Which Notebook to work on Photoshop

[Ian Tomlinson]

I want to buy a notebook. I use Photoshop Elements 4 and would be grateful if anyone can recommend which considerations are important eg. Screen glossy / matt? Apparently a 17 inch screen is no good, because of the wide format? Is a 15 inch screen large enough to edit photos? Which graphic card?

I am waiting to hear your tips Ian

[Nicole]

I use a 15" screen to edit photos and have no problem, but I also don't see why it would be difficult to work with the 17" screen. When you're working with a photo editing program it doesn't matter what format your screen is in (wide or normal aspect).

I've heard mixed opinions on the glossy screens. Some people say that they're difficult to work with because of the reflection. Personally I think I'd agree (but I don't have a glossy screen on my laptop so I can't really compare).

I'd say the most important things that you'll want to consider when finding a laptop are:

Hard drive space: You're editing pictures, you need lots of space, it's a given ;)
Memory (RAM: Photoshop can be a memory hog. If you do any intense processing, you'll need a decent amount of memory (then again, I think most laptops come with at least 1GB now)
Possibly a video card that does not have shared memory. Nvidia is always good.Those would be my main considerations, but you may also want to consider what else you would use it for when you're deciding on your final criteria :)

[NaturesPixel]

hmm i think i have a glossy ??(Nic do i ??) EDIT: yep just looked at the macbooks specs i do have glossy i don't notice any difference...lol
my screen is 13.3 in and i don't find it limiting .. tho i do have a 19in wide LCD that i need to hook up to but im in need of a mini DVI to DVI adaptor...lol

As far as hard drives are concerned, ya will need to get an external or a internal enclosure.. anyways ya not wanna keep ya photos on the hard drive with in laptop they get hot and can possibly melt down at some point
or other means of backing up regularly

i would get anything bigger than a 15in as portability becomes a problem,
i figured my 13.3 in would be soo tiny i would hate it but now personally i wouldn't go any bigger in a laptop :)

[Ian Tomlinson]

Thanks for your tips. They sound good. I was considering using an external hard disc so as to be able to work on the notebook as well as on the main computer at home. I think that this should create no problems. Would it slow matters down working from a hard disc?
Bye Ian

[NaturesPixel]

i dont think it matters tho i can say this if ya get a firewire400/800 hook up that will be faster than USB2.0

[Nicole]

External hard drives are great :) No problems with mine, it works fast enough and it uses USB2.0

[prrs4me]

I also use an external hard drive with a usb2.0 and have no problems with speed. It's a great way to gain extra space and have a back up for your photos.

[ELAY]

If you go PC and will run Windows, make sure you get tons of RAM -- I'd recommend 2GB -- and get the newish Intel Duo core chipset. It makes a huge difference in speed and in being able to, for example, keep multiple photos open in your editing program.

Most newer notebooks will have the Duo cores these days.

As for the LCD, I have the glossy treatment on a 15.4 in. monitor, and I find that when it is well lit I don't get much glare. But when I run off battery and the screen dims, I get glare to the point that it is almost unusable in some locations (ie. window spots at my local Starbucks). Depending on your budget, you could also look at a tablet type setup, so you could edit with a stylus (very cool and fun, apparently).

And go with a USB external -- they are fast, convenient, cheap and seem to be getter cheaper by the minute.

EL

[Nicole]

Wow, is it really that bad with Windows needing that much RAM? Can I ask if that's partially because of Vista (heard it's a bit of a resource hog).

I don't use a Windows machine for my photo editing because the state of my monitor is beyond dire. But I regularly push my Mac (1.67GHz PPC, 512 RAM) and open say a handful of pictures at once :p I love my Mac ;)

[NaturesPixel]

my xp box runs purrrfect on 1GB my vista machine craps out at even the thought of opening an image on 1GB

my mac purrs on 1 GB with light room and Photoshop open working in raw and tiff at same time

[inkista]

Yeah, but y'know, I'm still planning on stuffing 2GB of memory into a Macbook when I get one. It's only $80 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233050) (or cheaper).

[jamwerx]

personally I got a macbookpro 15" with 2gb ram and the bigger graphics card and couldnt be happier. It breezes through anything I need even having tons of raw images open, my pc (which is now a doorstop) could barely handle 1 or 2 raw files open at once.

Definitely get a decent external drive to keep photos and the glossy screen shows colors a lot different than a normal screen, as a photographer I would get a non glossy screen so you can see what the colors really are otherwise you will tweak your photos good for a glossy screen but they will look rather dull on a reg screen but if you tweak them too look good on a reg screen they will be more vibrant on a glossy. Photographers and graphic artist should stay well clear of glossy screens IMO and I own a web dev company and wont allow anyone to use a glossy screen to dev with.

[Ian Tomlinson]

Thanks for all your information. It will be a great help and any further tips are most welcome.

Ian

[Nicole]

Don't forget to let us know what you finally decide on :) I'm sure inquiring minds want to know.

[mklickman]

If your home computer is a PC, then go with a PC laptop as opposed to a MacBook, especially if you're planning on storing all of your images on an external drive (which is a very smart choice).

The reason for this is in some cases, if you write a file to the drive with your PC, you may not be able to write it back to the drive after editing it on your Mac. I ran into this problem a little while back and it was quite frustrating. I'm not really sure what the exact circumstances were that warranted that situation, but you'd be much better off sticking to a consistent platform.

