Which Notebook to work on Photoshop

[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 (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 ), 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]

Originally Posted by mklickman

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/s...=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]

Originally Posted by Ian Tomlinson

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