I dont have much money to spend, but I want a laptop that is able to run adobe photoshop, indesign, illustrator, SolidWorks, AutoCad and World of Warcraft(yes im a nerd). Let me know if you think this is going to be good enough....

My Components
Jet Black
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7250 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
Genuine Windows Vista ® Home Premium Edition
Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800)
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz
Size: 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)

I have to buy a Dell and need to spend under 1000.

3/17/2008 10:27:45 PM

don't buy a dell. thats the only advice i can give.

3/17/2008 10:37:40 PM

I don't know if that Jet Black is gonna cut it. You might need Fire Engine Red.

No really, you might want to google the system requirements for all of those programs. Obviously if you want to run multiple programs from that list at the same time, more memory (which you have plenty of) will help tremendously. You might want to upgrade the graphics card if it fits in your budget.

3/17/2008 10:41:43 PM

ya the only thing is that if i upgrade the graphics card then i have to go up to another type of Dell, the XPS, which is atleast 250 more base + graphics card

3/17/2008 10:43:10 PM

http://www.notebookreview.com/dellCoupon.asp

dell coupon codes should be able to cover some of that

if you want to play WoW you're going to need some kind of dedicated graphics, the intel stuff just isn't going to cut it.. even if it's just a Geforce 8400 or X2400 it'll be worlds better than the integrated chips

3/18/2008 11:42:03 PM

You're wrong.

I ran WoW fine on a dell 12.1 inch with intel dedicated graphics and 1gigs of ram.

3/19/2008 12:11:16 AM

WoW scales amazingly well- one of the reasons it has been so succesful across income and age levels. People can throw it on any decent computer and play it- granted the graphics settings might not be very high.

Solidworks, Autocad, and Photoshop do not scale well by any stretch. While photoshop only really benefits from dedicated graphics cards if you're using some of the 3d texturing shit in extended edition, solidworks and autocad are different stories. AutoCAD requires a 128mb graphics card for 3d modeling- as does solidworks.

So, to answer your question, no. The system you have configured will not be sufficient for 2 of the programs you mentioned. You may get them to run, but you probably won't be able to effectively use all features. Luckily, since most education versions of that software precludes tech support, you won't have to worry about getting "I'm sorry, but the system you have does not meet the minimum specifications to run our software" as a response for any tech support question.

If you're looking at dell stuff try http://www.dell.com/ncstate for a small education discount. You can use SOME coupon codes there if you go to the "full catalog"

[Edited on March 19, 2008 at 12:37 AM. Reason : ]

3/19/2008 12:28:55 AM