Ok so my laptop went into meltdown yesterday and I can't get it back up and running. Going to get it looked at by an IT specialist tomorrow - not sure who yet, but I want to see if it can be resuscitated first and if not I will need to buy a new laptop asap.

 

So I have a budget of around £500 [pretty skint at the moment as I've just paid my taxbill] so the cheaper the better.

 

My current laptop is a Lenovo 3000 N200 running windows XP. Whatever replaces this needs to be able to run my Adobe CS3 suite and my Microsoft Outlook and my ZoneAlarm Extreme Security, although I'd be happy to ditch MSOutlook for Thunderbird or similar to be honest - my CS3 is the important stuff. Will this run on Vista or Windows 7 - anyone know as I can't afford to buy new software too and before anyone brings it up - I've tried free alternatives before I invested in CS3 and want to stick with CS3!

 

Should I go for Vista or Windows 7?

 

I would predominantly be using the laptop for work - web design, graphic design, photography etc.

I won't be doing any serious gaming on it - definitely not online stuff anyway.

 

need something that can be connected to my external monitor with ease.

need something that doesn't weigh a ton.

 

it would be good to be able to use the RAM I have from this laptop - would it be transferable - couldn't tell you what I have to be honest though so that doesn't help.

 

Any suggestions from you computer geeks you?

 

any help much appreciated.

I'm using photoshop cs3 on windows 7 with no problems what so ever

thanks for the info - that's a relief. I've done a bit of googling and it seems that I'll be fine so long as I opt for a 32-bit system rather than a 64-bit - not that I know what that means.

Not many applications are built to use 64 bit processors, so it's alot of processing power going to waste, so stick with a 32 bit.

 

If you find a decent laptop Eskymo, let me know what you get as I'm in a similar situation with my laptop! :<

I was in a similar situation to yourself not too long ago when the desktop decided to flake out.

 

In the process the laptop I bought for demoing client sites etc actually performed fairly well.

 

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172314

 

It comes in at 380 with win7. There is no doubt it's 4gb of (crappy) RAM but it seemed to do the job nicely.

 

I did some Photoshop, DW, Dropboxing, Wamping, Flashing, Gaming (L4d).

 

It hung occasionally when working with larger documents in PS but apart from that it did just fine.

 

Plus Win7 really helps workflow with libraries.

Have you considered rental? That way you can get a machine without having to outlay £500 a month. Mine is a rental through a business account - it's a Sony Vaio VGN-FW11M and it copes fine with Photoshop etc. It's widescreen too which I prefer. It costs about £32 a month.

 

I won't say where mine comes from as I might get egg'd!!!