Unfortunately, though, Vista is a [I]huge[I] resource hog compared to XP (and it's absolutely 100% impossible to buy a non-used laptop that does not come with Vista pre-installed - thank you MS :mad:), so you will need to invest in at least 2 GB of ram. But, overall, having a consistent platform to work on (even if it is XP to Vista and back again) will make your life much easier.

[NaturesPixel]

The reason for this is in some cases, if you write a file to the drive with your PC, you may not be able to write it back to the drive after editing it on your Mac. I ran into this problem a little while back and it was quite frustrating. I'm not really sure what the exact circumstances were that warranted that situation, but you'd be much better off sticking to a consistent platform.




The reason might be is that Windows can only read and write to NTFS or Fat 32

MAC can only write to FAT 32 and only read NTFS... Windows can NOT read MAC equivl journaling format thingy.. (im not sure what its called i only know i have to learn how to do it when i get my external drive back) but what i will be doing is partioning it but then again i have NOOO problems accessing my macbook from my Vista machine and saving files to it and being able to work on them with in my macbook....

[cmgar]

I agree with most of the responses, but I didn't notice anyone address the laptop hard drive (HD) itself other than about size. One of the biggest bottlenecks in a laptop is it's internal HD speed. Generally, laptops ship with 5400 RPM drives, unless you get something more geared toward high end gaming.

Even if you're storing your pictures on an external HD, the internal drive still runs the OS and Photoshop. Your best bet is to find or even request that a 7200 RPM HD is used. I agree with ELAY about the RAM, 2 GB should be plenty. As for the OS, Dell still offers laptops w/ XP (http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/winxp_inspn?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs). If you decide to go with Microsoft over Mac that is.

Cheers,
Chris G.

[blzrd]

If your budget permits, this is what I would do.

PC

-Get a core2 duo Processor (hdr images also use both cores so you are using full processing power).
-2 gigs of ram.
-NO GLOSSY SCREEN!!!
-Some kind if invidia graphics card that doesn't use shared memory.
-7200 rpm hard drive of any size you want (Those new flash memory drives from samsung would probably be ideal but they are super expensive.....
-Get a wireless N and a gigabit plugged network set up in your home.
-Have a pc with a gigabit wired connection with two 500 gig hard drives that back each other up.

If you are getting xp, that is about the best setup you can have. If you have vista, I would add one more thing though. It is possible with vista to use a very fast flash memory drive as ram. When dealing with pictures, you need lots of ram.

Mac

I coudn't tell you. I hate macs. But I assume they would handle files very well because they don't have a bunch of useless crap runninng in the background like all windows based pcs do. just get lots of ram and a fast hard drive.

[miles]

Apparently a 17 inch screen is no good, because of the wide format? Is a 15 inch screen large enough to edit photos? Which graphic card?

I am waiting to hear your tips Ian

Wide screen comes standard on all laptops now almost.

Wide screen is a huge positive, it gives you more room to work, and in photoshop it will not stretch your images, it will display it in the correct aspect ratios and just as it would ona 4x3 ratio screen, but you will have more screen to work with, for palettes, etc.

I had a 17" dell and loved it, except it was big, but the 1900x1200 screen was great for web design, gaming, and photoshop. I now have a 13" macbook, and although it is smaller, it still is widescreen and I really like it.

Best of luck choosing a laptop.

[Ian Tomlinson]

Thanks for your further recommendations. I still have not decided, but am getting closer. Any further ideas are most welcome.

Ian

[xhan]

Persnally I hate glossy screens. Nearly all laptops come in widescreen nowadays, mines 15inch widescreen which is better because you get more viewing space. I would get 15" or less if its a notebook your getting otherwise its too big to move around comfortably.

I'm recommending Macbook pro but you could say I'm slightly biased!

[xxpinballxx]

I've finally got my mac working with the CS3 suite properly and just got more memory. 2gig wasn't enough....I needed 4. My wife tells me Im overcompensating or something...I dont know I wasn't listening.
Now to get everything the way I like it. i also got aperture which looks like its going to be a nice app for my photos.

[Jargon]

Actually, if you do the math (I did), a wide-screen display is actually smaller than a regular display of the same diagonal length. For example, a 17" wide-screen (16:10 aspect ratio) monitor has less display area than a 17" regular (4:3 or 5:4 aspect ratio) monitor. A 17" wide-screen monitor has roughly the same display area as a 16" regular monitor. And a 17" regular monitor has roughly the same display area as an 18" wide-screen monitor. By the way, I own both a wide-screen monitor (17" 1920x1200 16:10) and a regular monitor (20" 1600x1200 4:3).

[Ian Tomlinson]

Thanks for all your tips.

The final decision: Dell Inspiron 1720 Platinum / Intel Core DuoT7300
2084 Mb RAM / 17 inch widescreen 1920 X 1200 / Nvidia GeForce GO 8600 /
2 X 160 Gb.

Ian

[jdepould]

Use a CRT, LCDs are nearly useless for photo editing.

[blzrd]

Thanks for all your tips.

The final decision: Dell Inspiron 1720 Platinum / Intel Core DuoT7300
2084 Mb RAM / 17 inch widescreen 1920 X 1200 / Nvidia GeForce GO 8600 /
2 X 160 Gb.

Ian

Very nice choice. I wish I had the money for something like that. Fortunately my brother had used dell worth about $1000 that he was selling for $600 because he was upgrading.

Edit: So I just went through dell and found the price on your exact notebook and DANG!! I am not even close to having enough to buy that!