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kel_capone
Participant
June 7, 2020
Answered

Best budget laptop for Adobe Illustrator?

  • June 7, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 7550 views

Hi all 

 

Please help me, I am really not great with knowing the ins and outs of laptops/computers/etc. I urgently need to get a new laptop this week. I do not have a large budget, and was looking at getting the MacBook Air 2017 model. It only has 8GB Ram / 128 GB Storage. Will I be able to successfuly use Adobe Illustrator on this laptop without it being ridiculously slow and having hassles? I don't use it a lot, only a handful of times a week. I am an entrepreneur within the events/wedding industry, and I mainly use my laptop for continuously updating websites (on Wix), running an online floral/gifting store, quotes/invoices, design work on a weekly basis for my own businesses, keeping all my event and wedding pictures/videos, etc. 

 

If the MacBook Air is not sufficient, please can someone suggest a laptop within that price range or lower that would be sufficient? Pref. Lenovo, HP or Asus. I was looking at some of these options perhaps:

- Lenovo C340 i5 8265U (8GB Ram / 256GB SSD)

- Lenovo S145 i5 8265U (8GB Ram / 256GB SSD)

- HP Pavilion 13 i7 8565U (8GB Ram / 256GB SSD)

 

NOTE: Currently using a MacBook Pro 2012, 4GB Ram - it is so ridiculously slow, I can barely even open Adobe Illustrator up.

 

 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer S_Gans

Hi. Please note - 8GB/RAM is the MINIMUM requirement for Illustrator. I'm afraid if you settle on any of these, you'll still be frustrated and disappointed with performance on any of these machines. My strongest recommendation is to look for something with 16GB RAM. That additional investment is useful in SO many other ways, than just illustrator. Nowadays, all apps seem "fat". These 8GB machines are really for the people who want to use office apps and email and browsers, and that's about it. Now, you don't  HAVE to buy the suggested video cards on these, just ensure that you have at least 1GB (better with 2GB) to be happy.

I bought an older laptop - JUST so I could fit my specifications, within my budget. An older (2015) MacBook pro (although it was definitely more than $400), But it works perfectly for my needs.
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/system-requirements.html

3 replies

G
Gail287060278duu
Participant
March 4, 2023

Buy the Laptop, replace the ram.

KShinabery212
Community Expert
KShinabery212Community Expert
Community Expert
June 15, 2020

This is a tough question.  Are you running a second monitor as well?  Or are running a graphics tablet such as Wacom Cintiq that you can draw on the screen?  If so having a little more power is helpful.

 

I say you are on the right path with PC!!!!  I was a Mac guy for a long time, and then around 2015... I said forget Mac.  PCs can do pretty much anything a Mac can do. 

 

Just be careful buying too cheap of a computer.

Let's connect on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kshinabery/
S_Gans
Community Expert
S_GansCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
June 15, 2020

Hi. Please note - 8GB/RAM is the MINIMUM requirement for Illustrator. I'm afraid if you settle on any of these, you'll still be frustrated and disappointed with performance on any of these machines. My strongest recommendation is to look for something with 16GB RAM. That additional investment is useful in SO many other ways, than just illustrator. Nowadays, all apps seem "fat". These 8GB machines are really for the people who want to use office apps and email and browsers, and that's about it. Now, you don't  HAVE to buy the suggested video cards on these, just ensure that you have at least 1GB (better with 2GB) to be happy.

I bought an older laptop - JUST so I could fit my specifications, within my budget. An older (2015) MacBook pro (although it was definitely more than $400), But it works perfectly for my needs.
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/system-requirements.html

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