Hello everyone. Being the "computer guy" my friend charged me with finding him a laptop to do his graphic designing on. (ie photoshop, lightroom) After some research I've found that perhaps the most important thing to have in a photoshop computer is good hard drive performance. (given that the rest of the system isn't total garbage of course) It seems as though a SSD boot drive, a small SSD "scratch disk" and a mechanical hard drive for storing files is the optimal route. Obviously a 3 drive setup too much to ask from a laptop so I'm thinking that I can probably get away with an mSATA SSD and a mechanical hard drive. Possibly even put two partitions on the SSD to accompany the photoshop scratch disk. (do i really need to do that?)
Here's my question: What laptops have mSATA capability in the 14 - 15.6" screen size range. I just need general models, I can take care of the hardware configuration as long as I know where to start. Once you've identified an mSATA capable laptop, feel free to comment on its pros and cons, both general and for graphic design tasks. In particular, I haven't found anything for ASUS, Acer, or Samsung yet.
I've already found that the HP Envy 14 and the Lenovo Y570 have mSATA capabilities. Any comments on either of those?
Also, macs are out of the question. Thats what he originally wanted but realized that he didnt have the funds to be paying twice as much when the only feasible difference was the OS, so PC's only please. His budget is $1000, preferably less.
I appreciate everyones help.