Graphic Art / Photography Student needs to buy a computer. Which one is best....read on for more details?

I am a graphic arts and photographer student at a locale college. Im on a limited income, but want to get a good quality laptop computer. It needs to be able to handle Creative Suite 2 or 3.

What brand of computer would you reccomend. (I need a PC not a Mac)

Do you know of any great student deals that I could use for this purchase?

I am skilled in using both PC and MAC. I currently have a HP laptop, Dell desktop, and my husband has a Mac book Pro. I use EMacs in school.

I prefer to use PC. I see no difference in preformance between the two. Macs are very expensive, and certian things are not formatted for Macs. I also like to watch movies...netflix as an example will not let me watch movies on our mack book pro.

I have seen just as much trouble between the Mac and PC such as freezing and glitches and having to reboot. I ve never had virous on either.

Im thinking of getting a Dell laptop.

Is anyone extremely against that?

You might want to check with your school to see if they have a purchasing plan arranged that will let students buy laptops from manufacturers like Dell.

Other than that, I don't know what a graphic student really requires. I'd think it would be more software than hardware. Just make sure the computer runs your software well enough. I would opt for Windows XP rather than Vista. (Dell still sells computers with Windows XP)

One thing you might want to look into is a video calibration unit. I would think you need to be able to see precise colors. It'll be about $60 or $100 (look on amazon), but it comes with the software and the device to measure the color output. You can then alter your color display with the utility that comes with your graphics card (I know nvidia has the option to tweak color saturation and hues). That way your image colors will look like what you print out. Nothing is worse than designing something and printing it out to see that the colors are off.

Well, a mac is the best for graphics and photography and will give you a student discount, but out of the other brands, it's pretty much up to you. Windows is the same any way you cut it, and from there it's just about specs and personal preference.

I taught digital and traditional photography for 10 years. We used Macs. Don't limit yourself with a PC, you'll spend more time looking for viruses on it then you will working on it. Get a MacBook Pro and be happy.