New Laptop Help

[fox in the box]

Morning all,

I currently have a 2 or 3 year old desktop which I will be keeping. However, I would like a laptop which will primarily be used for photo editing and music. There is the posibility that I will use it for occasional gaming too.

I'm thinking of getting myself a laptop in order to utilise my time travelling to work on the train and my lunch hour for photo editing.

I have been looking on the Dell website. They have some decent deals (or so I think but there is every chance I could be wrong).

The specs I'd ideally like are 4GB Ram and 500GB hard drive. I have spoken to people that have said a decent graphics card is a must and I'd like to get Window 7 too.

My desktop has Photoshop CS2 but I am looking at purchasing Elements 8 for the laptop.

I have looked at the Lenovo G550 http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Lenovo_3000_G550_Laptop_NTDF3UK/version.asp but then I'd need to get Elements 8 on top of this cost which would push the £600 mark (possibly more).

My budget is about £500 ideally but would be willing to review this if a better deal came up for not much more money.


Any help and suggestions will be much appreciated.

Cheers

Fox in the Box

 

[mastertrinity]

i have a dell inspiron 1545 laptop that i bought from pc world for £430 and the best thing was that it is super fast and has a 64-bit OS which is rare to find on common laptops.

 

[Spy]

You may want to consider this Acer I found on Play.com.

Teh spec seems to be very, very good and has a nice large 17" screen for photo editing, a dedicated graphics card, 5in1 card readerwith the bonus of a drive that plays Blu-Ray discs !

Acer 7530G at Play.com

It is currently listed for £480 and comes with Windows Vista but if you buy before 31st Jan, Acer will upgrade ypu to Windows 7 for approx. £12, see here Acer-Windows 7 Upgrade Offer

 

[RobertP]

I found this site useful for working out which was a fast processor and which wasn't...

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

 

[sitemaster]

A laptop is a great way to go, mine sits on the floor at the side of the desk and has a 23" monitor and full keyboard plugged in, then a firewire cable to a chain of external drives. It just gets unplugged and I can move off and work anywhere. Just make sure the graphics can support a big screen if you're interested in doing the same. Got the last one from laptopsdirect

 

[fox in the box]

Thanks for all the help the replies have given me alot to think about.

 

[Spy]

The website linked to by Robert also ranks teh graphics card which should help with comparisons...http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Grafic-Cards.130.0.html