Laptop recommendations

[Alison556]

I think I'm going to have to retire my faithful old Dell E6400 so am looking for recommendations please.

I'm totally at a loss as to what to get - I see so many reviews complaining about new laptops and others where folks have got a reconditioned one (like a few years old) which, in their words, are far better than the newer laptops.

My needs? I'm terrible for having multiple browsers and tabs open - it's just so much easier to flip back and forth instead of having to keep opening another tab when I need it and I always seem to have something I need to go back to.

I run photoshop and Office and will often use online graphics apps and am partial to a cheeky wee online game now and again.

 

[IT Minion]

Lots of tabs means RAM. 8GB is a good point.

Photoshop is used for a huge range of things. If you're doing bulk transformation then it needs lord of CPU, RAM and SSD. Then again most people just use it to tweak the odd photo or ten, in which case it's not as big a deal.

Games are the hard bit on laptops, the graphics chip is often the highest powered part of a gaming machine. That doesn't work well with portable batteries.

If you liked your latitude, what's wrong with getting another? The Dell outlet is great value for money if you don't mind the odd scratch or dent.

 

[Diver Fred]

Beware of MicroSoft 'S Mode'. It Locks the computer to only using MS products. It can be got rid of but you have to sign up for a M&S account.

 

[Alison556]

Beware of MicroSoft 'S Mode'. It Locks the computer to only using MS products. It can be got rid of but you have to sign up for a M&S account.

I just read about that today - and I'm glad cos the one I was looking at had it.

 

[Alison556]

Lots of tabs means RAM. 8GB is a good point.

Photoshop is used for a huge range of things. If you're doing bulk transformation then it needs lord of CPU, RAM and SSD. Then again most people just use it to tweak the odd photo or ten, in which case it's not as big a deal.

Games are the hard bit on laptops, the graphics chip is often the highest powered part of a gaming machine. That doesn't work well with portable batteries.

If you liked your latitude, what's wrong with getting another? The Dell outlet is great value for money if you don't mind the odd scratch or dent.

I'm not sure what the new Dells are like - some of the reviews are bad - but then again, people like to complain. I'm so fond of this one I have that I'm tempted to upgrade the RAM, CPU and network card lol. It's already got an SSD. It's just such a nice wee comfortable laptop to work on.

 

[IT Minion]

I really like the Dell latitude line. It's got less bells and whistles than others I've used but they are solid.

Upgrading laptops isn't generally worth it, they aren't designed to allow that much upgrading. RAM and HD are about it.

 

[Alison556]

I'm not sure if any upgrades I can do would make a huge difference - although I could carry out the job, I'm over my head with the technical side.

The guy who did my broadband said that my network card probably wouldn't cope with the higher speeds - laptop has Intel WiFi Link 5300 (802.11 a/g/n 3X3) and I can change it to Intel WiFi-AC 7260

Current cpu is Intel® Core 2 Duo P8700 (2.53GHz,1066MHz,3MB) and it can be changed to Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T9900 6M Cache, 3.06 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB.

Got 4Mb RAM and could upgrade to 8

Would any of that help do you think?

I know it seems like a lot of work on an old laptop - but I confess the thought of having to move all my software and files onto a new one fills me with dread.................