What laptop? (PC)

[Mack Hicks]

Looking to upgrade laptop. I was thinking a 17.3" or is 15" enough. How much memory at a minimum? What's the current favorite processor.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

For post-processing 4GB is the minimum, 8GB RAM improves performance. The newest processors for laptops are i5 and i7. As for screen size, I would go to a computer store and compare not only the size but also different resolutions to see what you like best.

[James Prudente]

Looking to upgrade laptop. I was thinking a 17.3" or is 15" enough. How much memory at a minimum? What's the current favorite processor.

I recently went through the process of deciding on a new laptop. I finally purchased a HP Pavillion dv7t, i7 Quad Core, 17.3", 8GB Ram, 2 - 500GB on board hard drives, NVIDIA 1GB Geforce card, Windows 7 64 bit machine. I run CS4 and have been very happy with the results. Very fast, easy on the eyes screen but a bit heavy if you are packing it to fly. I spend most of my time traveling in the RV and the weight is not an issue for me. We stay on line with Verizon USB760 and Cradlepoint 1000 MBR router.

Hope this helps,

Jim

[Robert O'Toole]

Hi Mack,

You left out the most important factor= your budget.

If it is $4000 you can get a Magnesium/Aluminum HP Elite book with i7, WIN 7, USB 3 ports, dual 500GB 7200 PRM HDD ( or SSD HDD), 8 GB RAM (up to 16GB), 17 inch display, Express 54 slot, 3 year warranty with Mil specs (drop, shock, etc). Or a Macbook pro 17, 8GB RAM and one harddrive and an old core Duo for about the same price.

Hope this helps.

Robert

[Roger Clark]

Hi Mack,
If it is $4000 you can get a Magnesium/Aluminum HP Elite book with i7, WIN 7, USB 3 ports, dual 500GB 7200 PRM HDD ( or SSD HDD), 8 GB RAM (up to 16GB), 17 inch display, Express 54 slot, 3 year warranty with Mil specs (drop, shock, etc). Or a Macbook pro 17, 8GB RAM and one harddrive and an old core Duo for about the same price.


Robert,
What does that weigh?

Roger

[Roger Clark]

I recently searched for a ~14-inch or larger laptop with >500 GB hard drive and less than 4 pounds. I found the panasonic toughbook CF-F8 (around 3.5 pounds). I equipped it with a 640 GB hard drive (had to buy that separately and replace the 250 GB drive) and 6 GBytes of ram (max). It is amazingly light. The keyboard layout is a little funky.

Roger

[Robert O'Toole]

Robert,
What does that weigh?

Roger

Hi Roger,

The 17 inch is 7 lbs, the 14 inch is 4 + lbs. Forgot what the 15 inch was...



Robert

[Garry McCarthy]

Apple has just release updated MacBook Pros, now with the Intel i5 and i7 processors. CNET has them rated as one of their top 5 laptops. They run Windows, in addition to Mac OS, so you get the best of both worlds.

[Tom Graham]

All of that CPU speed, RAM, and GB drives are nice, but, if you are critical viewing/editing images, then the screen is by far the most important part. That would be my first priority, everything else is second. And by screen I don't mean size, I mean LCD technology such as TN, IPS, PVA, etc. TN screens are most common and also the worst.
Tom
ps - what type of laptop do I have? I don't.

[Roger Clark]

Tom,
I agree. Unfortunately if you travel and need to review and store images, one needs a method to do that and laptops are ideal. If one is at home, you could plug a IPS monitor into the laptop for photo editing if you do not have another machine. For those not familiar with monitor types, here is my article on choosing LCD monitors:

http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/choosing_an_LCD_monitor/

Roger

[Tom Graham]

Roger - very good article. And impressive web site you have. Bookmarked it and will be going back, thanks.
It seems as though on occasion Mac, Lenovo, HP do come up with a decent laptop display but no rhyme nor reason to it. Would seem to me to be a decent demand for such?
Tom