What laptop(s) do you recommend?

[Black Vodka]

I require a new laptop, really the first real computer I'll have purchased. I'm not very knowledgeable about computer specs and stuff, all I know is what I need it to do. I don't want to regret this kind of investment.

There's only three things I need in a laptop.

I need it to run Adobe Photoshop CS6. I do a lot of album artwork for bands and other forms of graphic design, so I need a laptop able to fully handle Photoshop in all its splendor.

I need it to run a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Such as ProTools or SONAR X3. A high end sound card is not 100% necessary, as I can easily get an external audio interface to do its job.

I need it to run, at least, a moderate amount of PC games. Although, this is less important than the other two, it'd be nice to be able to do some gaming on top of my other projects.

Which laptop(s) rises to the challenge? Any personal recommendations from experience? (Price isn't an issue, but I'm looking for the best in price/quality—not the most expensive one on the market. Something that isn't overkill essentially.)

Thanks!

 

[vanillacoke]

Laptops aren't really made for gaming to be honest. You'd have to pay a fair amount to get one capable and could get a desktop equivalent less than half that price.

Any reason you're looking at a laptop and not a desktop?

 

[DarthVollis]

I purchased a Dell Laptop with an I3 processor, 6 gigs of RAM, and a 500 GB hard drive. For what I use it for it plays games quite well. I think I will try to play Skyrim on it in the future. This laptop mainly is for my RPG Maker work station. I have a desktop with a lot more power but I need mobility. That is the only advice I have for you.

If you find a Laptop that you are interested in then post the specs and I will give you what I think.

 

[Insidious Mental Pollution]

My laptop experience is with Sagers (Clevo), Asus, HP, and Lenovo, and my preference firmly rests with the Sager brand.  They are good, reliable computers, and since you do photoshop, you might find their screen customization helpful - with many of the models, you can get a screen with higher color gamut.  As far as performance goes, most of them come with mid to high range graphics chips and processors, and can pretty much handle any games or programs you need.  

 

[Andar]

Any computer company has it's good production lines and it's failures - so I wouldn't purchase by brand but by technical data.


For your intended uses, you'll need to check the following points:


- dedicated graphic chip with dedicated memory. Intel HD is out of the question, same goes for the equivalent chips from AMD and nVidia (you'll have to check the chip number in google, I don't know which chips are dedicated and which are CPU-extensions). Same goes for shared-memory graphics - if the graphic chip isn't listed with its own RAM than it will slow down Photoshop and Games.


- multiple processor cores - for intel that means i5 or i7 series, I don't know the equivalent of AMD series


- minimum RAM of 8 GB - you can get most games to work with 4 GB, but if you want to do graphics work with photoshop that is more than just fiddling around, or if you want to make good real-time-audio-recordings, then you need a good reserve of RAM


Yu might try to get a notebook with Win7 instead of Win8, as Win8 is extremely new and changed soo much in windows controls, that a lot of programs still have their quirks with it. Unfortunately that is a difficult thing to get as most manufacturers already switched to 8.

 

[Black Vodka]

Any reason you're looking at a laptop and not a desktop?

Getting into doing recording/audio engineering. Mobility is a must. Sometimes I'll be recording bands in my own studio, other times, I'll need to take the laptop and some mobile equipment somewhere else. Most people recommend Macs, but I really don't want a Mac..

My laptop experience is with Sagers (Clevo), Asus, HP, and Lenovo, and my preference firmly rests with the Sager brand. 

I'll check out Sager, thanks.

Any computer company has it's good production lines and it's failures - so I wouldn't purchase by brand but by technical data.

For your intended uses, you'll need to check the following points:

- dedicated graphic chip with dedicated memory. Intel HD is out of the question, same goes for the equivalent chips from AMD and nVidia (you'll have to check the chip number in google, I don't know which chips are dedicated and which are CPU-extensions). Same goes for shared-memory graphics - if the graphic chip isn't listed with its own RAM than it will slow down Photoshop and Games.

- multiple processor cores - for intel that means i5 or i7 series, I don't know the equivalent of AMD series

- minimum RAM of 8 GB - you can get most games to work with 4 GB, but if you want to do graphics work with photoshop that is more than just fiddling around, or if you want to make good real-time-audio-recordings, then you need a good reserve of RAM

Yu might try to get a notebook with Win7 instead of Win8, as Win8 is extremely new and changed soo much in windows controls, that a lot of programs still have their quirks with it. Unfortunately that is a difficult thing to get as most manufacturers already switched to 8.

This is good info, thanks.. 

And yeah, I hate Windows 8. I mean, I can always downgrade if it comes with Windows 8, right?

 

[Andar]

I mean, I can always downgrade if it comes with Windows 8, right?

Only if the drivers are available for Win7
Win8 changed quite a bit, and if you're getting brand-new hardware from a manufacturer that didn't pay for the development of older-system-drivers, then you'll be out of luck for downgrading.


However, Win8 is relatively new, and product design cycles take their time - any hardware available on the market as of now should have been available at the time of Win7 as well and still have those drivers. Buy a NB or PC in one or two years and it won't be as easy.

 

[Black Vodka]

Thanks for the suggestions/help, guys. I think I know what I'm going to go with

 

[Kaelan]

I'm using a Sager right now, had it for about 2 years and it still runs most things I throw at it w/ decent settings. Only issue is cooling while playing more intensive games (always a problem with laptops), but a good laptop fan fixes that.

Make sure you get one with the fan exhaust on the side, not on the bottom, so you can actually use it on your lap/in bed/wherever (because you know you will at some point).

 

[Synonysis]

I highly recommend this. It's on sale, too.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y510p/

It runs Photoshop CS6 smoothly for me. I'm not much of a sound person, but the sound quality is fine. The cheapest one here can run Skyrim on Ultra.