Help me choose laptop. Firewire?
Art Morgan
Registered Users Posts: 107 Major grins
Hello all. Scott Morgan in Tucson, AZ here. First post, and I'm asking for input on a new laptop purchase so I can do some of what I've been looking at on this wonderful forum. I love the helpful attitudes here--no flame suit seems to be required, which is good because I don't own one.
I'm wanting to keep the cost of the laptop to around $1000-1400, preferably the low end. For that price, I've found two Acer units that will support up to 16G Ram, and have a 1G gpu. Both i7 processors. (Acer 8943G at $1400 vs. Acer 7745G at $1000.)
The differences I can see are the 18.4 inch vs. 17.3 inch screen, and the big unit has a Firewire port and a Fast Infra Red capability, not found on the smaller one.
I will eventually hook up a good external monitor.
My question: What would the benefit be, if any, of the Firewire port? Somewhere I read be sure your unit has this, but no reason was given. Same for the FIR port? What good is it? Future printer hook-up maybe?
Does the slightly larger monitor make it a lot easier to work in LR or PS? It would have to be a lot easier for the $400!
Thanks!
Scott
I'm wanting to keep the cost of the laptop to around $1000-1400, preferably the low end. For that price, I've found two Acer units that will support up to 16G Ram, and have a 1G gpu. Both i7 processors. (Acer 8943G at $1400 vs. Acer 7745G at $1000.)
The differences I can see are the 18.4 inch vs. 17.3 inch screen, and the big unit has a Firewire port and a Fast Infra Red capability, not found on the smaller one.
I will eventually hook up a good external monitor.
My question: What would the benefit be, if any, of the Firewire port? Somewhere I read be sure your unit has this, but no reason was given. Same for the FIR port? What good is it? Future printer hook-up maybe?
Does the slightly larger monitor make it a lot easier to work in LR or PS? It would have to be a lot easier for the $400!
Thanks!
Scott
0
Comments
As for the 1394 (Firewire) port - if it is the 800, then it will be faster and lower CPU consumer than USB 2. But, I'm thinking that it might be better to find something that boasts a USB 3 (if you can find it - don't know that you can, but it's "the next thing" and it's appearing on desktop MBOs already.
As for monitor size - more is always better. Not physical size, but max resolution is the key. And, it's always better to have multiple monitors - that's just toooo sweet.
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So Firewire is faster, but what benefit would it be in regards to digital photo stuff?
www.ArtMorganFineArt.com
Downloading from my CF cards from the Firewire 800 reader is LIGHTNING fast.
Then there's the inevitable external harddrives too
those are the first two uses that pop into mind
I also suggest staying away from Acer. Consider this survery....
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/laptop-reliability-survey-asus-and-toshiba-win-hp-fails/
My previous laptop had Firewire 400 which was much faster for large back-ups. than USB2.0.
For my current laptop I dropped the Firewire but ensured I had an eSATA port. Much much faster for backups to external hard drives.
USB3.0 is a good option going forward.
The one thing I wish I had on my current laptop is a DVI port. It has a VGA port and a HDMI port, which with the use of an HDMI to DVI adapter, can connect to most better quality monitors. However, I've read of so many stories of people using the HDMI port and having issues with resolution on their monitors.
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In addition to downloading from a card faster, FW800 will provide faster access to external drives for backup and archives. USB3 is faster still, but is only just starting to appear on the market and is probably a year or so from becoming common.
That's the review I remembered, but couldn't remember where I'd read it. Note, however, that this review is nearly a year old and things tend to change quickly.
On the other hand, my wife and I both have Asus lappies now. She's had her's for a bit more than a year and I've had mine about 9 months. Couldn't be happier.
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Thoughts on photographing a wedding, How to post a picture, AF Microadjustments?, Light Scoop
Equipment List - Check my profile
I will continue looking. Will look for the DVI port and eSATA and USB 3.0.
Saw one (I'm sure there are many) offering a VGA port, HDMI port, and "display port", but no DVI. What would "display port" mean? These various ports are confusing. A better quality monitor only uses DVI, or ?????
Regarding memory capacity: I was wanting the ability to expand to 16G, but most are limited to 8G. Is 8 enough to run Photoshop and color corrections without stalling or freezing up? I don't want to have to get a new laptop for several years. Have read where people recommend 12G for photoshopping.
Scott
www.ArtMorganFineArt.com
My Photos
Thoughts on photographing a wedding, How to post a picture, AF Microadjustments?, Light Scoop
Equipment List - Check my profile
DisplayPort is a connectivity technology used primarily by Apple. It is a high bandwidth digital connection for a monitor, far superior to analog VGA or DVI-I and somewhat better than DVI-D. A lot of new mid-range to high end monitors have DisplayPort connectivity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort
You can source DisplayPort to DVI adapters for monitors that only have a VGA and DVI port.
Certain high resolution monitors such as a 30" 2560x1600 or a 27" 2560x1440 require either DVI-D or DisplayPort connectivity.
8G is likey enough - you may get more bang for buck out of an SSD and a fast hard disk in a laptop that offers two hard drive slots. This is a bit of a gray area to me.
I figure a laptop should be replaced about every 4 years.
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8G may be likely enough, but Adobe, their Suites and even their engineers say get as much as you can stand. Of course, LR will work just fine on the Laptop with 8G...but in case you get deeper into the Adobe Suites, and the larger amounts are available...go for it. Of course with the core i7 stuff, I think it goes like this: 6G, 12G, 16G, 24G RAM.
And I do think an SSD is the way to go. I have them in two units right now and think they offer a boost to the overall speed.
great review link!
cheers,