Advice regarding laptop

[pjgoswami]

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am an amateur photographer. My present computer setup is Intel Core 2 quad with 6GB DDR2 and Asus VW192T Windows XP 32/64 or Windows 7 32/64. I am planning to purchase a laptop for my photo work as well as for field work (while going to shoot outside).

I have some doubts regarding:

01. One of my friends, (Basically a computer hardware engineer) told me to not to invest in top class laptop as I have one good desktop and laptops are not as durable as the desktop. In this regard I am a little bit confused.

02. Till date, i have not had an opportunity to use MAC PC/Laptop. If I opt for MAC for the laptop will it be beneficial for me or not.

03. If I opt for AMD in place of Intel will it be beneficial for me or not.

And the final key point is that my budget is about $570 to $1000.

Thanking you,

With regards,

Pranab

[Tzetsin]

There are 4 things that are going to be important to you, as a photographer.

The first is the screen. the resolution should be 1920x1080. Typically you wont find that screen resolution in the cheaper models, so you'll likely be on the higher end of your budget.

Third is RAM absolutely more is better. 6 GB is good, 4 GB minimum if you have to stay in budget.

Third is Windows 7 "64 bit" having this version will allow you to actually use the amount of RAM I specified above.

Third is hard drive space. Unfortunately no laptop is going to have "enough" hard drive space for a busy photographer, but more is better. Also budget for an external hard drive to offload your photos to, so you dont keep photos on the laptop. A typical laptop will have between 320GB and 750GB of hard drive storage, when I go out on a shoot, I'll fill both my cameras and that will take up 64GB of hard drive space. If I had a 750GB hard drive and kept my pictures on the laptop I would only be able to put a couple days worth of pictures on the laptop before it would be full, and a full laptop is a slow laptop.

Also budget for a good, padded "backpack" style laptop bag. The business style will always take up one hand, so traveling with it is a lot of hassle.

hope that helps.

[pjgoswami]

Thanks Mr. Tzetsin for your kind help.

As per your advice I have landed with either "Dell Studio XPS 16" or "Dell Studio XPS 1640 with RGB LED backlit". But both are beyond my present budget. If possible please advice me either Asus or Dell Laptop with in the budget of $600 to $700. Sorry for the trouble again.

Thanking you,
With regards,

Pranab

[Tzetsin]

well, i cant exactly quote you a specific model or anything, there is just too much variety. Especially between regions.

Asus and Dell are both good companies, but I'd have to tip my hat at dell. The build quality of laptops these days is absolutely terrible, but there have been two companies that have resisted the trend and that is Dell and Apple. I hate Apple, so I'd never recommend one of those, but I cant argue their great build quality, nor customer service. Dell is a close second and top of the pc laptop market in build quality and customer service. You DO end up paying more for it though, but thats what needs to happen to get a quality piece of electronics.

You can't get a Dell laptop with a 1920x1080 for under $700usd (not that I could find anyway) the closest I could find on the dell website had everything you need, except the full hd screen. In my opinion its just not worth it to get a screen that isnt full HD if you intend to do a lot of photo editing on it. It'll "work" but... Picture is what we do as photographers, if the lappy doesnt have a good picture, whats the point at all.

You may be able to find something with all the hardware that you need for editing within your budget in another brand. Acer has a name for being on the "cheap" end of things, though I've found them to be pretty reliable.

If you could save up a little longer, so you could afford the laptop with all the things that will make your photo editing workflow better, you will be better off. I think the cheapest full HD laptop Dell has is a little more than an extra 100 dollars. Definitely worth waiting for.

I cannot recommend a lesser system. I can recommend what you need. Not what you can afford. I can guide you so you know what the most important pieces are, so you dont spend more on things you dont need, but If you cannot afford to get the proper equipment then you should wait until you can. If you cannot wait, Just get the best you can for the price you have in mind and hope for the best.

There really aren't that many applications that can push a mid to high end computer to its limits, but unfortunately photo editing is one that fits the bill.

[ghosh9691]

Originally Posted by pjgoswami

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am an amateur photographer. My present computer setup is Intel Core 2 quad with 6GB DDR2 and Asus VW192T Windows XP 32/64 or Windows 7 32/64. I am planning to purchase a laptop for my photo work as well as for field work (while going to shoot outside).

I have some doubts regarding:

01. One of my friends, (Basically a computer hardware engineer) told me to not to invest in top class laptop as I have one good desktop and laptops are not as durable as the desktop. In this regard I am a little bit confused.

02. Till date, i have not had an opportunity to use MAC PC/Laptop. If I opt for MAC for the laptop will it be beneficial for me or not.

03. If I opt for AMD in place of Intel will it be beneficial for me or not.

And the final key point is that my budget is about $570 to $1000.

Thanking you,

With regards,

Pranab

Point 01: Your friend is mistaken. There is no difference between a laptop and desktop from a durability perspective as long as both are handled properly.

Point 02: A Mac will not help or hinder you. A PC or a Mac is a personal choice. They are both good.

Point 03: AMD v/s Intel is same as Mac v/s PC. They will both get the job done.

For your budget, you should look at a laptop running Windows 7, preferably 64-bit. You should aim for an absolute minimum of 4GB RAM. I would not worry too much about hard-disk space. You should store your photographs on an external USB hard disk so that you can easily share the photos with your desktop which will probably remain your primary post-processing machine. For processor, look for a Core i5 or i7 processor if going Intel.

Hope this helps

[fayf]

I actually just bought a new laptop on Black Friday that I am thrilled with. My research showed that you really need an Intel processor (preferably I5) with approximately 6gb RAM. I really wanted a big screen so I got a 17.3". I have had bad experiences with Dell so I got Lenovo - very happy so far.
As to the desktop/laptop question - today's laptops are so powerful; I beg to differ, I think a laptop with the right specs will be just as good as a desktop.
As to the Mac, you should only consider it if you're already comfortable with the Mac system.

[pjgoswami]

Thank every body for the advice. I will go for Intel platform as I do not having any idea about Mac system. I mentally decided for Dell one (because Lenevo users are complaining in our place) but before purchasing I will do some homework for the configuration as your advices as on availability of the configuration.

Thanks again for your advices.