Laptop for $2000

amg2833

I plan on purchasing a 40/50D within 6 months, and need the best possible laptop I can get for $2000 to process my images. I'll probably be running Lightroom and CS4.

I also need to run a program called Revit as I'm an engineering student. I don't know if anyone knows, but I've linked the system requirements here

The cheaper the better, but I'd rather not skimp on quality as much as possible. I'm not against Mac, but since my budget isn't huge I don't know if that's much of a possibility. In addition, Revit is Windows-only.

Light weight is also a plus.

What suggestions do y'all have

Newsy

amg2833 wrote:

I plan on purchasing a 40/50D within 6 months, and need the best possible laptop I can get for $2000 to process my images. I'll probably be running Lightroom and CS4.

The first thing you need to know is that all commercial retail laptops currently in production use 6bit "TN" panels. These are no where close to the quality of screens you can obtain in an external monitor. But if you're just starting out and aren't making a living from it, you should be fine for a year or so. You can always add a good external monitor later.

Possibly the best screen i have seen on a recent laptop is on the Mac Book Pro 17" which uses a "TN+" panel. Now, I have not seen this in person, only photos, but the difference between it and and older generation MBP were quite visible. Blacker blacks. This could be due a glossy screen hence the need to see in person.

Second, the color calibration of notebooks screens are simply terrible. You'll need a hardware calibrator to really sort it out.

You want to do this because you don't want to run the risk of finding out 2 years later that all the images you took and post processed, have some odd color caste to them. Notebooks are not the easiest to calibrate but after a bit of trial and error you'll figure it out. External monitors with all their hardware controls are much easier.


.

divamum

I edit 99% of my photos on a laptop, and not a particularly snazzy one at that (Dell Studio 15). I have a desktop with a very good budget monitor (the often-and-highly recommended Dell 2209wa discussed in this thread. I always check them and do finishing on that monitor before printing/delivering, but my husband tends to use that machine the most so if I want to work on pix while he's working at home, I use the laptop.

Since I added a Huey hardware calibrator, I've had no problems AT ALL with colour choices using the laptop. It displays slightly lighter/lower contrast than prints, but even the good upstairs monitor does that. Colour, however, has been dead on when I've softproofed before printing, and I've been extremely happy with the results.

FWIW.

amg2833

I'm fine with having a less than adequate display. I've decided to downgrade (not get one made for Revit/Cad), but I would still like it to run CS4, etc with 50D raws fairly flawlessly. I have two possible systems. I have a "computer geek" friend who doesn't seem I need more than the Quad 2 Duo system with 2.22 Ghz. Is this true?

Here's what I configured. If I can comfortably get away with less, I'd like to.

amg2833

Processor:
Intel® Core™ i7-720QM Quad Core Processor @ 1.6GHz (2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache<o:p></o:p>
Monitor:
15.6” Full High Definition (1080p) High Brightness LED Display with TrueLife™ and Camera/Facial Reco<o:p></o:p>
Memory:
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz<o:p></o:p>
Hard Drive:
500GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)<o:p></o:p>
Video Card:
512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>

amg2833

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8700 (3MB cache/2.53GHz/1066Mhz FSB)<o:p></o:p> LCD Panel: Edge-to-Edge FullHD Widescreen 16.0 inch RGBLED LCD (1920x1080) W/2.0 MP<o:p></o:p>
MEMORY: 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1067MHz (2 Dimms)<o:p></o:p>
Hard Drive: 500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive<o:p></o:p>
Video Card: ATI Mobility RADEON® HD 3670 - 512MB

Jonnyyaya

MacBook Pro, 17-inch, Aluminum

• 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X2GB
• 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
• SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

• MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Antiglare Widescreen Display
• Backlit Keyboard (English) / User's Guide

amg2833

Jonnyyaya wrote:

MacBook Pro, 17-inch, Aluminum

• 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X2GB
• 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
• SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

• MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Antiglare Widescreen Display
• Backlit Keyboard (English) / User's Guide

I'd like to get that as much as anyone...but its significantly more expensive...

bloomphotog

Just get the new 15" Unibody Macbook Pro - killer value, awesome performance, gorgeous screen, great re-sale. It's the best tool for the job and it will make you about 67.89% more productive than a PC user.

stuffjunkie

Take a look at the Dell Precision line. I picked up an M4400 from the Dell Outlet last summer. The outlet PC's come from a variety of places...some are refurbs, some are returns-the listings state the status. Oh and a three year warranty.

I found one with:
15.4" WUXGA TrueLife RGB LED display (1920x1200) featuring 100% Adobe^® Color Gamut
2.9Ghz
4GB Ram yadda yadda...
Specs available are here

It runs PS CS4 fine.
I have one similar to it at work. It runs Autocad products fine.


There are occasional 15-30% discounts for the Outlet store. You can get a very nice deal if you are not in a hurry!

Scott_Quier

I've only had it for about 4 weeks, but I'm quite happy with the ASUS G Series G51Vx-X3A NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo P8700(2.53GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 7200rpm. Running LR 2.6 and exporting images to CS3 (for additional editing that is not easily accomplished in LR) with no worries. A big plus - not a lot of bloat-ware installed by the manufacturer either and what there is installed is quite easy to remove. Monitor may not be comperable to an external, but for an internal it's about as good as I've seen and getting it calibrated was a snap with my 3 year old Spyder 2 (all on Win7 Home Premium 64-bit).