[BlueStunt]

I'm looking to buy a new laptop. I need some advice on system specs.

I'll be using it for 2D design (Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash etc); Gaming (Call of Duty 4) & watching films. Basically I want it to be portable (but not necessarily tiny), with high battery life but high powered. Being a designer I also have this need for it to look damn good. So basically I need to spend loadsa cash on a laptop, except I can't. I'm setting myself a budget of £750.

Tech specs:

2GB RAM
Widescreen display
Vista Home Premium
Core 2 Duo

Can you recommend how many GHz I need in a processor?
And I also need recommendations of retailers, or specific laptops.

ATM I'm looking at the Dell M1530, would you guys recommend this?

[Carbon]

Middle-range price, portable, good battery life, good performance.

Pick two.

[BlueStunt]

Originally Posted by Carbon Middle-range price, portable, good battery life, good performance. Pick two.

Exactly what i wnated to hear, cheers. And by "pick two" I assume you mean 2.00 GHz Processor?

[Carbon]

No, my point was that expecting all of the above in one package is naive. Want a gaming laptop? Prepare to have it be over 8lb (hardly portable) and cost a lot, with mediocre battery life. Want a laptop for occasional business use and some light games? Not really possible, as most retail laptops have integrated cards.

So what I'm saying is this - you need to relax your requirements and state which ones are more important to you. Battery life trump gaming potential? Sure you can only spend that much?

[jimbeam]

I've been doing some window shopping last month. I got to know that if you want a laptop which you can play games with and with the proccesor that you want, you're a actually looking at the price range of £700 onwards, and I'm only referring to the gaming part and with specs that you actually want with your laptop, I'm quite sure yout budget of £750 wouldn't be enough.
Choose your processor wisely because it plays a big role on the price.
I'm playing CoD 4 with NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
Just like what Carbon has mentioned, you have to choose your specs because all rounder laptop is not going to be easy on your pocket.

Hope this helps a little :)

[BlueStunt]

Originally Posted by Carbon Middle-range price, portable, good battery life, good performance. Pick two.

What iw as asking is are the specs I've chosen well rounded, are any of them going to bring down the overall performance of the laptop? I've already done some research and it is realistic that they can be bought for the price I quoted, £750 (Not USD).

I'm no hard core gamer, just the occasional game of CoD4.

What I'm really after is what processor I should be looking at because that's the area I have no experience in.

[Carbon]

The M1530 will be fine, then. I'd get the one with the T7250 & the 8600M GT. Note that like I said battery life is going to be impacted.

[CallumUK]

you can always buy a spare battery with it and keep it in the carry case.