What sort of laptop should I get as an Animation Major?

blueskies

Honorable
Jun 28, 2013
1
0
10,510
Hey everyone,

I recently graduated from high school and I am currently preparing for my freshmen year of college. I am an animation major and I will need a good laptop that can handle programs like Photoshop, Maya, etc. I'm not very into computers so I don't understand what I need and what all of the terms mean.

1. What is your budget?
About $1,200. I can stretch a little if necessary but I plan to get a new computer for grad school.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Somewhere between 13 and 15 inches will be fine.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
1280x800?

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
It needs to be portable because I'm not getting a desktop due to space issues.

5. How much battery life do you need?
5 hours+

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
No.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
2D and 3D animation, Photoshop and SAI, etc.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
500 GB

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
At least 4 years. I'm going to switch laptops when I leave for grad school.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I'm not a big fan of Mac because I'm not used to their format and it takes longer to fumble through their system. I'm also convinced that I can get a kick-ass PC for the same price (or less). I also think Sony's Vaio is incredibly sexy (I'm a sucker for aesthetics).

13. What country do you live in?
United States.

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
This isn't a big deal but it would be nice if the laptop had 3 USB ports since I will be using a Wacom tablet and a mouse.

Thank you guys so much! :]
 
You are not going to get 5 hours on anything when using heavy duty animation programs or gaming.

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