Answered Laptop powerful enough to run photoshop and cad

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Hi I'm looking for a Laptop for my Daughter, her current Laptop is a Lenovo 301 with 4gb ram but it won't run Photoshop and cad at the same time (sorry I don't know which photoshop or cad).

So I'm looking for something more powerful, perhaps an i7 processor, 16gb ram, SSD ?

At first we thought a desktop would be more suitable, however she does go to the Library quite often so it has to be a Laptop.

Budget wise we're looking at under £800, we did find one that ticked all the boxes on the John Lewis website for £700 but it was a Dell and we've had no luck with Dell laptops.

any advice would be welcomed
 
Have you considered upgrading the memory on the current one? It is fairly old these days, but if it runs them fine alone there's a chance it's simply lack of memory rather than not enough power.

You don't say which model you were looking at on the John Lewis website but the ones around that price seem to be all Inspiron 15 5000s. Those aren't very similar to the current machine, they're bigger and heavier (2.3kg instead of 1.3kg). The current X301 equivalent in Lenovo's range is the X1 Carbon but that's a fair bit more expensive than £800. Something like the lower models of Asus' Zenbook range would be similar machine that's within budget.

The biggest difference between processors isn't the prefix (i5, i7 etc.) but the suffix. An HQ processor is much more powerful than a U processor and the i5/i7 etc. are only comparable among processors with the same suffix.

However, the HQ processors also use more power and outputs more heat meaning that the laptops that have them tend to be heavier and have shorter battery life. Whether the trade-off is worth it depends on how often it's carried around.

Has she mentioned anything about screen requirements such as a specific colour space?
 
Hi and thank you EndlessWaves, you helped me last year when I was looking at getting a desktop.
The laptop is going to be a Birthday present and is going to be used mainly for her university work (Fashion Design).
Most of the time it'll be used at her home although she will be taking it to the library and to university when she has to show her work.
unfortunately she dropped her Lenovo which has damaged the corner and cracked the screen so I don't think it's worth while trying to upgrade.
Yes the Dell Inspiron 15 was the one and looked a good price with the specs and included a dedicated graphics card, however the chargers on the last 2 Dell laptops we've had broke within warranty but Dell said that power leads weren't covered.... but having said that I know John Lewis have a good reputation when it comes down to faulty products.

Apart from not being able to run Photoshop and CAD at the same time she seems happy with her current laptop so I don't think there's any special requirements regarding the screen.

ta
 
An embedded graphics card like an NVIDIA is a must for flawless Photoshop and CAD work

We've just bought 4 of these: MSI GL62 7QF Gaming Laptop - Laptops at ebuyer for work to run a specific app, but they are a good solid laptop and the graphics are excellent. The HD screen makes photoshop work a lot easier and the keyboard is easy to type on.

Not so good just on batteries, but OK for browsing and word processing.
 
An embedded graphics card like an NVIDIA is a must for flawless Photoshop and CAD work

I didn't think Photoshop was a big GPU user, the list of GPU accelerated features on Adobe's website is fairly limited:
Photoshop graphics processor (GPU) card FAQ

3D CAD uses the graphics processor a lot. Although if the current X301 handles it fine then it's likely to be an undemanding use so it may not be worth the weight/power trade-off that a dedicated GPU imposes compared with the graphics processor in the CPU.

I'm not sure about 2D CAD software (drafting etc.)

Any thoughts on these ?Product comparison

The two on the outside are decent high powered machines, the HP offering a much faster GPU at the expense of no SSD.

The second one is big and heavy but not particularly powerful which likely means it stays relatively cool and quiet under heavy loads.

The Pavillion 14 looks like a reasonable lighter machine, although Pavillion fairly far down HP's range so I'm not sure if the build quality would be comparable to the likes of a Zenbook. You'd have to read some reviews.
 
Thank you both for your replies, very much appreciated.
Unfortunately her birthday is this Tuesday so I'm going to have to order tonight to get it for Tuesday, I think I'll go for the first one, I'm sure she'll love the SSD :)
 
i think that is a good choice
 
Well, what about some convertible laptop? I used to have one with Intel Baytrail processor and i could say that its good for small usage on photoshop. What about HP X360 and Asus TF100. I guess its suitable for your daughter since its really lightweight and you can take of the keyboard.
 
An embedded graphics card like an NVIDIA is a must for flawless Photoshop and CAD work

We've just bought 4 of these: MSI GL62 7QF Gaming Laptop - Laptops at ebuyer for work to run a specific app, but they are a good solid laptop and the graphics are excellent. The HD screen makes photoshop work a lot easier and the keyboard is easy to type on.

