New laptop advice.

Pete Gl

Pete Gl

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Toying with the idea of a new laptop. looking in Currys yesterday they all seem to come with minimum of 4 Gb of RAM these days with quite a few at 6 Gb for not much more.

I use Lightroom for the vast majority of my photography needs, with just the occasional use of PS Elements for anything needing a little more work.

And then really just web browsing, E-Mailing and MS Office.

Most of the standard offers of disk size EG 500Gb are more than adequate, particularly as external storage is so cheap these days.

What would be the advantage (If any for me) of a 64 bit operating system over the standard 32?

Another thing which is puzzling me, is that none of the laptops on display had USB 3, but most, if not all, of the external storage drives advertised USB 3 compatible. Certainly wouldn't be a deal breaker, if it took me 2 mins to save x amount to an external hard drive with USB 3 and 4 mins with USB 2, no big deal.

Any advice for anything to look out for would be much appreciated.

Pete
 
Something with the new generation i5 [eg i5xxxx model numbers] would be good when coupled with plenty of RAM.

The advantage of 64bit windows is that it can utilise more than 4GB RAM and with current prices of RAM, it's worth getting 8GB if you can.

USB 3 is a lot faster - there are lots of variables but it's worth getting if you can.

Anything that can run LR / PSE comfortably, will also handle the rest of your work.

Finally, it is worth getting an external monitor so see if the laptop can support one at a decent resolution.
 
32bit OS will limit you top 3.2GBish of memory. Yes, you can put 8GB in, but the OS will only use 3.2GB. Win7 64 is the way to go these days.

As to processor, i5 or better again if you use LR an i7-2xxxQM (the Q is important as it means it has 4 cores). Personally, I rate a 1920x1080 screen as really useful although that only appears on top end laptops so costs money.
 
Thanks all very much for your advice, it looks like it's worth going for 64 Bit.

Any makes better than others, any to definitely avoid? Acer seem very popular at the moment.

Pete
 
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What to get / avoid is hard to say. I dislike Packard Bell / Advent and have a high regard for Toshibas as being long living and reliable. At the moment I have an Asus UltraPortable which I find very good. Others have positive things to say about Dell / Acer but I've no personal experience of them. Sony I find to be overpriced for their specification.

If there is one you are attracted to, post here and no doubt someone will be able to advise you on its suitability for your needs.
 
brands are very swings and roundabouts, i wouldnt recommend toshiba as every one ive dealt with has fallen to bits. and dell for example i have very positive experience with as i work with them, specifically the higher end latitude range and theyre bomb proof but the OH has a studio and its a year old and going strong.
 
Quoth said:
Sony I find to be overpriced for their specification.
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Thanks Kevin, have always thought that.

Thanks Neil.

Pete
 
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I ran an Advent laptop for 3 odd years without any problems (still got it now as a back up laptop)

Got an HP G62 laptop last March, AMD processor, seperate graphics card (allows you to create 3D objects in Photoshop), 500GB HDD and 4GB RAM, W7 64bit O/S.... all for the princely sum of £369.99 :)

Runs Lightroom3 and PS5 without any problems. A full DVD can be written in around 8 mins (16X).

I may look at upgrading the RAM but don't think it's overly taxed too often.

The only other thing you may want to consider is a 17" screen but I found when I looked that was adding another £100-£150 to the price of the unit. I went with a 15" screen in the end and can't say I was disappointed as it's extremely clear (when I remember to clean it :LOL: )
 
Pete Gl said:
Thanks all very much for your advice, it looks like it's worth going for 64 Bit.

Any makes better than others, any to definitely avoid? Acer seem very popular at the moment.

Pete
Click to expand...

I always recommend going for Asus... Their machines always seem to have that little extra quality/features compared with rivals in the same price range. Sonys are definitely overpriced, and Dells / Hewlett Packards are maybe a bit more niche, as in more business-oriented? As to Acer, this is totally subjective, but there's something cheapish about their laptops that I just can't stand. But it could be just a matter of taste :)
 
If you do lots of travelling, you want something tough and built for it - Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba or HP. I prefer Lenovo, but they are bland and I've had enough after 10 years of basically the same laptop with a better processor. I've moved to Dell (we use dell servers and desktops) and I'm loving it.

If the laptop is going to be used mainly at home, then Asus, Acer or other makes will probably do. I love Asus, but I wouldn't trust an Asus laptop to do 20,000 miles a year with me around the UK as I would rely on it.
 
Acers are popular because they are cheap and heavily promoted by PC World etc. They promote them because they have a high profit margin compared to some other makes, so the actual cost price is probably very low indeed. With computers you do get what you pay for (in very general terms, of course, although it is the case that Sony Vaios can be seen as expensive.)

There is an analogy with a bottle of wine. If you buy a £5 bottle of wine the fixed costs are probably £4.00 (growing costs, manufacturing, bottling, shipping, marketing, retailer profit, tax etc) The wine cost £1.

If you buy a £6 bottle of wine the fixed costs are the same - £4 - so the wine cost £2. For only £1 extra you have twice the quality of wine.

The same holds true for computers. Don't be tempted to save £50 on what appears to be a bargain. That extra £50 may well give you twice as good a computer.

As we can see from the above posts everyone has their own favourite makes. The more expensive Dells and Toshibas (Satellite Pro, etc) are very good value, but their cheaper hardware is trying to compete in the Asus/Acer/Advent/Packard Bell arena and (imho) should be left well alone.

I have found several Lenovo laptops to have a strange problem with complete gobbledegook appearing on the screen, due to the keyboard ribbon being crimped by two plastic lugs under the keyboard - so I have stopped supplying them.

Win 7 64-Bit is the way forward. Intel i3, i5 or i7 processor, depending on your budget, with as much RAM as you can sensibly afford.
 
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