Tuesday, June 18th 2013 - 10:17PM :

New Machine

I'd been using a Desktop PC for all my computer stuff since forever and 3 years ago I decided to buy my first Laptop. It got to the point whereby I was using my 'Intel i3, 4GB ram 300GB HDD' Laptop 90% of the time and only going back to the PC when I needed to work on a larger Photoshop file which my laptop couldn't handle or to store things on the PC's larger hard drives.

But now I have this: A Lenovo Y500 15.6" Notebook which performs A LOT better than my old PC and laptop put together!

This means I can once again update question 14 of my site's Q & A: 14. What equipment do you use to create your work?

Before
Hardware- Desktop PC:

Intel i7 920 2.66GHz (currently overclocked to 3.4GHz) processor cooled by a Noctua NH-U12P Special Edition fitted to a Asus P6T SE Mother Board.

12GB of Corsair 1600mhz DDR3 RAM (Cas Latency of 7-7-7-20)

GeForce 9500GT Graphics

2x speedy 1TB Hard Drives, and a 1.5TB External HDD for backing up Running Windows 7 operating system

2x (Dual View) DVI 19" LG LCD Monitors

Cannon LiDE scanner and HP 1220c A3 Deskjet printer

Wacom Intuos Graphics Tablet- A4 (9x12")

Software Typically Used: PhotoShop CS5 (64-bit), Dreamweaver CS5, Flash CS5, Illustrator CS5, In-Design CS5, also Open Canvas (only for online drawing sessions with buddies).

Now
Hardware- Lenovo Y500 15.6" Notebook:

i7-3632QM 2.4GHz Processor

16GB of Kingston 1600mhz DDR3 RAM (CL11)

NVIDIA GT650 Graphics

1x speedy 1TB Hard Drive for data, 1x 250GB Solid State Drive running Windows 8 Operating system, an external 1TB 2.5" overflow drive for movies and less frequently used data, an external 2TB drive for backing up

A DVI 19" LG LCD Monitor for Dual View

Cannon LiDE scanner and HP 1220c A3 Deskjet printer

Wacom Intuos Graphics Tablet- A4 (9x12")

[In the future I'd like to replace my dual view monitor and Intuos for a Wacom Cintiq 24 HD]

Software Typically Used: Upgraded to Adobe Master collection CS6

Configuring it to run how I wanted wasn't an easy task. Lenovo and Windows seem to team up against their customers if they want to replace hard drives and add a fresh install of Windows 8 on their system, but after a week of trouble-shooting and customizing it's all running how I want now