Not so good just on batteries, but OK for browsing and word processing.

I've been looking at similar spec laptops for two days and nights straight! That looks like a good buy. For £600, with those specs seems good. MSI don't have the best build quality compared to say Asus, but as long as its not chucked about, will be good.

I may buy it as a stop gap. Need a laptop for 6 weeks before the new Asus Zenbook UX550 is released at the end of July 2017!
 
An embedded graphics card like an NVIDIA is a must for flawless Photoshop and CAD work

We've just bought 4 of these: MSI GL62 7QF Gaming Laptop - Laptops at ebuyer for work to run a specific app, but they are a good solid laptop and the graphics are excellent. The HD screen makes photoshop work a lot easier and the keyboard is easy to type on.

Not so good just on batteries, but OK for browsing and word processing.


hi, I'm after a new laptop and this one looks good - I don't really do gaming as such, but like to edit photos etc and watch films etc...

some reviews are saying the 1TB hdd is a bit slow...but is it that slow? and is this laptop a bit overkill fir my needs? just want something fast when working on it... :)
 
hi, I'm after a new laptop and this one looks good - I don't really do gaming as such, but like to edit photos etc and watch films etc...

some reviews are saying the 1TB hdd is a bit slow...but is it that slow? and is this laptop a bit overkill fir my needs? just want something fast when working on it... :)

HDD space would never make difference on your performance no matter its 500 GB or even 1 TB. It would better if you pick one with SSD which is expensive for now. Samsung 15.6 is great if you do not mind with gaming since its convertible and the laptop is probably not good enough in handling the head. I have and it runs very well for doing some works.
 
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Cheers, yeah, I was thing more the slowness of the HDD rather than the size, but for my purpose it should be fine...but I'll check out the Samsung too...

There was also an Asus vivobook n552vx-fy304t which looks decent too...
 
I would say the MSI would benefit from a drive swap. The performance is fine, but an SSD will bring big gains. It's probably the weak point in the system.
 
yeah, seems the screen is poor too...but 600 quid is cheap tho... :)
 
and wifi poor too haha..!
 
and wifi poor too haha..!

How is the wifi poor?

Processor

Kabylake Intel Core i5-7300HQ 2.5GHz
Turbo boost up to 3.5GHz
Quad Core
6MB Cache
Chipset HM175
Memory

8GB DDR4 RAM
Hard Drive

1TB SATA
Optical Drive

Super Multi (9.5mm)
Software

Operating System: Windows 10 Home
Display

15.6" FHD, Anti-Glare eDP Vivid Color 94% (I)
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Graphics

NVIDIA GeForce[emoji768] GTX 960M
2GB GDDR5
Audio

4x 2W Speaker
1x Mic-in
1x Headphone-out (SPDIF)
Input Devices

Full Size Keyboard
Networking

Intel 3168 Sandy Peak 1 (1x1 802.11 ac)
Bluetooth v4.2
Power Supply

6 cell Battery 41 Whr
120W adapter
Dimensions

Width 383 mm
Depth 260 mm
Height 27 to 29 mm
Weight 2.4kg
Interfaces

1 x Type-C USB3.0
2 x Type-A USB3.0
1 x Type-A USB2.0
1 x RJ45
1 x SD (XC/HC)
1 x (4K @ 30Hz) HDMI
1 x Mini-DisplayPort
HD type (30fps@720p) Webcam
 
Thank you both for your replies, very much appreciated.
Unfortunately her birthday is this Tuesday so I'm going to have to order tonight to get it for Tuesday, I think I'll go for the first one, I'm sure she'll love the SSD :)

Which machine did you go for?
The comparison link is null.
 
just been out and saw a PC world so nipped in there to see what was what - as it's always nice to see laptops instead of just viewing photos etc... and as it happens they had both the MSI and the ASUS (tho, both slightly different models) and i was impressed with the build quality of the MSI more than the ASUS - as in reviews the MSI was slated a bit over this, tho, the screen is fairly flexible haha...so, as it stands, for 600 notes it does seem good...tho, my mates are saying lenovo a lot...will check them out too...
 
MSI screen is OK and the WiFi no better or worse than any other PC I've tried.

It's a basic gaming laptop, so good graphics card, usable keyboard and robust build.

I have a higher spec version - i7 processor, better keyboard, SSD program drive and stronger chassis. 2.5 years in and all is good :)
 
cheers...so worth buying then..? other alternatives you think? what's the downside of the screen for you?
 
The viewing angle is not the widest. It calibrated up OK though and it is nice and sharp.

For £600, we found them excellent value and we have 4 of them for a specific work application - we run bike turbo trainers on them. As such they have been totally reliable and crash free.
 

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