jess1merlin Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Having recently moved, we no longer have room for our desktop which OH used for all his photography and we need to invest in a laptop for him to use. I know he needs one that has a large memory and that he might need to get an external hard drive, but a friend has said we need to look for one that has an I5 chip as it will be more efficient. He only wants to use it for his photography and surfing the web so I'm not sure if we really need this. Please can anyone give me any advice as I really don't know what to go for Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 I'm no expert but he won't need an i5 for just doing that, what I would do in that situation is to look at his storage and back-up set up; if it was me, I''d store the photos online on one of the cloud-type storage facilities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoid Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 That is a very broad range, do you have a budget or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickric Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Does he just want to store his photos or manipulate them in something like Photoshop? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leicester_H Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 I''d store the photos online on one of the cloud-type storage facilities. I'm always dubious about that sort of thing (but thats me). What if they stop providing the facility ? How secure are they ? Who owns the rights. I like to maintain control (yes - I am a control freak!) - with plenty of BACKUPS - storage is cheap these days. Laptops change so fast - prices stay about the same but you get more for your money as time goes by - I wouldn't buy any higher spec than you reasonably expect to need in the next 3 (?) years (photo's can be transferred to new laptop as and when needed) H Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddie Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 We buy Dell, from Dell, they do everything to your specs, and are really helpful to an old fool like me, who is not Tech minded. that's me giving an opinion, to open the floodgates!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jess1merlin Posted December 31, 2012 Author Share Posted December 31, 2012 We have a budget of up to £450 so are hoping we might find somethingin the sales. He does normally use adobe or photoshop so is hoping to carry on using these. He does take a lot of photos as it is his hobby and regularly takes over 200 photographs at air shows or country shows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlottechicken Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 I now store my documents, including photos, on an external hard drive. I have a Toshiba aluminium one, not much bigger than an i phone, and holds so much, OH says I will struggle to fill it. You can use it on any computer, and we take it on holiday so I can load photos on every day. Think it cost about £45 from Amazon about 6 months ago. Edited to add **this is it** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoid Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 If he uses photoshop then it is worth getting one with an i5 processor (i7 if you can). This one is quite good, a little over budget, but has 1TB internal storage and 6GB ram. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickric Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 Agree with Fred re i5 What about this one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charly1979 Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 Having just done a degree in computing and also learning the hard way you will need to have more than one option to back up your files, we were always told that you need 3 different copies ie email (not great if you are storing loads of pics so more for files etc) external hard drive usb etc etc, and I really did learn the hard way my hard drive died as I was doing my final project my husbands a software engineer so he mangaged to get enough life out of it for my to retreave a few important documents the rest had to be started from scratch and I had only myself to blame. I would say that if you were going to be using it for graphics etc you cany go wrong with a MacBook Pro but you would need a larger budget, I have converted to Apple (but sneaklily still run Windows on it as all my software is windows based etc) however I have found Dell prettty good in the past in fact just revived my old one from the dead with a new hard drive and I have been told that Acer are now good .... Its always a bit daunting looking for new laptops etc as the range is huge and they are changing non stop Good Luck x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jess1merlin Posted January 1, 2013 Author Share Posted January 1, 2013 Thanks for your help, we will go and have a look in PC World at both of those and hopefully we will be sorted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merlina Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 You will almost certainly pay over the odds if you go to somewhere like PC World Personally, I love these guys - novatech.co.uk If you ring them and tell them what you want, they'll give you an honest appraisal of which of their (very good value) laptops would work for you. They won't oversell - last time I bought a PC I had to persuade them I needed the more expensive one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatieB Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Sorry to confuse but I have a Dell and would never have one again. My friend bought her Dell about a year before me and she says the same. DH works in IT (not a techy) and tells me that his techs also say to avoid Dell and PC world. I would recommend John Lewis as a good start for a standard laptop. Although they have a small range you can see and play and they price promise. You can source online cheaper and you may need somewhere more specialised if you have a specific need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 We are an HP family, ED has an i3 processor and we have an i5 with 750G hard drive, it cost us around £500 last February, so should be pretty cheap now. We have bought a couple of ours from PC World and have claimed once on their anything happens insurance for a new power cable for DS's notebook which he uses for school so it has a hard life, we have been very pleased with them. The recent one was Argos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jess1merlin Posted January 7, 2013 Author Share Posted January 7, 2013 Thanks for all the advice. We have now got an HP with an i5 processor and 1Tb hard drive and so far it seems to do the job well. We got it from PC World in the end as it seemed to be a good deal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoid Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 It wouldn't happen to be this one? If so, that is a very good deal for the price! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jess1merlin Posted January 8, 2013 Author Share Posted January 8, 2013 Yes Fred, thats the one. We did look at the Samsung but in the end went for the HP mainly because of the price to be honest. Hopefully it will do the job, it seems good so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ain't Nobody Here Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 Ooh, now I'm wishing I hadn't promised that ES could get a new PC for his 21st (and I could get his old one rather than buy myself a new laptop ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
