Alienware laptops and photo editing

They should be fine if you're into gaming but if not they'd be a waste of money in my opinion for just photo editing. Alienware generally have expensive high spec graphics which aren't needed.

You may as well buy a high end Dell as that's what they are anyway.
 
bootsy said:
is I7 best for photo editing or should i consider I5 or I3
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Yes and yes. The newer i7/i5/i3s are fastest (codename Sandy Bridge). You'll know they are the new ones as they have 4 digits after the processor starting with a 2 (e.g. i7-2600).
 
i had a look around pc world today.just to see what they could offer.they said a 15"macbook pro would be better for photo editing and not worry about gaming on it.they also said 4gb on a macbook pro is about the same as 6gb on a window7 machine?if i swapped over could i use my copy of lightroom3.
anyway this is the macbook pro i looked at today.
15"macbook pro
i7-2635QM Processor
- 2.0GHz
- Quad core
Operating System Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
RAM - 4GB installed RAM (1333MHz)
AMD Radeon HD 6490M graphics
500GB SATA 5400rpm
the sales person went on about different screens HD and anti glare.is this a pc world sales pitch ?
i'm not a fanboy of microsoft or apple but is it worth swapping over :thinking:
 
dont get me wrong apple make some nice kit but for the amount youd spend on a macbook pro you could get a much better spec laptop (more memory, faster hard drive etc).

regards to screens theyre not better than any other LED laptop screen, the "anti-glare" matte option costs extra. ideally for photo editing youll be wanting an IPS panel which is extremely rare in laptops (HP did one but it was about £1700) which is why must have external screens.
 
I wouldn't want to do a lot of photo editing on a 15" laptop no matter what the specs. If it's what you have then you make it work for you, but if you are setting out to buy something specifically for the job then spec it properly.

You want a laptop so I assume you need it to be portable but you also want to be able to work on it easily so go for a 17" screen as the best compromise. Is gaming going to be the main use for it? if not you really don't need an I7 (or an Ianything) processor, a half decent processor and 3-4Gb of memory will do very well.
 
Steep said:
Is gaming going to be the main use for it? if not you really don't need an I7 (or an Ianything) processor, a half decent processor and 3-4Gb of memory will do very well.
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There speaks someone who doesn't process large amounts of data. My half decent E8400 looks like something out of the ark compared to the i7-2600K machine I have now (it's a good 2.5-3x quicker in the standard PS benchmark). That translates to quite a noticeable difference when you're chundering through 22Mpix RAW files in PS or LR....
 
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arad85 said:
There speaks someone who doesn't process large amounts of data. My half decent E8400 looks like something out of the ark compared to the i7-2600K machine I have now (it's a good 2.5-3x quicker in the standard PS benchmark). That translates to quite a noticeable difference when you're chundering through 22Mpix RAW files in PS or LR....
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id have to agree, my Q9550 (2.83 core2 quad) runs at about 80% when batch processing/exporting RAW in LR2.
 
Now I didn't say an Iwhatsit would not be better, but only the OP knows how much actual work it's going to have to do. Not everyone (yep including me) plows through 22mpx raw files on a regular basis. No budget has been mentioned but I assume bootsy is not short of a bob if he's thinking of an Alienware machine to start with so maybe an I7 machine would suit. I just think you can get better bang for your buck by not buying into the latest and greatest processor range.
 
I wouldn't recommend Dell Alienware too highly. I have the M15x myself, the parts used just aren't that high quality for the price.

Also due to the size and weight of them, they are basically desktop replacements - which if portability isn't an issue, I would just go for a desktop.

Personally, for the price I would just build myself a desktop sourcing higher quality parts, but I can understand not everyone wants to do that. Gaming laptops are not even great for gaming, I got lucky and didn't have to buy my Alienware, but it's not something I would buy.

Here is quite a nice laptop I saw relatively cheaply today:
http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-l502x/pd?oc=n00x5m06&model_id=xps-l502x

Better spec than the basic M14 model, at £400 cheaper as well.
 
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