New laptop needed, Kirisute?

[Manxman]

I'm in need of some advice, I'll ask the experts because I know about little laptops. My sister has got into photography and is using CS 5 portable on her very old Acer. The portable version of CS 5 has limited functionality. She's asked me to find her a new laptop and when she visits us at the end of April I will install the full version of CS5 and other software on the new laptop.

 

What do I advise her to buy?

 

Prefer a 17 inch display, but 15 would suffice.

Intel i3 processor or Amd equivalent.

8Gb ram.

All the laptops I've looked at are running Windows 8.1 which she is willing to try, but if she doesn't like it I can wipe it and install Win 7.

I've thought about this Acer Aspire E1-771 with a an upgrade of the Ram to 8GB.

 

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_E1-771_Core_i3_4GB_500GB_17.3_inch_Windows_8.1_Laptop_NX.MG7EK.005/version.asp

 

She said about £500 but would go a bit higher.

 

So Kirisute and gentlemen, any recommendations?

Edited March 22, 2014 by Manxman

[Phone]

Manx,

 

If you google "best laptop for 500" you will see a definite trend. Be sure you are looking at 2014. Damn things have gone up a hundred since last year.

 

Phone

[kirisute]

Recommendations

Don't touch an i3 or amd equivalent. The mobile versions just don't have the power they should have. You need i5 minimum.

Cs5 can take gpu hardware support so a video chipset would be nice if one could be found in budget.

Windows 8.1 with cs5 is absolutely fine! With 8.1 you can also boot direct to desktop so you hardly ever see the app interface anyway!

Avoid touchscreen gimmicks on laptops.

SSD will make a huge speed difference but will limit storage space for photos. An external solution would make a good backup device and compromise.

Acer are cheap but plasticky

Asus are ok but have a lot of 1st year failures recently.

Toshiba,hp,Lenovo,Sony you'll pay for brand but tend to get good build quality.

 

With all that in mind:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/703_7006_70006_0_ba00002921-bv00196057-ba00002522-bv00169428/1_3__xx-criteria.html

The extra £50 would be worth it in my book....but if you can find the same laptop cheaper then go for it!

Edited March 22, 2014 by kirisute

[Manxman]

Thank you both for the quick responses. That HP looks just what she needs, she has an external drive already for storing all her images. So with this laptop she'll have all the room required plus more.

 

Thank you both.

[Manxman]

A big Thank you from my sister Kirisute, she's on her way to Curry's to buy that laptop.

Edited March 22, 2014 by Manxman

[kirisute]

Cool!

Let me know how she gets on.

[Manxman]

Thanks again Kirisute, the laptop is spot on and with some help from myself using Google she's very happy with Win 8.1. Maybe when she's over next month and I have look at it my idea's about Win 8 will change.

[kirisute]

Come April 8th windows 8.1 will be getting an upgrade which adds a few extra bits like an easy access shutdown option and ability to snap apps to taskbar in desktop.

After that MS have announced that the start menu is returning! Whether that's an update to 8.1 or coming with windows 9 remains to be seen though!

[chesters1]

I use the iobit start button it does pretty well what it did before it vanished

[kirisute]

New one will feature live tiles of apps so it would seem. Looks quite snazzy!