Help buying new laptop

[dan_yorkshire]

Hi all,

I am looking at getting a new laptop (not a mac unfortunately £££) and as I get more and more into my photography would like to spend my money so it is more geared to that.

I have around £500 - £600 to spend and would like some guidance.

I know very little about what makes laptops good, other than RAM speed and Internal memory.

I'd assume a graphics card better than standard and a good screen (one that could be calibrated??) would all be pretty essential.

I would ideally like one with a good shelf life and one from a company which would be easy to deal with should any problems arise.

Looking forward to you spending my money for me......

Dan

 

[arad85]

What makes the laptop good for photos is raw processing power and a decent screen. Graphics card is not important in modern processors as (assuming an Intel one) they have a built in graphics processor which is good enough for editing photos.

Having JUST bought a laptop for editing, I think the screen is most important. The higher the res, the better. I've just gone full HD and it's much, MUCH easier to edit on as I have screen real estate to use. Unfortunately, that may well be out of your price range though. If you have another screen, it may not be so much of an issue.

The best I could find for raw power is one based on the i7-2630QM processor (assuming you are using something like lightroom/Photoshop that can use multiple cores). The cheapest I could find this bundled was the Acer Aspire 5750. There are a number of different versions out there, but the non-G doesn't have dedicated graphics and is considerably cheaper than the others at under £600. Only 1366x768 display resolution though.

Next up in price, although out of stock everywhere, is the Asus N53SN-SZ085V. This has a full HD screen and better, faster disk and more memory as well as dedicated graphics. Around £850

Next up in the line is what I ended up buying: Dell XPS (Asus + better screen, better wifi, backlit keyboard, better sound and 3G integrated so mobile broadband when out and about). Paid £930 delivered when I managed to get the right configuration and discount codes... The mrs. loves it (it's her PC!)

All 3 of these should be faster than any MacBook bar the real high end ones at a fraction of the cost.

 

[dan_yorkshire]

What makes the laptop good for photos is raw processing power and a decent screen. Graphics card is not important in modern processors as (assuming an Intel one) they have a built in graphics processor which is good enough for editing photos.

Having JUST bought a laptop for editing, I think the screen is most important. The higher the res, the better. I've just gone full HD and it's much, MUCH easier to edit on as I have screen real estate to use. Unfortunately, that may well be out of your price range though. If you have another screen, it may not be so much of an issue.

The best I could find for raw power is one based on the i7-2630QM processor (assuming you are using something like lightroom/Photoshop that can use multiple cores). The cheapest I could find this bundled was the Acer Aspire 5750. There are a number of different versions out there, but the non-G doesn't have dedicated graphics and is considerably cheaper than the others at under £600. Only 1366x768 display resolution though.

Next up in price, although out of stock everywhere, is the Asus N53SN-SZ085V. This has a full HD screen and better, faster disk and more memory as well as dedicated graphics. Around £850

Next up in the line is what I ended up buying: Dell XPS (Asus + better screen, better wifi, backlit keyboard, better sound and 3G integrated so mobile broadband when out and about). Paid £930 delivered when I managed to get the right configuration and discount codes... The mrs. loves it (it's her PC!)

All 3 of these should be faster than any MacBook bar the real high end ones at a fraction of the cost.

Big thanks, that has given me something to go on as I start my search, it will be CS5 and lightroom etc that I use if for, obviously websurfing and other obvious other uses. Won't be using it for gaming so that's one thing not to consider.

Thanks again.

 

[arad85]

If you need any help on different processors, just post back. Try for one of the second gen Intels (i5 or i7 preferred). You'll know if they are second gen as they'll have a name like i7-2xxxM. All the first gen only have 3 digits after the dash. Also to look out for is the letter Q between the last digit and the M. This means it is quad core. All the 2nd gen i3/i5/i7 are hyperthreaded (this means effectively they can run two things at once on the same core), which if you can use them (PS/LR can) means it's like having 2 cores for almost the price of 1. The i3s and i5s are all dual core (i.e. 4 threads). Anything with a Q has 4 cores (8 threads). The i7-2630QM is the cheapest quad. You will sacrifice a little battery life with the quad over the dual core, it's still surprisingly good - the Dell gives ~ 4hrs surfing time on one charge....

 

[dan_yorkshire]

If you need any help on different processors, just post back. Try for one of the second gen Intels (i5 or i7 preferred). You'll know if they are second gen as they'll have a name like i7-2xxxM. All the first gen only have 3 digits after the dash. Also to look out for is the letter Q between the last digit and the M. This means it is quad core. All the 2nd gen i3/i5/i7 are hyperthreaded (this means effectively they can run two things at once on the same core), which if you can use them (PS/LR can) means it's like having 2 cores for almost the price of 1. The i3s and i5s are all dual core (i.e. 4 threads). Anything with a Q has 4 cores (8 threads). The i7-2630QM is the cheapest quad. You will sacrifice a little battery life with the quad over the dual core, it's still surprisingly good - the Dell gives ~ 4hrs surfing time on one charge....

Once again thanks Andy, liking the look of the Aspire 5750, only negatives I can find are the speakers but that doesnt matter to me. Gonna continue searching around for a week or so and see what I can find