colorisnteverything wrote:
Question, what would you recommend for a girl who wants Photoshop, capabilities for grad school, and is on a budget (not an extreme one, just under 2k). I need a laptop, but I need a new one. My 4 year old Dell has pretty much served its purpose. I have loved the hell out of it and it is well-worn and tired. When I get home from England this year, I need a new one. I am freaked out about Vista because I need my external hard drive to work, as well as my DSLR, memory chip, etc, to work. I take a lot of pictures - a LOT. My Dell is definitely not up to par with graphics, but I love the portability of a laptop?
The real problem, or rather challenge, here is Photoshop. It's a big program, and it takes a lot of resources to run it. However, you should be able to get a REALLY nice laptop these days for well under 2k. Since you're going to be using it for school, I think a laptop is a good choice (most of the students I know very much prefer laptops, for portability and because they move a lot!).

This Dell right here seems like it would suit all your needs. I believe most peripherals work with both XP and Vista, though if it's a driver-based item, you will need to re-install the driver on your new machine, and choose the Vista version (if there is one). Or, again, you could "roll back" to XP if that's what you're more comfortable with. And since this computer isn't all that expensive, you'll have a little extra left over, so you can buy Photoshop CS4...I hear it's going to be AWESOME. *grin*