Phil Robinson Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 I really need to replace my laptop, but it doesn't get used much and contributes relatively little to my income. I really just need it for news stories so I can do very basic editing and uploading from a cafe with WiFi. Can anyone tell me the CHEAPEST laptop available that can handle Photoshop Elements and Nikon ViewNX? That really is all I need it for. Thanks in advance. Phil R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Morgan Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Hi Phil: I use a bottom of the line Acer all the time. It's about 3 years old and the only thing I added was another 4 gb of RAM cause Photoshop (full version) can bog it down. Since you would be using elements, I don't think you would need anything more powerful. Even the basest laptop is pretty good these days. Jill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyMelbourne Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 I use an iPhone, canon g7x (or any other wifi camera) with PS express app (free) and it fills your exact requirements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvin McAbee Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 I use a basic Dell Laptop that I got from Walmart for $350. It does Photoshop CC, and Lightroom CC just fine. I don't have a up to date desktop, so my laptop is serving as main computer. I have a Verizon Jetpack so I can access the internet from anywhere. I see nice looking Chromebooks for $200 but don't know if they will run Photoshop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Robinson Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 Thanks for the replies. I guessed almost anything would probably be an improvement on my ageing Dell (which almost copes all the time) but some seem so cheap these days, I did wonder. Look out for hundreds more Live News uploads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DHill Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 Just try to get as much RAM as possible - my not-so-old i5 Asus with 4GB RAM got bogged down with just LR and a few browser tabs for research open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 Need to be surpringly careful having browser open with other applications. Browsers can be VERY memory hungry especially if left open. I have had my desktop bog down because Firefox had grabbed a disproportionate share of the 16Gb memory. I try to avoid browsing when I am doing other intensive activities. If I have to I restart the browser frequently to free up the memory, the heavy memory use appears to be memory leakage over time (memory not getting released properly). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnnie5 Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 Replacing the spinnie/twirlie hard drive with a solid state drive can rejuvenate an old laptop. You can get one for around a hundred bucks that should work just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 Replacing the spinnie/twirlie hard drive with a solid state drive can rejuvenate an old laptop. You can get one for around a hundred bucks that should work just fine. Especially with an increase in RAM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Robinson Posted October 24, 2015 Author Share Posted October 24, 2015 I ended up getting the cheapest HP on the market. It's fine but I discovered my version of of Elements (8) doesn't run with Windows 8.1. So I've installed ViewNX2 and Gimp and they both work fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nacke Posted October 24, 2015 Share Posted October 24, 2015 One of my three laptops (all LENOVO) was purchased on eBay for less than $200. It runs Windows 7, I have NX installed along with PS5 and Bridge. It has USB 3.0's and a good screen, I did add RAM. I still am using an old LENOVO T62 which has a PCMCIA slot for my film scanner, but is USB 2.0. From my experience eBay is the way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDoug Posted October 24, 2015 Share Posted October 24, 2015 I have a used Dell laptop that I got for little money on eBay. It's fine as far as it goes, but what it doesn't give me is a good visual idea of what I've got, color-wise. For that, I'll upgrade when I can to a Dell XPS 15 or one of several others that have good screens for photo editing according to this article: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/167185-best-laptops-for-photo-editing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Morgan Posted October 24, 2015 Share Posted October 24, 2015 I have a used Dell laptop that I got for little money on eBay. It's fine as far as it goes, but what it doesn't give me is a good visual idea of what I've got, color-wise. For that, I'll upgrade when I can to a Dell XPS 15 or one of several others that have good screens for photo editing according to this article: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/167185-best-laptops-for-photo-editing I use my laptop like a desktop and use a 24" calibrated monitor, not the laptop screen. Even if the picture is great from any angle on the laptop, I like a large screen for photo editing. Jill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDoug Posted October 24, 2015 Share Posted October 24, 2015 I have a used Dell laptop that I got for little money on eBay. It's fine as far as it goes, but what it doesn't give me is a good visual idea of what I've got, color-wise. For that, I'll upgrade when I can to a Dell XPS 15 or one of several others that have good screens for photo editing according to this article: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/167185-best-laptops-for-photo-editing I use my laptop like a desktop and use a 24" calibrated monitor, not the laptop screen. Even if the picture is great from any angle on the laptop, I like a large screen for photo editing. Jill I use my desktop for editing with frequent Spyder adjustments. For uploading while on the road, though, it would be nice to have a laptop with reasonably accurate color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Robinson Posted October 24, 2015 Author Share Posted October 24, 2015 I got this to put in a small backpack when spending a day in London, so if I get anything newsworthy I can do some basic editing and upload from a cafe with WiFi. My old one had a battery life of 50 minutes and started flashing, or froze, when I tried to do anything more than adjust the contrast. At least it went out on high last Tuesday with a pic of the Queen and Xi Jinping in the Guardian. The replacement is a great improvement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Hewison Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 I have a used Dell laptop that I got for little money on eBay. It's fine as far as it goes, but what it doesn't give me is a good visual idea of what I've got, color-wise. For that, I'll upgrade when I can to a Dell XPS 15 or one of several others that have good screens for photo editing according to this article: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/167185-best-laptops-for-photo-editing I use my laptop like a desktop and use a 24" calibrated monitor, not the laptop screen. Even if the picture is great from any angle on the laptop, I like a large screen for photo editing. Jill Me too Jill - best of both worlds.. Only my screen is a 27inch IPS - I love it! I also use the laptop screen as a second monitor, Outlook, and other bits run on that screen, anything that doesn't need to be calibrated.. I have an HP Pavilion dv6 laptop which cost $A800 new 3 years ago (It was old then). Intel i7, integrated graphics (which means no dedicated graphics card)4gb ram and some sort of hard drive. The first thing I did was to replace the drive with a 250gb SSD, and upgrade the ram to 8gb - oddly enough, even running LR and PS CC together, the system is lightening fast.. given its specs. The battery on the laptop is cactus now and it's falling to pieces.. the build quality was rubbish. So I'm thinking of buying a desktop.. thing is, i can't find anything that comes close for the same money Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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