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Photoshop on a laptop on a budget?

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  • 27-07-2016 8:40pm
    #1
    Pompous
    Registered Users Posts: 650 ✭✭✭


    Hello.

    I would like to buy a second hand laptop for photo editing as cheap as possible.

    Can anyone recommend a laptop that would suit my needs, or be willing to explain what sort of specs I should look for? I just want to run photoshop smoothly while editing high resolution photos.

    Any help would be very much appreciated! :)

    I'm familiar with PC's and have built my own, but laptops are a whole new ballgame for me :confused:


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    #2
    Alanstrainor
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 23,157 Mod ✭✭✭✭Alanstrainor


    Do you have any idea of what files sizes you're going to be editing, or what kind of resolution? The reason I ask, is that photoshop really doesn't take much to run relatively smoothly so long as your editing is on the more basic side of things.

    I would be looking for a laptop with 8GB or RAM, a core i3 processor or better and the disk size doesn't matter. It all depends on your budget really.


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    #3
    Pompous
    Registered Users Posts: 650 ✭✭✭Pompous


    Thanks for the reply Alanstrainor.

    I'll be editing DSLR raw files that are 25MB to begin with, which gets quite a bit larger depending on what I want to do with the file in photoshop.

    Do you think 8GB and a core i3 could handle that?


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    #4
    choons
    Registered Users Posts: 768 ✭✭✭choons


    8GB is plenty and i3 would be fine for this. Go to an i5 if you can afford it.

    The biggest difference at this level would be an SSD which will load and save files noticeably faster than a disk drive.


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    #5
    Pompous
    Registered Users Posts: 650 ✭✭✭Pompous


    What do you think of 8GB, i5, 128GB SSD

    Second hand, "like new", for €300? Is that a good price, does anyone know?

    Edit: I just checked Harvey Normans' prices as a guide. This seems like a sweet enough deal, if it really is like new...


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    #6
    choons
    Registered Users Posts: 768 ✭✭✭choons


    Sounds good although with 128gb you will run out of space if saving photos on the laptop. You would fit windows, Photoshop and 3000 photos excluding music, films or other files. Be prepared to need an external drive for more storage.

    Do you have the model number?


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    #7
    Alanstrainor
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 23,157 Mod ✭✭✭✭Alanstrainor


    I edit my RAW files in lightroom for the most part and have no issue with RAM usage to be honest. 128GB is simply not going to be enough for photos. I would say you are better going with a high capacity HDD, and perhaps saving up for a 500GB SSD in the future.


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    #8
    Pompous
    Registered Users Posts: 650 ✭✭✭Pompous


    It's a HP Probook 6470b. I can choose a 500GB HDD instead of the 128GB SSD.

    It doesn't have a dedicated graphics card. Is that ok?


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    #9
    Alanstrainor
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 23,157 Mod ✭✭✭✭Alanstrainor


    Pompous wrote: »
    It's a HP Probook 6470b. I can choose a 500GB HDD instead of the 128GB SSD.

    It doesn't have a dedicated graphics card. Is that ok?

    No need for dedicated graphics.

    The pro's for the SSD:
    Very fast performance, the computer will start lightning fast and save photos quickly.

    Con: Really tight on space. I shoot RAWs that are generally 25MB a pop, and I've shot 45GB of photos in the last couple of months. Granted you should probably have external storage as well, but it is a major pain in the ass copying between disks.


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