
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