Good Computer/Notebook brands

[miigiro]

My husband, so lovingly and nice as he is, just bought me a labtop! Yay! He bought a Toshiba brand. The thing is that, both of us know nothing about computers. razz Very sad, since I want to be a graphic designer. Ahah...must work on that. What brand names out there are good quailty brands? What do you think of Toshiba? Was it a good, or bad choice for a person like me who uses the computer...very, very, very often for school and fun. And do you know if there are any free Adobe trial downloads, or any other program? biggrin  

[thejessjess]

i use to use a pc and pc laptop, but i hate the fact that when i get into my adobe programs i cant see my desktop like you can with a mac. i felt confined. plus i didnt have much memory and ram as i should of had, thus my pc took forever to render in photoshop and indesign not to mention saving!!.

last april i was finally able to buy a mac and now me and my lovely 17" G4 laptop are joined at the hip! i freaking LOVE macs.

But dont get me wrong i do like pcs. when you are dealing with uber graphic programs like adobe and Quark you need a much memory and ram as you can get. trust the more you have the faster you can work. like scrolling through a 50 page doc. in indesign or moving around a 1000 dpi photo at 500 zoom. been there and suffered.

i've never had a toshiba so im not sure what they are like, but i hope i was helpful in some way! 4laugh

oh and about adobe programs...good luck! but you can get them for student price if you are still in school. there is a free program thats either like photoshop or illustrator (not sure which) but it is called Gimp...i think...

ps im the daughter or a comp. guru so i know my way around the suckers so any questions please let me know!

hearts and good luck! blaugh  

[miigiro]

thejessjess

i use to use a pc and pc laptop, but i hate the fact that when i get into my adobe programs i cant see my desktop like you can with a mac. i felt confined. plus i didnt have much memory and ram as i should of had, thus my pc took forever to render in photoshop and indesign not to mention saving!!.

last april i was finally able to buy a mac and now me and my lovely 17" G4 laptop are joined at the hip! i freaking LOVE macs.

But dont get me wrong i do like pcs. when you are dealing with uber graphic programs like adobe and Quark you need a much memory and ram as you can get. trust the more you have the faster you can work. like scrolling through a 50 page doc. in indesign or moving around a 1000 dpi photo at 500 zoom. been there and suffered.

i've never had a toshiba so im not sure what they are like, but i hope i was helpful in some way! 4laugh

oh and about adobe programs...good luck! but you can get them for student price if you are still in school. there is a free program thats either like photoshop or illustrator (not sure which) but it is called Gimp...i think...

ps im the daughter or a comp. guru so i know my way around the suckers so any questions please let me know!

hearts and good luck! blaugh

biggrin Thanks! Yup, I was thinking about buying the Adobe program and just installing it, but....aahahha, we'll see. Hopefully I could fine the free program, somehow someway. biggrin This helped lots. Now I know who to come to with questions.  

[DogBackwards]

For laptops, I usually recommend HP's because they seem to have a long lifespan. I don't know too many with Toshiba's because mainly, I deal with desktop computers being a tech and a designer.  

[Goldenavatar]

mrmrs_sukiher

My husband, so lovingly and nice as he is, just bought me a labtop! Yay! He bought a Toshiba brand. The thing is that, both of us know nothing about computers. razz Very sad, since I want to be a graphic designer. Ahah...must work on that. What brand names out there are good quailty brands? What do you think of Toshiba? Was it a good, or bad choice for a person like me who uses the computer...very, very, very often for school and fun. And do you know if there are any free Adobe trial downloads, or any other program? biggrin

Well, it speaks volumes about your husband that he made the effort to purchase you a computer, so kudos to him for knowing what his lady's interests are. Now with that said, Toshiba's, HP's, e-Machines, Acer's, Mac's, they're really all the same to users with only token differences in the interface, because when everything is said and done computers are computers. Unless your a programmer, or technician, any specific computer is only going to be as useful to the user as they feel they need it.

Now the questions I'm going to shoot your way are going to be as follows. Since you're curious about becoming a graphic designer, have you downloaded, and installed any software onto your computer? Do you know that you can download trial versions of the industry's leading software packages from the makers websites, and they can be easily located by search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Lycos? Does your computer have the hardware to support those various programs? Have you looked into the various websites that have lesson materials you can follow to develop an understanding of graphic design?

When you're starting out, don't worry about whether the computer you have now is the best one out there for what you want to do. That's putting the chicken before the egg. First, figure out how to use that computer to do the things that you want it to do or it'll become an expensive paperweight you regret having around.  

