System requirements.... PLEASE HELP

[Als_Short]

Hi

 

I am wondering If anyone can help with some advice on what laptop would be best suited to run the affinity apps as well as everyday use. 

 

I'm starting out but want to use the affinity apps to learn how to manipulate photographs but also use publisher to design book covers  

 

2 devices I have in mind are 

 

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/3039061

https://www.very.co.uk/asus-vivobook-x512fa-ej1401t-intel-core-i5-10210u-8gb-ram-256gb-ssd-156-inch-full-hd-laptop-silver/1600450253.prd

 

Any advise would be appreciated 😀

 

 

Edited March 10, 2020 by Als_Short
Attract support

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums.

I’ve had a quick look at the specs of both machines and they each look capable of running the Affinity software.
One concern I would have is with the storage on the Asus. 256GB isn’t much when you are doing image processing and it will probably fill pretty quickly (Windows will take up quite a lot of that before you add extra stuff). You have the option of using external drives but who wants to have to lug extra stuff around with them?

As for which might be best suited to running the Affinity software, I have no idea, sorry. My guess is that, just from these two, the Lenovo seems like it might be a better choice overall but I have no hard facts to back that up.

[Als_Short]

Thank you for your reply it really is appreciated. I was thinking the lenovo was going to be a better machine if I'm honest. I'm guessing having a dedicated graphics card using it's own RAM has got to be better than an intergrated using shared graphics when processing images. 

[dominik]

10 minutes ago, Als_Short said:

I was thinking the lenovo was going to be a better machine if I'm honest. I'm guessing having a dedicated graphics card using it's own RAM has got to be better than an intergrated using shared graphics when processing images. 

A general advice would be to have as much RAM as possible. I do not refer to the graphic card's own RAM but to the memory built into the computer. It helps to make working more 'fluid'.

d.

[GarryP]

You’re welcome.
The Windows Affinity applications don’t use GPUs as fully as the OS X versions (e.g. no Metal support) so having a 'dedicated' graphics card – along with an integrated one, if there is one – may not give you much benefit at the moment (this may change in the future though).
Good performance, especially on laptops, is generally something that comes from many things working together correctly; CPU; GPU; motherboard; memory; storage; etc. It would be very difficult to figure out which machine performs ‘better’ from just the specs alone.
dominik’s advice, above, is good. More machine RAM usually makes things better, up to a point.

[Als_Short]

Thank you for the kind responses. I think the advice is they will likely do what I need however if I want to future proof my device for any possible update or change in requirements or decide I want to play games I would be better going for the lenovo gaming laptop with the nvidia gtx10 graphics as opposed to the intergrated one. 

 

😀

[GarryP]

One extra piece of advice I would add is to try and use the laptop (or a slightly different version of it) in a shop – PC World/Currys/etc. – if possible before you buy, just to see if the keyboard and screen are to your liking. You’ll be using these two things a lot and if they’re not right for you – maybe the keyboard doesn’t feel right, or maybe the screen isn’t good in direct sunlight – then that’s going to mar your experience of the product for a long time.
Anyway, I hope you will be pleased with your purchase, whichever you buy.