Laptop or Notebook?

[sammawow]

My Compaq Presario Laptop got knocked off a table and the monitor is shattered. My DH suggested getting an Acer Notebook to replace it. Does anyone know whether it is better to get another laptop or are notebooks good enough for lots of digital scrapping and lots of graphics? Also the Acer Notebook he found on sale has Windows Vista. I would appreciate any help on this. I am going through severe withdrawal without my laptop!!!

[Leslie]

Oh you poor sweetie! I feel for you. I had a Compaq Presario before this Sony Vaio laptop and I dropped it three times and have lines down the LCD screen. We still ahve it though, Alessandro is using it.

The new operating system Windows 7 is coming out in 2 months. Just something to thing about. You may be able to go from Vista to the new operating system, ask when you go in to look at the new laptops.

I am getting a new laptop when I come back from Italy - or for Christmas for myself.

I am getting one with a 17" screen to scrap better on and to watch TV shows and movies that I have downloaded.

I feel for you!!

[sammawow]

Luckily the hard drive is OK on the broken computer so I will be able to get all my pictures off of it.

Thanks so much for the input, Leslie!

[Kathleen]

Um, I'm confused. By notebook, do you mean one of the super compact e-machines? If so, they are typically very small, and really only meant for basic web surfing, email and slimmed down office suite. I would NOT suggest one of these for anything graphics related.

If you have a link to the machine your DH found, post it and I will have a look.

[sammawow]

The one DH found was the Acer Aspire 5516. I don't know if it is enough for scrapping and graphics. I currently have PSE 6 but want to upgrade to CS4. Here is a link for the Notebook:

http://us.acer.com/acer/seu30e.do?kcond61e.c2att101=62400&LanguageISOCtxParam=en&link=ln400e&CountryISOCtxParam=US&acond125e=62400&sp=page18e&ctx1g.c2att92=447&ctx2.c2att1=25&ctx1.att21k=1&CRC=2831904991

Thanks for looking, Kathleen.

[Kathleen]

OK, so the Acer laptop you reference is smaller than I would like for scrapping, but I know there are others that like that size just fine because they are still very portable. How is the Acer different than your existing machine? Can you look, feel, touch the Acer before committing to it?

The processor is a little on the slow side for graphics intense operations. I can do some more research later on comparing processors. Dedicated graphics memory is also good, and I am not seeing that listed on the specs.

[sammawow]

My broken laptop was a Compaq Presario and it's about 3 years old. It took forever to scrap with PSE 5 - it would just bog down. It could take up to 5 minutes to save a layout. So I have wanted something better anyway. I was just afraid that the Acer would maybe have those same problems. I would really like to replace it with one that can do the intense graphics operations.

DH did bring home an Acer to look at but I think that I might need to go to the store and try one there in case I can't use this one.

Thanks so much for helping me with this. If you find something that you think would work, please let me know. If I find something, would it be OK if I run it past you also?

Thanks, Teri

[terilew]

I agree with whoever suggested getting a laptop with dedicated graphics, that's the best way to go, and make sure you ask the sales person about windows 7 most computers will have a coupon to get a free upgrade now and you will want to upgrade to windows 7 it's a much better operating system. The bigger the LCD is the better too. I have a 14'1 screen and it drives me crazy because it's so small. No matter what you get just have fun with it! Oh, get a lot of RAM, photoshop is a RAM hog.
Terri

[guitargirl]

I just bought a new laptop. Here are a couple of links that may help you:

System Requirements for pse7 http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelwin/systemreqs/

System Requirements for pscs4 http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop/systemreqs/?promoid=DRHXB

[Kathleen]

My broken laptop was a Compaq Presario and it's about 3 years old. It took forever to scrap with PSE 5 - it would just bog down. It could take up to 5 minutes to save a layout. So I have wanted something better anyway. I was just afraid that the Acer would maybe have those same problems. I would really like to replace it with one that can do the intense graphics operations.

DH did bring home an Acer to look at but I think that I might need to go to the store and try one there in case I can't use this one.

Thanks so much for helping me with this. If you find something that you think would work, please let me know. If I find something, would it be OK if I run it past you also?

Thanks, Teri

I think it would be a good idea to get a look at a laptop that has the same or similar size and configuration before buying. Just make sure you are comfortable with screen size and keyboard layout, how heavy it is, etc.

The minimum requirements mentioned is a good reference point. The laptop you linked earlier would not meet the minimum for either Photoshop product (from a processor speed). You want a minimum 2GB memory, and the bigger the hard drive the better.

If you find something you are interested in, feel free to post specs or a link and I can try to comment, or one of the many other people here!

Good luck, I know computer shopping can be very exciting, but also very frustrating!

[Blesha]

The computer I have is a Notebook kind of computer by eMachines. It's got a 15.4" screen, and weighs around 2.3 kilos. I have Vista on it. It took me a couple of days to get used to the difference in menus, but then it worked out fine. I use Photoshop CS3 on it, and that works well too.

I'd recommend not to go any lower in screen size than 15.4". I would've liked to have a bigger screen I could connect to my Notebook computer when working with very small details.

[Miss Shannon]

The terms laptop and notebook are pretty much interchangeable, in fact I'd venture to say that "notebook" is more common these days. The super-small ones you might be thinking of are Netbooks. A netbook is low-end and portable and would not be good for scrapbooking.

Get at least 2gb of memory, but more RAM is better. Wait till Windows 7 comes out in October or get a Vista one that comes with a free upgrade, and don't forget to upgrade when the time comes(I've used the Windows 7 beta, and it's really good). If you get one with an intel processor, get one of the core duo/quad line. Don't let them give you a celeron or pentium-d. Those are crap. If you get one with an AMD processor, get one of the Athlon X2 or Turion X2 line, don't get one with a Sempron. I think around 15" is a good screen size. I probably wouldn't go any lower if it'll be your main machine, but the 17" ones can be really big and hard to move around, you might as well get a desktop.

The laptop you linked to would be okay, but it's a fairly low-end one. It's got a single-core processor and you'd be better off with duel-core. I think I've seen this model in the store, and it's pretty clunky. If you're on a tight budget it would do, but if you can spend a bit more, I'd get something nicer. Some of the nicest PC laptops available right now are the Sony Vaio line. Acer has some better ones than what you posted and you might look at Toshiba and Dell also.