far Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Hi All We are looking to buy a system for a new in house designer and would like to know if its really essential to have an i7 processor or can we get away with a less expensive i5? The laptop will be running the following software Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Design Standard Photoshop CS5 Illustrator CS5 InDesign CS5.5 Acrobat X Pro Bridge Device Central CS5.5 + MS Office Will a 1GB graphics card be ok with 6gb memory? TIA FAR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobSheffield Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Hi Far. From memory when i was looking at processors for my gaming PC the I5 was/is better as it can be over clocked but runs 4 cores. The I7 runs 4 cores and has hyperthreading to mimic 8 cores so for rendering/design work would be better i would say. Thats if I5's have not moved on to have hyperthreading too now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Honestly.... consider a mac mini I recently got one, and frankly it is fantastic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SupraDan24 Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 As much as it pains me to say it, you just cant beat a Mac for design work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
far Posted January 30, 2012 Author Share Posted January 30, 2012 cheers dudes - Rob, good to hear from you dude :-) so are we saying an i7 IS better for design work? Mac Mini looks pretty awesome! How portable are these? looks pretty small to me, idea is that the guy needs to be able to take the laptop home to work from home from time to time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 The modern versions of photoshop etc use the GFX card so I would say it's more important to make sure that card is decent. A good i5 processor will be more than enough to run most of those apps without any issue. My i7 is an absolute monster though (in my laptop), it scores really highly on all those benchmark tests etc. If you are going with a laptop I would definitely go with the i7 as the gfx card probably won't do a great deal towards helping out. If you are going with a desktop I would probably go with a high end i5 and a decent GFX card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon5698 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 I ordered al Dell XPS 17 last week and am waiting for it to arrive, for the specs i went for it come to £1342.86 and would say it would quite happily run everything you want it to do. Here are the specs: 210-37713 XPS 702x : 2nd generation Intel Core i7-2670QM processor 2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.10 GHz 1 996.35 996.35 S 200-95507 N11X7M07 1 S 230-12436 Display : 17.3in FHD 3D WLED TL (1920X1080) 1080p with 2.0 Mega Pixel Integrated Camera + 3D Glasses 1 S 340-24571 Ship Accessory : English Docs 1 S 340-24595 Resource DVD : XPS L702x 1 S 370-18983 Memory : 12288MB (3x4096) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel 1 S 400-21831 Hard Drive : 750GB Serial ATA (7200RPM) 1 S 429-15549 Optical Drive : Tray Load Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD) 1 S 450-15039 Power Cord : UK 250V 1 S 450-16096 Power Supply : XPS 150W AC Adapter 1 S 451-11543 Battery : Primary 9-cell 90W/HR LI-ION 1 S 460-11379 Carry Case : Not Included 1 S 490-12665 Graphics : 3GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M Graphics Card - 3D Capable 1 S 506-10188 TV Tuner : Not Included 1 S 555-13616 MOD,CRD,NTWK,6230,CNB,WW 1 S 556-11022 Mobile Broadband : Not included 1 S 583-14528 Keyboard : Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard 1 S 619-32209 Operating System : English Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64 BIT) 1 S 620-13455 OS Media : MUI Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium(64 BIT) Resource DVD 1 S 630-13325 Software : Microsoft Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook 1 S 640-11630 Software : Datasafe Local 2.3 Basic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorin Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Ah the old "Mac's are much better for design work" argument. Churned out by designers everywhere, who just want a Mac rather than some boring old PC. I5 will be fine, memory is the main thing, and 6GB will be plenty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 I ordered al Dell XPS 17 last week and am waiting for it to arrive, for the specs i went for it come to £1342.86 and would say it would quite happily run everything you want it to do. Here are the specs: 210-37713 XPS 702x : 2nd generation Intel Core i7-2670QM processor 2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.10 GHz 1 996.35 996.35 S 200-95507 N11X7M07 1 S 230-12436 Display : 17.3in FHD 3D WLED TL (1920X1080) 1080p with 2.0 Mega Pixel Integrated Camera + 3D Glasses 1 S 340-24571 Ship Accessory : English Docs 1 S 340-24595 Resource DVD : XPS L702x 1 S 370-18983 Memory : 12288MB (3x4096) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel 1 S 400-21831 Hard Drive : 750GB Serial ATA (7200RPM) 1 S 429-15549 Optical Drive : Tray Load Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD) 1 S 450-15039 Power Cord : UK 250V 1 S 450-16096 Power Supply : XPS 150W AC Adapter 1 S 451-11543 Battery : Primary 9-cell 90W/HR LI-ION 1 S 460-11379 Carry Case : Not Included 1 S 490-12665 Graphics : 3GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M Graphics Card - 3D Capable 1 S 506-10188 TV Tuner : Not Included 1 S 555-13616 MOD,CRD,NTWK,6230,CNB,WW 1 S 556-11022 Mobile Broadband : Not included 1 S 583-14528 Keyboard : Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard 1 S 619-32209 Operating System : English Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64 BIT) 1 S 620-13455 OS Media : MUI Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium(64 BIT) Resource DVD 1 S 630-13325 Software : Microsoft Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook 1 S 640-11630 Software : Datasafe Local 2.3 Basic how much?? I spent £650 on a similarly specced laptop with 6gb of ram rather than 12 (upgrade is around £25 for 4GB). That seems like an awful lot of dosh for extra ram. