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I'm starting out on illustrator but my current laptop can't take it.
I've done some research and ended up with these two options. Not sure which is best given the price is very similar?
Conscious of RAM(option B has higher spec) and also graphics (option A has higher spec). I heard that given that 3D functionalities are improving having a separate graphic board like NVIDIA® GeForce RTX (option A) is a good shout #confused.com
Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you
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What kind of AC adapter is Dell shipping with its XPS notebooks these days? A couple of years ago I considered buying a Dell XPS notebook, but at the time the design of the notebook and its AC adapter was a deal breaker. I bought an Alienware X17 notebook instead (it cost significantly more and is built like a tank, but I love it). If I recall correctly the AC adapter in the Dell XPS notebook a couple of years ago was a 100 watt unit but the notebook really needed at least 130 watts. Under any sort of heavy load the notebook would end up drawing from the battery and wall outlet. Hopefully Dell fixed that.
Other observations: avoid any "home" version of the Windows OS. I am not a fan of integrated graphics chip sets and prefer discrete graphics boards. I would lean toward getting the system with the NVidia RTX 4050 graphics board. It looks better than the Intel Arc Graphics thingie and the NVidia drivers might be better supported by Adobe's applications. I don't know enough about Intel's new graphics boards to trust them.
Is the RAM in the notebook removable and able to be upgraded? Or is the RAM soldered onto the motherboard? If the RAM is "baked in" you'll need to get as much installed up front as you can afford since that will be it for the life of that computer. I don't like baked in RAM modules. If a RAM module goes bad it will be difficult and expensive to replace. It's far easier and cheaper to replace removable modules. 32GB of RAM is a good start. I'd consider bumping it up to 64GB if it didn't put too much strain on the wallet.