Need to buy a Laptop
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Need to buy a Laptop
Hey guys,
My girlfriend is looking for a decent laptop under NZD $2000 (which is USD$1500 approx).
She wants it for Photoshop CS3, 3DS Max, Freehand and Sony DVD Architect.
These are the models I have come across so far
Toshiba Satellite A300/E00 Notebook
Features:
Cheers to mah man E-I-R-I-K
- nicksthegreat
- Posts: 549
- Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 1:40 am
- Location: NZ
I've had a Toshiba for almost 2 1/2 years. Other than the fact that the hard drive went after 2 years and 4 months (4 months past the 2 year extended warranty I bought) I've had no issues.
- phileysmiley
- Media Director
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- Location: Delray Beach FL USA
- Real Name: Larry Richman
If she wants to use lots of photoshop and 3ds max, you definitely want a lot of processing power and ram. The T9300 is probably where you'll get the most bang for the buck. It's the latest generation of Intel laptop chips afaik. 3gb of RAM is fine... if not you should be able to upgrade to 4gb pretty cheap. Another things you'll want is HDD space. If you don't get much initially, be sure to hook her up with an external drive. One thing I noticed is that if a laptop lists like 320gb of HDD space, it's really just got 2 160gb HDDs. So keep that in mind. Another thing is that a bigger screen will definitely be better for graphics work. If she's doing a lot, I'd recommend at least a 17". She'll probably thank you in the end. But also with the big screen, you're going to want high resolution for detailed work. My 17" is 1440x900, which works fine for normal use and gaming but I hear that if you want real graphics you'll want a full 1920x1200.
Also, as far as video cards go, I think the Quaddro line from Nvidia is made for rendering things like 3d models.
Here's one I found that can be configured pretty well and fits your budget (it's under $1400). 17" 1900x1200 screen, 3gb of RAM, T8300 (should be upgradeable to the 9300 later if necessary but performance is still comparable to that of the 9300 so not worth a huge price difference), 8600GT (not a quaddro but better than integrated), 250gb hdd space, for $1368. You might be able to find something better if you look around but this will hopefully give you an idea of what you're looking for. Check sites like techbargains... they have some pretty nice deals.
Also, as far as video cards go, I think the Quaddro line from Nvidia is made for rendering things like 3d models.
Here's one I found that can be configured pretty well and fits your budget (it's under $1400). 17" 1900x1200 screen, 3gb of RAM, T8300 (should be upgradeable to the 9300 later if necessary but performance is still comparable to that of the 9300 so not worth a huge price difference), 8600GT (not a quaddro but better than integrated), 250gb hdd space, for $1368. You might be able to find something better if you look around but this will hopefully give you an idea of what you're looking for. Check sites like techbargains... they have some pretty nice deals.
Thanks for all the information guys. Appreciate it.
We got the Toshiba Satellite A300/E00 Notebook today.
We got it upgraded to 4GB for free.
Got a good deal for a 3 Year warranty.
And half price on a wireless logitech mouse.
Total: NZD $1828
Booting it up now woop!!
We got the Toshiba Satellite A300/E00 Notebook today.
We got it upgraded to 4GB for free.
Got a good deal for a 3 Year warranty.
And half price on a wireless logitech mouse.
Total: NZD $1828
Booting it up now woop!!
Cheers to mah man E-I-R-I-K
- nicksthegreat
- Posts: 549
- Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 1:40 am
- Location: NZ
Sorry mate i did not make it clear, Vista is already installed on the Laptop. I cant find anything under the Properties of the Disk Drive
Cheers to mah man E-I-R-I-K
- nicksthegreat
- Posts: 549
- Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 1:40 am
- Location: NZ
Sure. Go to disk management (right click Computer>Manage) and then at the bottom section select the drive and right click and you'll see what the options are. You should be able to shrink the Vista partition depending on how much space is available, and then from the free space create a new partition.
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