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamanC Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 An i7 is better than an i5 and is beneficial for design and editing work. Its about a 3rd difference in price (2nd gen (i52500K & i7 2600K))which is relatively comparable when it comes to the performance. An i5 will be OK, just remember, the faster, the better applies. You wont want 6GB of RAM - its attributed to old chipsets. Multiples of 2 needed (2,4,8,16 etc). Again, more ram the better however there will be little difference between 8GB and 16GB. Its not about how much VRAM the graphics card has. They all mostly have 1Gb from a £30 card to a £250 card. Its all about what model it is. Design packages are staring to make use of the graphics card, not much but it will be more beneficial as time goes on. If you have the room for a desktop and don't need the system to be portable than get a desktop. Cheaper, easier to fix and upgrade and they go wrong less. For what you want, a custom built computer will offer you the best value for money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 If you have the room for a desktop and don't need the system to be portable than get a desktop. Cheaper, easier to fix and upgrade and they go wrong less. For what you want, a custom built computer will offer you the best value for money. Most of the pre-built desktops on the market comprise of poor components at inflated prices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon5698 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 how much?? I spent £650 on a similarly specced laptop with 6gb of ram rather than 12 (upgrade is around £25 for 4GB). That seems like an awful lot of dosh for extra ram. Does the one you have gone for have the 3GB NVIDIA GT555M Graphics card, I7 processor, 3D and Bluray? i could have made it a lot cheaper but wanted to get something that hopefully won't outdate too quickly. A lot of people who have bought the normal XPS 17's with the smaller memory have been having problems with them only coming with 2 dimm slots for the memory instead of the 4 they should come with. I agree it is a lot of money and was going to go for a mac book pro but i need windows to program our panels and couldn't be bothered to have to run parallels, and you can't get Bluray drives on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Does the one you have gone for have the 3GB NVIDIA GT555M Graphics card, I7 processor, 3D and Bluray? i could have made it a lot cheaper but wanted to get something that hopefully won't outdate too quickly. A lot of people who have bought the normal XPS 17's with the smaller memory have been having problems with them only coming with 2 dimm slots for the memory instead of the 4 they should come with. I agree it is a lot of money and was going to go for a mac book pro but i need windows to program our panels and couldn't be bothered to have to run parallels, and you can't get Bluray drives on them. I didn't go with a Dell, went with an Acer. It has the 2gb GT540m, I7 processor (no bluray or 3D screen though). For the Bluray & higher memory it was £750. Seems like an awful lot of money for what you got but I guess that's just the way of it when you want to max out all the options Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheefa Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Does the one you have gone for have the 3GB NVIDIA GT555M Graphics card, I7 processor, 3D and Bluray? i could have made it a lot cheaper but wanted to get something that hopefully won't outdate too quickly. A lot of people who have bought the normal XPS 17's with the smaller memory have been having problems with them only coming with 2 dimm slots for the memory instead of the 4 they should come with. I agree it is a lot of money and was going to go for a mac book pro but i need windows to program our panels and couldn't be bothered to have to run parallels, and you can't get Bluray drives on them. My XPS17 has the same card, no 3D and Bluray but 6GB memory and pretty much all other specs and was £717 inc VAT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon5698 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Ha ha i didn't even max the options out either! i built up an 18" Alienware one with the best of everything on the site and it come to over 4.5k lol, Sheefa open up your memory card slots and check if you have the 4 dimm rails on your motherboard or 2 as loads of people have been getting the wrong motherboard put in them! just goes to show how much extra they are charging for the 3D, hope it is worth it! the Bluray was only a £90 option which i thought was pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheefa Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 The 3D will be mint but I just couldn't justify it and a 3D TV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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