Laptop for college and photoshop work.

[magic couch]

1. What is your budget?

$900 after tax (tax where i live is 9%)

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?

15 inches preferably

3. What screen resolution do you want?

Not too important, but the higher the better i suppose.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?

More on the portable side I'd say.

5. How much battery life do you need?

As much as possible because she's using it at school where outlets aren't always available.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?

No

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)

Drawing and editing images with photoshop. I think that's the most intensive task she's doing.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?

As much as possible.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

Newegg mostly, but it doesn't matter.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?

As long as possible.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?

Not necessary, but if it has one thats fine.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.

No preference, just what's good for the money.

13. What country do you live in?

United States.

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

I have a friend that needs to buy a new laptop. I know a lot about desktop specs and what to buy, but I'm not as well versed in laptop hardware and whats good for the money. Does anyone know how mobile processors compare to their desktop counterparts. Are they usually just the same die but with a different name and a lower clock rate/tdp?

 

[The Kasafist]

Are you having this as pre-built or custom built? Near all pre-built will run you $1K or higher which is why I'm thinking custom built?

Update: In this thread PsyKhiqZero says exactly what I was thinking I hope this information helps out some. I will search more if an expert doesn't get to get back to you. At least here you have a link that allows you to do some level of customization with a barebones laptop! Hope this helps?!
http/www.tomshardware.com/forum/323948-31-where-parts-custom-build-laptop

"The most barebones of laptops will only be missing RAM, CPU, and HDD. Building your own from "scratch" is pretty much impossible. Try shopping at http/www.xoticpc.com
They use barebones laptops and will sell you compatible CPU, GPU's. If you want to the satisfaction of building it yourself. you can always rip it apart."

 

[magic couch]

It doesn't look like the prices on xotic really are any cheaper than just buying a prebuilt. The only thing I see here is some slight customization. I don't know where you're pulling the 1K number from, not even custom desktops will give you that much savings over pre-built except in extreme scenarios. Unless there is an appreciable price difference, which i currently don't see, I think a prebuilt laptop would be a better idea.

 

[The Kasafist]

It doesn't look like the prices on xotic really are any cheaper than just buying a prebuilt. The only thing I see here is some slight customization. I don't know where you're pulling the 1K number from, not even custom desktops will give you that much savings over pre-built except in extreme scenarios. Unless there is an appreciable price difference, which i currently don't see, I think a prebuilt laptop would be a better idea.

Well yea I know what you mean I was just saying mobile technology to me is pretty pricey considering it doesn't perform equal to its desktop counter part. But hey companies can charge a lot just cause of the fact that well heck its mobile right LOL!

Here is something important you say photoshop but are we talking like the whole mater suite like CS6 or more basic level stuff like some photo editing but nothing crazy?

 

[magic couch]

She's doing drawing mostly, and maybe using some of its features to enhance or edit her drawings, nothing crazy like 3D model editing. I'm guessing she doesn't really need to spend $900? Something with a quad core and integrated graphics should be enough? Maybe even a dual core with hyperthreading?

 

[The Kasafist]

Well yea I know what you mean I was just saying mobile technology to me is pretty pricey considering it doesn't perform equal to its desktop counter part. But hey companies can charge a lot just cause of the fact that well heck its mobile right LOL!

Here is something important you say photoshop but are we talking like the whole mater suite like CS6 or more basic level stuff like some photo editing but nothing crazy?

She's doing drawing mostly, and maybe using some of its features to enhance or edit her drawings, nothing crazy like 3D model editing. I'm guessing she doesn't really need to spend $900? Something with a quad core and integrated graphics should be enough? Maybe even a dual core with hyperthreading?
[/quotemsg]

Well these programs benefit from more cores which also benefit from more memory also I would stick to a quad core with a decent amount of RAM and she should be golden my friend. Plenty of pre-built laptops should be able to manage those specs as well. I think for a laptop is just simply a matter of hunting down the right laptop!

 

[magic couch]

This laptop seems pretty good for the price and should last a while, but I'm having a lot of trouble finding good professional reviews of it. I can never seem to find any professional reviews for any particular model of laptop I'm looking at.

Another thing that I've been seeing all too often. Notebookcheck has a review of this laptop which looks pretty good, but when I google it I'm only getting results from European websites. Since when are laptop models only sold in certain regions? I had no idea this is a thing.

 

[The Kasafist]

This laptop seems pretty good for the price and should last a while, but I'm having a lot of trouble finding good professional reviews of it. I can never seem to find any professional reviews for any particular model of laptop I'm looking at.

Another thing that I've been seeing all too often. Notebookcheck has a review of this laptop which looks pretty good, but when I google it I'm only getting results from European websites. Since when are laptop models only sold in certain regions? I had no idea this is a thing.

That should do just fine I agree. That i5 and 6GB RAM will do it some justice also.