Advice on choosing a laptop

little bess

Hi guys,

I'm new to this forum and looking for a bit of advice.

Basically my home PC and my laptop have died and I'm looking around for something new.I'd like to get a laptop that is capable of showing images really well on the monitor.
Ideally the macbook pro would be great but times are tough so the budget won't stretch too far:(

Can anyone recommend anything?I'm fairly new to photography but am loving it and wan't to go further with it and my processing.

MY budget is about 1000 euro. ..

Ricky91t

One piece of advice
Get the biggest hardrive you can afford.
Photos take up alot of space!

jackdaw

actually i have the same question ...

Although i wouldn't go for a macbook i think with Apple you are overpaying
for a name .. id like a laptop that could deal with large images (15MP + maybe even 21 MP )

what would i be looking for -- an Intel Core Duo with 4B Ram ?

500GB hard drive should do it .. + external one ..

Dragan

For a 1000 you will pick up a very nice system from Dell. Your are looking for a decent processor, lots of RAM and as pointed out a whopping big Hard Drive.

If it were me ( which it will be in about 2 more months ) i would go for

http://ecomm.euro.dell.com/dellstore/basket.aspx?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&l=en&s=dhs&itemtype=CFG&oid=dd41e94c-e530-4be3-893a-abaa50730086

If i felt like stretching the full 1000 i'd go with

http://ecomm.euro.dell.com/dellstore/basket.aspx?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&l=en&s=dhs&itemtype=CFG&oid=dd41e94c-e530-4be3-893a-abaa50730086

little bess

Dragan - your link seems to be going to an empty basket there...

Are you looking at the Studio 15 or the XPS?

Dragan

The XPS for 1049.

It's a lovely machine!

Hugh_C

I think maybe a regular MacBook would be ideal - I use a MacBook (not Pro) for my photo editing needs and stick all the RAW files on an external drive (cheap as chips these days).

Just make sure that if you're getting a MacBook (or any other Apple 'puter fro that matter), don't buy extra RAM from Apple - total ripoff - buy from Crucial instead.

Despite what jackdaw says, the machine s/he specs up is pretty much the MacBook. It works great for me and I don't consider that I over paid for the brand.

Huhg

PixelTrawler

Look for:

17" wuxga screen

(1920*1200, if u see wxga+ its only 1440*1200, if u intend working on an external monitor only then this is not so important. I have a wuxga screen and a 24" monitor and have it setup dual screen which makes working a dream. You can have lightroom on one screen and canon dpp on the other for example. Since the 24" is 1920 res, its better if the other screen is also 1920 as dual screen on different resolutions is a pain. If you ever want to do this, get the higher res screen now.)
4gig ram
2.5 ghz processor at least for nippy image processing (intel T9300)

Dont get too hung up on the hard disk - u can also go external, and I always have at least two copies of all photos on different drives at any time in case of HD failure.
300gig is loads in the laptop itself.

kjt

Cheaper dells - linky.
I've gotten two off here and saved a over a grand on just those two!

jackdaw

Hugh_C wrote: »

I think maybe a regular MacBook would be ideal - I use a MacBook (not Pro) for my photo editing needs and stick all the RAW files on an external drive (cheap as chips these days).

Just make sure that if you're getting a MacBook (or any other Apple 'puter fro that matter), don't buy extra RAM from Apple - total ripoff - buy from Crucial instead.

Despite what jackdaw says, the machine s/he specs up is pretty much the MacBook. It works great for me and I don't consider that I over paid for the brand.

Huhg

Don't get me wrong .. the MAcs are slick(id like one ) ... but here in Spain from what i have seen they seem to be overpriced .. but Spain is weird like that for electronics .. when i was back in Ireland i couldn't believe how cheap laptops were .. and that was in Peats, so i didn't even shop around..

Spain seems to be v. expensive in some areas in electronics .. cheaper in others though .. like cameras..

mathias

For processing work , you must have a good screen , bad LCD screens can totally mess up your processing...this is why macs are so popular for photo work , the screens are excellent.

Whatever type you get , if your going to be using it for processing work then calibrate the screen as best you can , you can use a colorvision spyder or pantone huey to do this.

stcstc

i would suggest you avoid laptops all together for processing. well unless you connect an external monitor

almost all laptop screens dont give anywhere near enough of the colour gamut of your images.

little bess

Thanks everyone for the replies, gives me a good starting point when I go looking,I would have been a bit clueless otherwise:)

City-Exile

Little Bess, you've already killed two computers. I don't think you should be allowed to own another!

Anyway, if you just want to show pics of family/friends, then the Dell XPS would do just fine. The link to the Outlet above is for refurb or damaged machines.
They're all tested & covered by Dell Waranty. You're not at risk if you purchase from the outlet. There may be a scratch on the cover, or something.

If you're looking to display images which require high quality colour representation, then stcstc is bang on the money. You'll need to buy a decent external monitor.

Crash

None of the dell outlets are damaged, AFAIK. they're all returns or cancelled orders, and any damaged parts are replaced. I've had two, and they've been as good as new. The widescreen XPS's are good for photoviewing.

kjt

Going Forward wrote: »

None of the dell outlets are damaged, AFAIK. they're all returns or cancelled orders, and any damaged parts are replaced.

Spot on! + their covered just like any other pc/laptop they sell. They can't sell them on as brand new machines as they've been returned or canceled for some reason or another. Which means cheaper for you

Ricky91t

Dragan wrote: »

The XPS for 1049.

It's a lovely machine!

I agree!
The xps with that spec is the same price as the studio!And the xps is a much better machine imo.
Great value too

City-Exile

Going Forward wrote: »

None of the dell outlets are damaged, AFAIK. they're all returns or cancelled orders, and any damaged parts are replaced. I've had two, and they've been as good as new. The widescreen XPS's are good for photoviewing.

Some people here would argue with the wall!
I've seen machines come from the outlet that have marks/scratches on them.
On their eBay store, the actually show pictures of some of them. (No machines on sale at the time of posting.)

Anyway, the outcome is still the same.
You get a decent machine, which is covered by warranty.

acquiescefc

Dont forget to get your free warranty extension with your dodgy motherboard/graphics driver.

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/08/18/nvidia-gpu-update-dell-to-offer-warranty-enhancement-to-all-affected-customers-worldwide.aspx

Love my m1330 but like many ive had several service call outs.

melekalikimaka

ok specs wise IMO

min 2 gb ram
duel core
decent screen
try dedicated gfx as vista is a bit gfx hungry
not so much a big hard drive, but a fast one


personally macs dont do it for me, more bang for buck with ibm but macs are so easy to use and problem free

thats the choice you gotta make, power of comfort