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michelem35853179
michelem35853179
Participant
May 10, 2018
Question

Is my laptop good enough for adobe?

  • May 10, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 1190 views

Hi,

I would like to follow a course with Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign. I checked the website and it seems that an intel 3000 graphic card is not supported anymore (something with gpu) but some things might work and some might not. As I have no experience with these programs yet I would like some advice.
I would only need cs6 for about 7 months. So it's not like I will use this afterwards, until I might need it later on in a new job.
(I have the alternative Affinity software on my mac)

My laptop is an upgraded lenovo X220

win7 pro 64
2.5 Ghz, core I5
8GB RAM256 SSD
Intel 3000 1696mb videocard

Do you think I can run the above programs relatively smoothly or will I run in to problems?

I would be quite expensive to buy a new laptop just for this, as I already have a pretty decent one and relatively new and expensive mac.

thank you

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    2 replies

    michelem35853179
    michelem35853179Author
    Participant
    May 13, 2018

    Okay thank you. I only have about 150 GB left on my ssd and I don't have that much stuff on it. So I'll guess I'll have to look out for a new windows laptop then with more hard disk space too. I assume I'd better go for something like an ssd and then an extra normal one inside. If I don't want to spend more than 1000€.

    And an I7, 16 gb ram?

    What do you suggest, something like this?

    Lenovo Legion Y520-15IKBN 80WK00U9MB Azerty - Coolblue

    thank you

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 10, 2018

    You can't buy CS6 anywhere now (except pirated), so that question is moot.

    However, as part of a CC photography plan subscription, $10 a month, you also get access to old versions back to CS6 if required for OS or hardware compatibility reasons.

    For a current Photoshop version, this hardware is bare minimum.

    I don't know if the Intel 3000 will work with Photoshop, but I suspect it will even if not on the current list. PS isn't very GPU-intensive and it basically just requires a card that works.

    I think you will have more trouble with a 256GB system drive and 8GB RAM. Photoshop requires a lot of scratch disk space and a 256 GB disk quickly fills up with all kinds of user account clutter. Clean it out at regular intervals. 8GB RAM is also just barely enough.

    michelem35853179
    michelem35853179Author
    Participant
    May 10, 2018

    Sorry about the cs6, I've been googling in that intel 3000 and that's where I picked it up. It would be a adobe subscription of course.

    I can always connect another hard disk to solve the storage problem.

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 10, 2018

    Actually it's not so much about storage. It's a given that you need to put your images elsewhere.

    The problem is user data piling up - preferences, cached content of all kinds, preview folders - every application in the world generates a lot of this stuff, and they all put it in the user account, hidden from the user by default.

    We see a lot of these in the forums nowadays. People running out of space on the system drive, Photoshop refusing to work, and they don't understand why. This is why. This stuff never goes out, only in. Unless you clean out. Most of it is not needed, only left there "in case".

    The first generation of SSDs were 120-250 GB drives. That worked fine for a while, but by now the space is getting dangerously low.

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