Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

I'm looking to buy a laptop in the UK as my step-daughter is visiting us and will bring it with her. I would like to know if anyone has recommendations re reliability and performance. I'm looking for a lap-top which can handle photos, digital art, Photoshop and Corel, 64-bit, 8GB RAM, 1TB memory. I don't play games so don't need games capacity. Alternatively, does anyone know whether personalised laptops can be built here? And what laptops do people consider as no good whatsoever? Thanks for any help.

I personally would look to try and get a laptop that has a SSD (solid state drive) rather than a HDD (hard disk drive). SSD drives (what you label as memory above) are more expensive per MB or GB or TB of storage they offer but the over all experience of using a laptop with a SSD drive will be much more pleasurable than one with a HDD. It will start up and close down quicker, programs will open quicker and the whole experience of using it will be more pleasurable generally. They say once you go SSD you never go back and that is certainly true for me. I have been using SSD's in my desktop machines and laptops for a number of years now and they really do make a considerable noticeable and material positive difference in the experience of using the computer across the board. On a laptop I would choose a 256GB or even 128GB SSD drive over a 1TB HDD any day.

You live and learn, Erol, never realised there existed something different to an HDD. Will check out your info, thanks very much.

It can be hard to find 'budget' laptops that come with SSD's. You can buy an SSD drive separately for about £50 for 120-128GB and £70 for 250GB and 500GB for around £120,00 . I have replaced the HDD in laptops with an SSD 'after the fact' on my work laptop, my partners laptop, my brothers laptop and my brother wife's laptop. So one approach would be get a 'budget' laptop with a HDD and just replace the HD with a separately bought SSD (not that hard tro do and would be happy to help with doing this).

If you looking for something a bit pricier than 'budget' and small light, with good battery life and 'apple like sexy' is of value to you then this would be at or near the top of my list currently

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing ... 2-pdt.html

The processor on this laptop is it's weakest aspect and you may notice that in photoshop and corel draw when doing processor intensive 'transformations' (applying effects and filters and the like). It also has a super high resolution screen (3200 x 1800) which may not be your cup of tea - individual pixels at that resolution and screen size will be tiny compared to 'normal / budget' laptops which would typically be 1366 x 768 or 1920 x 1080 pixels on a 14-15 inch screen. Generally this is a 'good thing' but depending on what you are used to and how you work it may not be your cup of tea, as the smaller screen size over all (13 inch) may not suit yoiu. Over all though I would say this is a good value machine in it's class and has been well reviewed widely.

Thanks for the info, Erol. I have no idea what difference the number of pixels would made, to be honest. I do need clear definition so that I can see what images I'm creating in digital art. My current computer is a 17" Toshiba with Windows 7 and is at the top of the range. Or it was when I bought it - the original one I bought in 2004 turned up its toes and needed a spare part for the visual display but I nagged Toshiba so much over the delay in replacing the part that they provided me with my current model in 2009 which is also re-furbished. It works okay, a bit slow, but I have been worried about how old it is. So my query is now - could I replace the current HDD with an SSD drive and thus keep the old girl going, as I have a limited budget. Or is it really time to go for a new computer? In which case I'd probably follow your advice, get a 15" cheaper one, then get an SSD separately. And thanks for your offer of help, would definitely take you up on it. And in return I can create some digital art just for yourself.

MoBry wrote: So my query is now - could I replace the current HDD with an SSD drive and thus keep the old girl going, as I have a limited budget. Or is it really time to go for a new computer? In which case I'd probably follow your advice, get a 15" cheaper one, then get an SSD separately. And thanks for your offer of help, would definitely take you up on it. And in return I can create some digital art just for yourself.

Almost certainly you could upgrade the HDD in your current laptop with an SSD and doing so would make it feel like a new machine in terms of how it feels to use (starting up, closing down, opening programs etc). If you want to pm the model number of the laptop I can tell you with certainty if the HDD can be upgraded to SSD or not on it.

It's a Satellite P200 with an amazing amount of numbers on the bottom:
Part No. PSPB6A-036024
Serial No. 87260779K
Product ID: 03426-0EM-89926622-00459.
RAM: 2GB 32- bit.
Does any of this make sense to you, because it makes my eyes cross!

Yes you can replace the HDD in that laptop with a SSD. If you are looking for a budget means of extending the useful life of this laptop then I think replacing the HDD with an SSD is a valid way to go. I would recommend the Samsung 850 evo range of SSD's

A 250GB samsung 850 Evo ssd drive is around £70
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/samsung- ... 91-sa.html

I would also think about upgrading your memory (ram) from 2GB to 4GB - this would cost around £25 - something like this would be suitable

https://www.amazon.co.uk/4GB-DDR2-PC2-5 ... m+ddr2+2GB

With a 32 bit version of windows you will not get use of the full 4GB but will get use of around 3.5GB which should make a difference from the 2GB you currently.

For a total in the region of £100 these should extend the usable life of the machine by a good 2-3 years or so I would say.

Fantastic - great to get a cheap solution. I'll buy them and get my step-daughter to bring them with her when she comes in July. Thank you so much, and if you don't mind installing them, I'll definitely create a piece of digital art for you and get it printed however you want it. Thanks so much.