I'm getting a new laptop for the start of grad school (mostly because my last one got stolen), so I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations. I'm trying to spend around $900-1000, just to give you an idea. The biggest questions lie in how much memory, hard drive space, etc. that I need for renderings and Photoshopping. Really, I'm just wondering if anyone out there thinks that it's worth having 2GB of RAM as opposed to 1GB...or those sorts of questions. Thanks!
for 1K i'm not too sure what you can get unless you find something with a rebate. HP have poor battery life esp when the machine has cool do-dats like the 1gb of memory. I just changed to a Dell its been 10months and i'm quite happy with it. Pull and dock pieces...its good for upgrades.
max it out if you want to do any rendering... otherwise you will just be doing the usual email, ms office, and maybe an occasional adobe program. (some guys in my studio just got a HP...all they do is render)
i have heard that vista is extremely code heavy and while they say 1GB of ram should be fine, it isn't...even for lightweight tasks like word processors and surfing. but ram is cheap so i would invest in a more powerful processor and upgrade the memory later.
i just picked up a dell inspiron 1505 with 2g ram, very smooth.. look for something with a core 2 duo processori if you can, they're a signifigant improvment over the core duo.
2g is a good amount. ask anyone, it's usually a pain to use the school's computers, especially at the end of the term when idiots decide to commandeer them to render on.
also look out for the video card, you should avoid integrated video cards, or cards which do not have independent memory
don't bother with windows vista. it doesn't support openGL which means it will virtually cripple some 3d applications. the one i just bought came with it, i'm downgrading to xp right now
what else? a 17 inch display is probably a good idea, unless you'll be trucking it around a lot.
with your budget constrained as much as it is (i'm in the same situation) you're not going to be able to afford anything very glitzy, like a mac, sony or thinkpad, i'd look at dells, maybe you can find a toshiba for a good price. check out dell outlet, they sell refurbs and returned stuff. the one i got is a "scratch and dent" i havn't been able to find anything wrong with it other than a very small scratch, and it cost about 500 less than retail.
Apr 26, 07 8:03 pm ·
·
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.
Laptop for grad school
I'm getting a new laptop for the start of grad school (mostly because my last one got stolen), so I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations. I'm trying to spend around $900-1000, just to give you an idea. The biggest questions lie in how much memory, hard drive space, etc. that I need for renderings and Photoshopping. Really, I'm just wondering if anyone out there thinks that it's worth having 2GB of RAM as opposed to 1GB...or those sorts of questions. Thanks!
You can get by with 1GB of ram is your school has desktops you can use for really heavy tasks, but 2GB will make its useful lifespan longer
for 1K i'm not too sure what you can get unless you find something with a rebate. HP have poor battery life esp when the machine has cool do-dats like the 1gb of memory. I just changed to a Dell its been 10months and i'm quite happy with it. Pull and dock pieces...its good for upgrades.
i upgraded by RAM to 1.25 Gig and computer still lags when I have autocad, photoshop, illustrator open.
2GB of RAM is definitely worth it, especially with vista.
hard drive space. more than 80GB for sure. and you should carry mini external hard drive.
sparch that shouldnt be the case...you might want to defrag your machine
Oh make sure your hard drive is faster than 5600k
sorry that last statement for for nomadic
Maybe try a manufacturer refurbished MacBook?
max it out if you want to do any rendering... otherwise you will just be doing the usual email, ms office, and maybe an occasional adobe program. (some guys in my studio just got a HP...all they do is render)
try the dell 1705- maxed out on RAM. Works well here--
get a tablet:
i have heard that vista is extremely code heavy and while they say 1GB of ram should be fine, it isn't...even for lightweight tasks like word processors and surfing. but ram is cheap so i would invest in a more powerful processor and upgrade the memory later.
i just picked up a dell inspiron 1505 with 2g ram, very smooth.. look for something with a core 2 duo processori if you can, they're a signifigant improvment over the core duo.
2g is a good amount. ask anyone, it's usually a pain to use the school's computers, especially at the end of the term when idiots decide to commandeer them to render on.
also look out for the video card, you should avoid integrated video cards, or cards which do not have independent memory
don't bother with windows vista. it doesn't support openGL which means it will virtually cripple some 3d applications. the one i just bought came with it, i'm downgrading to xp right now
what else? a 17 inch display is probably a good idea, unless you'll be trucking it around a lot.
with your budget constrained as much as it is (i'm in the same situation) you're not going to be able to afford anything very glitzy, like a mac, sony or thinkpad, i'd look at dells, maybe you can find a toshiba for a good price. check out dell outlet, they sell refurbs and returned stuff. the one i got is a "scratch and dent" i havn't been able to find anything wrong with it other than a very small scratch, and it cost about 500 less than retail.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.