Laptop Recommendations

[iancoxleigh]

Hi all,

 

I am thinking of getting a laptop in order to be able to take my work (I'm a

graduate student in Egyptology) and presentations to conferences etc . . . This

application does not require a particularly capable machine.

 

But, if I'm going to buy a laptop anyways, I would like to have it capable

enough to use in the field for my photography hobby as well. I want to be able

to import my photos and work on them in Lightroom and CS3 when I'm either out

camping or traveling.

 

What do you guys think are reasonable specifications for that use? I went and

looked at what Adobe lists as required specifications for CS3 and they seem a

little low (wouldn't CS3 absolutely crawl with only 512MB of Ram?).

[iancoxleigh]

Oh, I'm using PC software and would want to stay the same if only for cost reasons.

 

And, also, I'd be happy to take any specific recommendation with regard to brands or models that work for you.

[custom film holders for fl]

A lot is going to depend on you budget and which version of Windows (since you said you want a PC) you plan to run. I have been looking for a laptop this week and trying to find a good balance between price, performance and longevity.

 

You can still find or order some PCs with XP. In the short-term, I would rather get XP. I don't like reloading operating systems though and hopefully it won't be too long and painful before operating systems mature, so I will probably stick with Vista. Get at least Vista Home Premium. Go to the Microsoft comparison site and compare the different Vista versions. It will really torque you to see how they left out some key features in each version below Ultimate which is $$.

 

Everything is a compromise with laptops unless you are spending $$. I felt I needed to get at least 2 gb of RAM and a fairly speedy processor, and a 15.4" screen for reasonable photo editing. 17" is nice but too large and too heavy for travel. The current fad is glossy/glare screens. Great looking if you don't have a problem with reflections. I don't need the latest and fastest processor, so I went midrange there. I am not a gamer, so I went with what is supposed to be one of the better integrated video cards (nVidia 6150).

 

Good luck. Do some research but at some point you will run into analysis paralysis :)

 

Doug Fisher

[akajohndoe]

I've been using a laptop as my main PC for several years now. I recently upgraded to a new one with Vista Home Premium, Intel® Core 2 Duo T7200 (2.0GHz/4MB L2Cache), and 2GB of memory. It runs PhotoShop/CS2 quite well.

 

With any of the 32-bit operating systems from Microsoft (XP or Vista) it really does not help to have more than 2-4GB of memory. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605 for more information about that.

[jeffpolaski]

I just bought a Dell d610, refurbished, from Dell. They sold it with an extra battery for the drive bay. Fast processor, 2 gig RAM, etc. The monitor isn't great for CS2, but I use it and it works well for me.

 

I bought this specifically for CS2/3, and will probably pick up a Dell Untrasharp monitor to do the finer work.

[J.W. Wall]

I've had good luck with Dell refurbs. Saves a lot of $$$.

 

That said, I recently looked at the Macbook Pro line. Comparing well-featured machines, it seemed to me that the Macbook Pro is not really more expensive than the PCs these days, and Macs are graphics machines that run both PC and Mac software, and have much less problem with viruses etc. According to the literature, a Macbook uses less RAM to provide the equivalent processing power and speed. Some of the computer gurus here may explain that better or differ with it. And the Macbook Pro 17" screen looked like a beautiful thing to work on, too.

[yolanda yorgensen]

If looking for a MacBook Pro-like wintel box, consider the Dell Precision M65 (now the M4300).