under £300 laptop

finnalope

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Dec 15, 2013
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What is the best laptop for using photoshop under £300?
It also needs to have a large HDD for storeage of photos
 
It would seem from PC World's website that you can have a choice of four from one manufacturer in that price range and that's Advent. Nothing wrong with Advent, of course, but any of those will work with Photoshop but that could cost you several hundred pounds unless you already own it.

Storage of photographs, particularly highly edited ones you worked hard on, is safest outside the laptop in an external hard disk which is then stored in a fireproof safe.

Things may change in a week or so - retailers are getting nervous and will start discounting heavily.
 
I seen at Walmart a $249US Laptop, basically a i3 Core, usually 4-6GB Ram, the norm is around 500GB-1TB of storage and using Integrated Graphics. Photoshop will work on any such low end 'entry level' computer but the problems come out as follows:

It is VERY slow to work with, the HDD is usually 5400RPM which takes a while to load and the IG is not made for 'high end' graphics. It may crash Windows if pushed hard; so you open 10 Websites, working on 5 layers over 3 pictures then you try to open Email POOF! Windows BSOD, why? Because the computer isn't made for that heavy level work, especially a laptop. Go easy on it, don't try to over task the system and you will be fine.

But 1TB isn't enough I work on 200MB files all the time! or That is too low I can't deal with not having at least 50 websites open and work in 50 layers over 12 images at a easy clip! or What do you mean it will take a good ten minutes to load, compile then save one single image! or What do you mean I can't run three 30" displays at the same time!
- IF these or any other concerns are too unacceptable to just live with, then you need to pony it up. Normal Graphics designers use $700US to $1200 machines, usually because they also use two or three external displays which requires alot more horsepower and thus requires you pony up more money.

Intel website tells you, i3 for general (grandma checking email) use, i5 for moderate / gaming use, i7 for heavy work/performance like serious gaming, video editing, large /detailed image editing (photoshop), etc. Video cards also 'step' like that. So if you want to go cheap, then make sure YOUR expectations MEET that level of performance you will ONLY get from that level.
 

beyondlogic

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Jun 6, 2013
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realisticly you arent going to find anything good for 300 your looking more between that

a4 low end laptop decent hd space cheap touch screen small compact
http://www.medion.com/gb/prod/MEDION%C2%AE+AKOYA%C2%AE++E1317T+Laptop+%28MD98448%29/30016317A1

a6 5200 decent cheap good for every day tasks.
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/lenovo-g505-a6-15-6-laptop-21707557-pdt.html

higher level laptop cons no dvd writer easily sorted you could get a portable dvd writer 20 of amazon
a10 laptop
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/acer-v5-552-15-6-laptop-iron-21743673-pdt.html

 
Beyondlogic: Yeah but those are all APUs you listed (A4/A6/A10), not even FX-4xxx or FX-6xxx. APUs are cheap dirty quick 'turn on write email, check a website' limited performance, they wouldn't be worthy to work with such programs. In comparison could offer a FX-4xxx to do 'low end performance' on par with a i3 or FX-6xxx as real machines just below / same as a i5 which goes for $349 at Walmart too. At least then the poor systems wouldn't choke on the APUs CPU then.
 

beyondlogic

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Jun 6, 2013
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um last i checked he asked for a laptop not a desktop there are no fx chipsets made for laptops.
apu are fine for photoshop and basic tasks

and hes asking for 300 pounds not dollars which currency is alot diffrent.

other alternatives close to your mark for faster cpu

http://www.medion.com/gb/prod/MEDION+AKOYA+S4213+Ultrabook%E2%84%A2+%28MD98309%29/30015481A1

http://www.medion.com/gb/prod/MEDION+AKOYA+E6227+Laptop+%28MD98331%29/30015462A1

however the apu is probly your cheapest bet and will run every day tasks like people have pointed out its not the fastest in terms of cpu power unless you count a10 which is close to a i3 and a6 5200 is between pentium and i3