Hardware help/advise needed

[kybo]

I know I'm gonna be waffling on about laptops but, as my main concern will be running CS5 and other photo editting programs, I thought it more appropriate here as I want my captive audience to be like minded togs...

...I have a very limited budget of £400 to spend on a laptop.

My requirements:

Need to be able to run CS5 (preferred) or Elements plus all other manner of smaller image programs.
Needs HDMI as I want to hook it up to LED TV.
2, possibly 3 USB connections

I think that's it, basically.

I have a couple in mind; my major concerns relate to the Graphics memory (will onboard work? etc) is more RAM/slower CPU better the fast CPU/less RAm etc.

I have specs for 3 laptops. Can you gaze over them and tell me which is the best and, more importantly, will it do the job/suffice?

Lappy 1 - Acer Apsire 5552
AMD Phenom II N830 Triple Core (2.1GHz)(1.5 MB L2 cache)
8g DDR3 (1066MHZ)Ram
500GB Hard Drive
15.6" TFT Acer CineCrystal - 1366x768 HD, High Brightness, LED Backlit
Integrated ATi Radeon HD 4250 Graphics (with up to 895MB Shared Memory)
Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
Wireless 802.11 b/g/n
2-in-1 Card Reader (SD, MMC)
3 x USB 2.0 Ports
1 x HDMi Port
Battery Life 3-4 Hours
£375

Lappy 2 - Toshiba Sat Pro L650-1QH
Intel Core i3-380M Dual Core 2.53GHz (380M, 3MB Cache)
4.0g DDR3 1066MHZ Ram
320GB Hard Drive
15.6" Toshiba Trubrite TFT - 1366x768 WXGA resolution, LED Backlight
DVDRW +/- Dual Layer Super Multi
Dedicated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 Graphics (with 512MB Dedicated DDR3 Ram)
Integrated Webcam with Microphone
Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
Wireless 802.11 b/g/n
2-in-1 Card Reader (SD, MMC)
Bluetooth Version 2.0
3 x USB 2.0 Ports
1 x HDMi Port
1 x eSATA Port
Battery Life 2-3 Hours
£375

Lappy 3 - ASUS K52-EX635V
Intel Core i3 Dual Core 2.4GHz (370M, 3MB Cache)
6.0g DDR3 Ram
320GB Sata Hard Drive
15.6" Asus Color-Shine) TFT, 1366x768, HD
DVDRW +/- Dual Layer Super Multi
Integrated Intel HD Graphics (with up to 1274MB Shared Memory)
Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
Wireless 802.11 b/g/n
4-in-1 Card Reader (MS, MS Pro, MMC, SD)
3 x USB 2.0 Ports
1 x HDMi Port
Battery Life 3-4 Hours
£375

The biggest confusion I have is this: Is a dedicated graphics card with say 512Mb better than shared graphics with say 2Gb available from RAM?

happy to receive any recommendations, too

Sorry for long winded post and thanks for taking the time to reply

Much appreciated,
Scott

[Dogsey]

I would say that all of those will comfortably do what you want. For reference my netbook runs CS5 without any problem and all the ones above are well above that spec.

[kybo]

Excellent news. Thank you very much.

I was informed that I may need a laptop with a dedicated card as CS5 can be very heavy on resources, particularly graphically. Sounds like an attempt to boost commission then!!

Might have to see if I can get a 17.3in lappy in under budget then

I imagine I'd still need at least 4Gb RAM and a decent processor (over 2Ghz), though?

Thanks,
Scott

[MartinP]

My old desktop machine had 4GB of RAM and really struggled at times when running CS5 and Lightroom side by side, so I'd definitely get much RAM and as fast a processor as budget allows.

[kybo]

So, with little budget left for RAM upgrades, Lappy 2 is ruled out for having the least RAM.

Desite having the slower processor I'm leaning towards Lappy 1, but I don't know why, really; possibly due to RAM and HDD size.

Are there any highstreet laptops better for the money?? I find that you find what lookslike a good 1 until you view the specs only to find 1 part lets it down

What order of importance should I place the components in?

RAM
CPU
Graphics
HDD

or is that all wrong?

Thx
S

Edited by kybo on Wednesday 26th October 21:19

[The Moose]

To be fair, that's a tough call!!

Might I suggest you have a look at second hand - I always find you get more bang for your buck there

[Felters]

Go for RAM - they are all so similar price wise that performance will be close which ever you pick. If you really need a laptop for mobility you also should be thinking about battery life and weight as well. If you don't need a laptop for mobility then go for a desktop system.

[Stu R]

The first option would be getting my £375. It should also be able to run CS5 easily.

Things like RAM and HDDs can be upgraded easily - RAM prices seem to be in freefall at the minute too, which is a bonus. Sadly HDD prices will be doing the opposite and skyrocketing.

[kybo]

Felters said:

If you really need a laptop for mobility you also should be thinking about battery life and weight as well. If you don't need a laptop for mobility then go for a desktop system.

It's an impossible task, given the budget constraints, but we're replacing the desktop at home so can't really go back to another one; it currently resides in the computer room (sorry, technical term is the spare bedroom) but the OH want's it putting back to a spare bedroom so it's gotta go (into storage if I get my way!). I need the mobility to be able to take it out with me but I also need to be able to do with it what I could do with my desktop (foregoing any gaming though).

Unless I go way over budget I think I'm looking at about 3-4 hours max. I have an inverter for the car - hopefully it'll power the lappy if that's not enough

S