So I really need some good advice/help on buying a laptop for school/work. I know very little about computers, and any computer place that I have gone to around my house has been absolutely useless. Apparently you don't need to know computers in order to work in repairs/assistance anymore... haha...Any ways..
I'm currently a student in Graphic Design and do digital illustration work. I use/will be using programs such as: Adobe Photoshop CS2 (but may be upgrading to CS4 w/ Illustrator CS4, InDesign CS4, Flash CS4, etc), Corel Painter X, GIMP, Wacom Tablet and your basics like Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel. I also will be using it for videos, pictures and music. I think that's all....
In a couple years I will be going into an Animation program, and if I end up with software such as Maya, I want to know if a laptop can handle that. Buuuut that's not for a while, so my main concern is the programs I listed above.
I've been looking at 3 models:
Sager NP8662
-Intel Centrino Platform
-45nm Intel Core Duo Processor T9goo/6MB L2 Cache, 2.80GHz, 1066MHz FSB
(there's other options like: P9700/6MB L2 Cache, 2.80GHz * OR T9900/ *, 3.06GHz, * OR Quad Processor Q9000/ *. 2.0GHz, * - not sure which one to choose)
-Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M Graphics w/1GB GDDR3
-Vista Home Premium 64-bit
-6GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 1x4GB + 1x2GB
-500GB 5400rpm SATA 300HD OR 500GB 7200rpm SATA 300HD
Dell Studio 15
-Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 (2.53GHz/10ggMhz FSB/3MB cache)
-Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1
-8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz
-500GB SATA Hard Drive 5400RPM OR 320GB SATA Hard Drive 7200rpm
- Video Card: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD OR 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 OR 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570
Alienware Area-51 m15x
-512MB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870 OR 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800M GT OR 512MB NVIDIA Quadro FX 3600M: The Creative Pro's choice for advanced content creation
-Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 2.5GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB) OR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9500 2.6GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB) OR Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme X9000 2.8GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB) - Vista Home Premium 64-bit
- 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 2048MB
-500GB 7,200RPM (16MB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
Also, I was looking at Macs for a bit, but I'm not sure that I want to make the switch over.... But again, I don't know much of what they're capable of.
So any help/advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
I'm currently a student in Graphic Design and do digital illustration work. I use/will be using programs such as: Adobe Photoshop CS2 (but may be upgrading to CS4 w/ Illustrator CS4, InDesign CS4, Flash CS4, etc), Corel Painter X, GIMP, Wacom Tablet and your basics like Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel. I also will be using it for videos, pictures and music. I think that's all....
In a couple years I will be going into an Animation program, and if I end up with software such as Maya, I want to know if a laptop can handle that. Buuuut that's not for a while, so my main concern is the programs I listed above.
I've been looking at 3 models:
Sager NP8662
-Intel Centrino Platform
-45nm Intel Core Duo Processor T9goo/6MB L2 Cache, 2.80GHz, 1066MHz FSB
(there's other options like: P9700/6MB L2 Cache, 2.80GHz * OR T9900/ *, 3.06GHz, * OR Quad Processor Q9000/ *. 2.0GHz, * - not sure which one to choose)
-Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M Graphics w/1GB GDDR3
-Vista Home Premium 64-bit
-6GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 1x4GB + 1x2GB
-500GB 5400rpm SATA 300HD OR 500GB 7200rpm SATA 300HD
Dell Studio 15
-Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 (2.53GHz/10ggMhz FSB/3MB cache)
-Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1
-8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz
-500GB SATA Hard Drive 5400RPM OR 320GB SATA Hard Drive 7200rpm
- Video Card: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD OR 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 OR 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570
Alienware Area-51 m15x
-512MB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870 OR 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800M GT OR 512MB NVIDIA Quadro FX 3600M: The Creative Pro's choice for advanced content creation
-Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 2.5GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB) OR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9500 2.6GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB) OR Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme X9000 2.8GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB) - Vista Home Premium 64-bit
- 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 2048MB
-500GB 7,200RPM (16MB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
Also, I was looking at Macs for a bit, but I'm not sure that I want to make the switch over.... But again, I don't know much of what they're capable of.
So any help/advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks!