Can you get a decent laptop for around £450?

[JJ!]

My Samsung 13" laptop is dying painfully and just cant cope with my photo editing!

I don't need anything too flashy, one that can just run lightroom/photoshop etc.

No gaming requirements.

Budget around £450 and guess I don't mind going used/refurb if its got a decent enough spec.

 

[JamesBryan]

Speak to @Perrinho and see what he can do for you.

 

[Ay Ay Ron]

I've been looking at new laptops for photo editing.
Cheapest I've seen (good spec, i7 etc are around £800+)
My current Dell has lasted 4 years though and that is an i5 but over the time I've upped the memory and swapped out for an SSD. It's just starting to lose WiFi but it gets absolutely battered taking to to work etc.
Have a look on Dell business, the spec I got from there was cheap compared to other sites.

 

[R3k1355]

Are AMD fusion based laptops better for photo editing than standard intel ones?

 

[SharkyUK]

Are AMD fusion based laptops better for photo editing than standard intel ones?

It depends fella... would need to know the model of Fusion and model of Intel CPU to give an appropriate answer.

 

[R3k1355]

Well it'd be whatever you can get at £400, I just wondered if the Radion graphics in the AMD Fusion helped any with photoshop work.

So for example would this HP with a AMD A9-9410 APU be better than a Lenovo running a Core i3

 

[Danith]

Speak to @Perrinho and see what he can do for you.

The first place I'd go for a laptop too! My Dell D531 lasted bloody ages and my Lenovo thinkpad is still as good as new. Brilliant laptop, and he knows his stuff.

 

[SharkyUK]

Well it'd be whatever you can get at £400, I just wondered if the Radion graphics in the AMD Fusion helped any with photoshop work.

So for example would this HP with a AMD A9-9410 APU be better than a Lenovo running a Core i3

Recent versions of Photoshop will take advantage of any GPU it can find. In the case of the two systems you highlight... I don't think there'll be much difference in performance one way or the other. Whilst the AMD arguably has the edge with the GPU, the Intel has the better CPU, memory bandwidth performance, and more cache. I would opt for the Intel-based solution personally.

 

[Niall]

Second hand MacBook Pro?

*Awaits die hard tech geeks to shoot me down on this*

 

[HarvB]

You really shouldn't need an i7 for photo editing unless you're doing massive full-format layered monstrosities.

i5 + 8/16GB RAM.

 

[alistairolsen]

I always wind up buying ex commercial machines and then upgrading the hard drive to SSD and maxing out the ram.

It tends to be the most economical way to a machine with a decent case construction and processor spec, with lots of ram and a quick hard drive. Sadly that spec tends to shove you into the £1200 'ultrabook' market otherwise and £450 tends to put you at the top end of the home netbook market which means keyboards that feel like typing on a sponge, flexible screen casings, crap chassis and budget processors.

That said, dont do it if secondhand bothers you. I like it because I dont get precious about it if its already marked.