Which desktop/laptop should I get?

[mevinyavin]

Highly doubtful that a 7xxx series Latitude is plastic. More likely that it is some kind of lightweight polymer that feels like plastic, as seen on Grams and Lenovo's X laptops. (This is an educated guess, not fact.) Latitude is famous for their keyboards, second only to Thinkpads, so makes sense you would enjoy them.

Regarding Grade, since they are called Cosmetic Grade, I don't know how bad Grade B will be. But since you seemed to be makpid on A, I matched it (especially because I wanted to be accurate when calling it 'virtually the same' as your model). Faced with this exact choice, I personally would buy the B.

[mevinyavin]

What difference does it make it make if metal or plastic?
What does build quality refer to?

Metal and plastic: one particular aspect of build quality but not the whole story. Metal dents when impacted; plastic shatters. The most common problem with laptops - namely, dropping them - is significantly less likely to kill the laptop if metal.
For the rest, it is obvious that companies lavish more attention to the quality of certain lines versus others. This is the main reason to get a higher-end laptop versus a lower-end one.

[Yehudaa]

Highly doubtful that a 7xxx series Latitude is plastic. More likely that it is some kind of lightweight polymer that feels like plastic, as seen on Grams and Lenovo's X laptops. (This is an educated guess, not fact.) Latitude is famous for their keyboards, second only to Thinkpads, so makes sense you would enjoy them.

You're right. I thought it was plastic, but just looked it up, and it's apparently carbon fiber. Had no idea.

Regarding Grade, since they are called Cosmetic Grade, I don't know how bad Grade B will be. But since you seemed to be makpid on A, I matched it (especially because I wanted to be accurate when calling it 'virtually the same' as your model). Faced with this exact choice, I personally would buy the B.

Got it. Gonna try to find some reviews of Dell Refurbished in Canada, and then decide between A and B based on what others got.

Thanks for all your help on this!

[Elee]

Photoshop recommends an MX series Nvidia graphics at a minimum (they used to require even more, but it apparently was for their 3D stuff, which they since moved to a different program).
If you want smooth Photoshop usage, a budget gaming laptop that has good colors should be good for you. If you want to throw money at your old laptop, be my guest, but don't expect Photoshop not to krechtz anyway.
Do you want a specific laptop recommendation, or recommendations for RAM / SSD?

Delayed response

I would prefer recommendations for RAM / SSD.

Thanks!!

[mevinyavin]

Delayed response

I would prefer recommendations for RAM / SSD.

Thanks!!

Bear in mind that even after purchasing the parts, you will still need to pay someone to upgrade them OR figure out how to do it yourself. I'm not in Lakewood; maybe ask for upgrade help in the Lakewood threads.
RAM: up to two DIMMS of DDR4 2666 or 3200 (no difference to you, whichever is cheaper). You will be buying a set of 2 x 16GB such as this one (make sure you are getting the one labeled 2 x 16GB) for $48:
Timetec 32GB KIT(2x16GB) DDR4 2666MHz (DDR4-2666) PC4-21300 (PC4-2666V) Non-ECC Unbuffered 1.2V CL19 2Rx8 Dual Rank 260 Pin SODIMM Laptop Notebook PC Computer Memory RAM Module Upgrade



Tell me how much space you need and I'll find you a good SSD (an M2 2280 that is NVMe/PCIe - they are the same thing).

Also, as I said:

don't expect Photoshop not to krechtz anyway.

It is the integrated graphics that is more at fault for your Photoshop performance than the RAM (although a full SSD may be creating problems, 16GB of RAM is often enough).