[Katherdante]

Macs are the industry standard for this field.

I just finally took the leap after dragging my feet through most of my college education. Decided to go ahead and get it before I graduate so I get that handy student discount. So far I am very satisfied with my Mac Book Pro.
The reviews on it are glowing, and well deserved.  

[Sofina-chan]

I use a pc myself - HP brand, and I have a handy little macbook to port around. Everyone recommends using a mac for graphic design, and in a way it makes sense - the software, graphics..etc, but I find software for the pc comes cheaper and if you started out using a pc, you'll wont need to get used to the mac's controls.

I would recommend the mac for graphic designers, but intel based macs are still restrictive because so far only photoshop cs3 works on it, and that is one heck of an expensive package. If you go for a mac, I recommend getting the desktop version, but if you get one to port, that's dandy as well, just make sure you get a nice mouse with the right click function :3  

[.+Destiny.Eclipsed+.]

As far as computers go, for brands, I pretty much only know that Dell laptops suck. Another bit of hardware that you should prolly look into is a tablet (Wacom really does tend to have the best, I've heard different complaints about other brands). I managed to get a pretty awesome tablet by stalking ebay for a bit, got an older 15" Cintiq model for about $550.

For programs, Adobe does offer trials, but they tend to be 30-day things. If you're wanting to be a graphic designer, you'll almost certainly be wanting some schooling for it, and oftentimes you can get student discounts. I know, for the CS3 bundle I got, there was Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, InDesign, Dreamweaver, and a couple other lesser things all for about the price of the Photoshop program alone, thanks to student discount. There's also the cheaper and much more limited Photoshop Elements, and there's programs like Corel Painter and OpenCanvas (I hear good things about them, but have never used them). If you're really on a tight budget, it might be good to start out with free programs like GIMP and Inkscape (similar to Photoshop and Illustrator, respectively). A variety of free programs are available on GNU licensing, which is all open source stuff. No promises for how well they work though. I learned on GIMP, but with some of their updates (and of course since I've gotten used to Photoshop), I really don't like it anymore.  

[Larzar]

I like Dell, Mac and HP.

Acer = bleh.

But it rea;;y depends on the specs, ram, hardrive, ghtz.  

[Mr Professor Patrick]

Well, it mainly depends on the computer specs [as Larzar mentioned]. But, at a glance I, myself would go with HP or Dell.

@Larzar: Acer laptops are very good, or so I find. O.o  

[4ngel5pawn]

That Mac is the industry standard is true, but having worked in the printing end of this business now for almost 10 years and the design end for several more it is best to know a bit of both. Otherwise cross-platforming issues can be a problem. Know how to make a COMPLETE PDF!!! How to embed all images and fonts, as well as how to embed a color profile in your work! Otherwise what you send and what you eventually see may be VERY different!

What programs to use depends on what you want to ultimately produce of course but the standards for print are running to the latest Quark and Adobe CS suites.
If you can made a COMPLETE PDF you can get by with other lesser programs but if a shop has to get into it to correct anything you will pay big! Also some of the lesser programs will let you make this that look great on screen but will not print on a larger scale the way you think they will.  

[The Striped Cow]

Larzar

I like Dell, Mac and HP.

Acer = bleh.

But it rea;;y depends on the specs, ram, hardrive, ghtz.

hey i dont know much about computers.i was wondering that about acer many people say that its a good brand others say that is not good.so why is it bad?does it work well with the graphic design programs or no?and why?sorry is just that i want to know.that way ill know what will suite my interests better.  

[The Striped Cow]

miigiro i dont know much about computers but ive heard that toshiba is good.something that i do know is that macs are special for graphic desing and art itself thats what i think,most programs that are for graphic design only work in macs. you can try corel draw it works with windows.i must guess that you have windows.
i hope that i helped in someway.if not im sorry  

[Larzar]

The Striped Cow

Larzar

I like Dell, Mac and HP.

Acer = bleh.

But it rea;;y depends on the specs, ram, hardrive, ghtz.

hey i dont know much about computers.i was wondering that about acer many people say that its a good brand others say that is not good.so why is it bad?does it work well with the graphic design programs or no?and why?sorry is just that i want to know.that way ill know what will suite my interests better.

A friend of mine had problems with his-

It mostly comes down to personal preference. AS you probably know the never ending debate on what is the best computer brand simply cannot be answered, exspecially if it is Mac vs. PC.

Rule of thumb, you get what you pay for.

If you buy a computer for a price that is too good to be true, it probbaly is.