Choosing A Laptop

[Steven Ladner]

Any computer experts here? I used a friend's Asus laptop a while back and really liked it. I'm trying to find a new one as the current laptop I use is old and kind of slow. I was looking at this one in the link below:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

It's in my price range and probably will be the one I pick. I just wanted to see if someone out there that's an expert with computers could take a look at the specs or let me know if you think it would be a good choice. Thanks for any help

[NateFollmer]

Look at NewEgg.com or TigerDirect.com for good laptop deals. I buy all my computer parts from both these places. That listing is removed so I don't know the specs, but Asus, Acer and HP are all PC's I like (yes I said HP). What do you want to do with your pc? Just using it for the web and basic word processing? Just about anything will work. If you want to get into graphics and that kind of stuff? Look for something strong like a Quad core CPU, at least 4GB of RAM and at minimum a 320GB hard drive.

[Steven Ladner]

Thanks Nate. Not sure why it's showing as removed. Here's a few specs:

Intel Pentium Dual Core P6200

4GB of DDR3 1066MHz DRAM, 2 slots, 8GB Max

500GB Hard Drive (5400 RPM); Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) Operating System

I have been looking for an upgrade, my current laptop is a Toshiba is rather old. I plan on buying Photoshop in the next couple of weeks and was hoping the laptop I'm looking at would work well with it.

[Stringjam]

I'll second Nate's rec of Tiger Direct or NewEgg. You'll get a good price and good service / support from either.

Pretty much any new laptop will be able to run PS. If it's in your budget, I would go with a Core i5 processor or better over the Pentium stuff. Minimum 4GB of RAM and you're good to go. You'll see a bit faster loading times if you get something with a 7200 rpm drive as well, but I wouldn't trip too hard on that.

[NateFollmer]

x2 on String Jam's suggestion - If you want to run PS, and you can afford them, i5's are the way to go. I run PS here at work on a Pentium 4 (single core) 3.0GHz and only 2 Gigs of RAM. It works... but man is it slow! That laptop you mentioned will work great with PS though. The only time I run into trouble is when I'm designing large print projects... I did a 6"x3" banner at 300dpi, it took my computer 25 minutes to do a simple rotation of an image LOL The PS file was over 10 Gigs when I was done... Never again will I do that on this work pc!

[Hyrule Bass]

i cant support that Acer suggestion, every Acer ive seen hasnt lasted 2 years barely before something inside burns up. Acers are crap in my opinion. My HP has served me well though, and the Asus's ive used have been ok too. Also, anything Dell is bound to slow down severly in a couple years after purchase, they just bog down. Toshiba is probably one of the better laptops on the market right now...

[CWB]

By no means a "GEEK" but my daughter has a Sony and my son has a HP. Both have Core I5 processors and 4G mem. The HP has a bigger hard drive at 7200 rpm. Both seem to serve them well. Sidenote on Sony- My daughters locked up and wouldn't start for whatever reason. A call to Sony and some diagnostics resulted in them sending a new hard drive for free and after the 5 minute install, good as new. Best Buy wanted $200.00 to even look at it even though it was still in warranty and they are a supposed service center.

By the way, neither of them seem to be as fast as my $399.99 Compaq PC at home.