Laptops for photoshop- any tips?

thortate

Hi folks,

I have to get a laptop to help with my pix, to view and tweak them on location, and I wonder if you have any ideas about the spec that would do the job?

Obviously bigger would be better (I hear that all the time! ) but any ideas which Hard-drive, RAM, Graphics Card, Processor speeds and capacities get the job done relatively painlessly?

My PC at home can be a bit slow so I'm thinking of adding another hard drive for the scratch disk, but you can't add things so easily to a laptop

Thanks for any help :
Thor

cmason

thortate wrote:

...to view and tweak them on location....

If you are going to view and tweak..as opposed to full blown post processing, why not use Adobe Elements, or something like that?

In that case, just about any laptop will work, even the lower end ones.

Otherwise, if you must run Photoshop, my experience (I run PS on a Thinkpad T40 with 2GB ram), you are going to likely want a fairly highend laptop, whether you are in the Apple camp or PC camp. So to run Photoshop, look for a high end processor (dual core not required however), 1 GB ram, and a reasonable hard drive, say 40GB or more. You also will want to get a screen that runs at least SXGA (1280x1024) minumum.

graflexTom

There was A time when I would have suggested that teh latest and greatest Toshiba was a Good choice. That Time has passed. I would say get the fasted CPU and the most memorythat you can afford. and that you burn all original Photos to a CD or DVD for safe storage.

Why would I not say Toshiba today? Because I learned from first hand experence that the Customer is meaningless to them.

thortate

cmason wrote:

If you are going to view and tweak..as opposed to full blown post processing, why not use Adobe Elements, or something like that?

In that case, just about any laptop will work, even the lower end ones.
*****************************************************

Excellent, thanks very much Cmason, I never considered that option it's true I wouldn't need the full processing power when I'm out and about.

It's easy to get fixated on Photoshop!!!

Thanks again,
Thor

Owen

According to Toshiba's technician training, they estimate their laptops to last 3 years. That is 1.5 years longer than HP and Compaq.

graflexTom

Owen wrote:

According to Toshiba's technician training, they estimate their laptops to last 3 years. That is 1.5 years longer than HP and Compaq.

That maybe if you get a Good one this is my third and last Toshiba. Thier Customer Support has become like other failed companies that do not care about the end user. A laptop that is always in the Shop for hardware failures the first year you own it is of no use to the Photographer that needs it.
I have returned it four times in under a yeear. They are being sued over this model so they are not interested in addressing the issue.

Scott_Quier

There are few givens to keep in mind when considering purchasing a computer, and laptops in particular:

• Laptops are more fagile than not. They are better than they used to be, but they still are not (and can not) be built to withstand all the abuse to which they are commonly subjected.
• When it comes to speed, boost the system components in this order:
  • Memory,
  • Memory - Yeah, I listed memory twice - because it's worth it. Get as much memory as you can afford. You will get so much more performance boost from a memory upgrade than you will from upgrading any other component.
  • CPU - Dont' get the latest and greatest. You can't get the bang for the buck with the bleeding edge. Second tier is more than good enough.
  • Disk
  • Video/graphics card. For most on-site work, most will be more than sufficient. If you will be using the laptop to replace the system at home, invest in a good graphics system - you'll need it to do all the color correction work.

Oh, and as for adding a disk to the system at home - consider this. If you have 1GB or less memory on the computer, upgrade that first. Then add the disk. Keeping the swapping to disk to a minimum directly relates to much greater improvement in performance.

DanielB

personally i'm waiting for an Intel Mac to come out, and i'll get one of them.

Bob Bell

dual core P4's are out now. Photoshop and MS requireabout 700megs of ram to run. 1 gig total is not even, spend the extra for 2 gigs.

Upgrade the optical drive to a DVD burner, that way you can make backups on the fly.

Upgrade the batteries. Running laptops at full power use batteries fast. Get 6 cell instead of 4.1

I was specing out decent laptops for photoshop and most brands are around $1500 with a 15" screen and some with wide screens.

colourbox

To add to the list, get a faster hard drive. If it comes standard with an 80GB at 5400RPM, upgrade it to 100GB at 7200RPM which is now available in laptop size (2.5"). Disk access is slower than RAM access, yet Photoshop hits the disk all the time, so disk performance is as important as stuffing it with RAM.

At home, I plug in a big fast external hard drive into my laptop's FireWire port, and that's my scratch disk.

swintonphoto

There are a lot of good laptops out there. The IBM laptops are the most well built. I personally use a 700 series Dell. It is a small 12 inch widescreen laptop. I love it. Great screen, and well equiped. I have an intel Pentium M 1.8 GH processor and 1.25 GB of RAM. I don't have any problem running photoshop and other programs at the same time. I read a review before I purchased my laptop that said this is the best small laptop on the market, and the only one that really competes with the 12" mac's.
If storage is a problem, external hard drives are well priced right now.
Lots of ram, fast hard drive, and fast processor are important. Get a good screen too that will do your colors justice.

thortate

many thanks

swintonphoto wrote:

There are a lot of good laptops out there. The IBM laptops are the most well built....a good screen too that will do your colors justice.

Wow! I never thought the advice would keep coming, thanks for all the different perspectives, they are really helpful

ScottMcLeod

Scott_Quier wrote:

There are few givens to keep in mind when considering purchasing a computer, and laptops in particular:

• Laptops are more fagile than not. They are better than they used to be, but they still are not (and can not) be built to withstand all the abuse to which they are commonly subjected.
• When it comes to speed, boost the system components in this order:
  • Memory,
  • Memory - Yeah, I listed memory twice - because it's worth it. Get as much memory as you can afford. You will get so much more performance boost from a memory upgrade than you will from upgrading any other component.
  • CPU - Dont' get the latest and greatest. You can't get the bang for the buck with the bleeding edge. Second tier is more than good enough.
  • Disk
  • Video/graphics card. For most on-site work, most will be more than sufficient. If you will be using the laptop to replace the system at home, invest in a good graphics system - you'll need it to do all the color correction work.

I agree with everything.

I made the mistake of not upgrading my RAM when it was purchased. I'm paying for it now, and will have to upgrade my RAM soon. (luckily a bit cheaper now than it would've been then.)

AT LEAST, make sure you get the fewest chips (IE: 1x1024GB in one chip instead of 2x512, or 1x512 instead of 2x256, etc...)

With regards to durability, I'd like to plug Fujitsu at this point.

Mine's been dropped, bumped, thrown, and even STEPPED ON. (I sh*t you not, I was shooting at a theatre, and someone came down the aisle and it was half-open so I wouldn't be blaring light up onto the stage in the dark, and a technician WALKED on it. I heard a gut-wrenching noise, my heart skipped a beat, but not a sign of damage to the LCD.)

I own a Fujitsu S6210 (which is now the S6230 I believe). Can occasionally feel flimsy, but has survived a year and 3 months of not-so-nice treatment, including a fair amount of theatre abuse (for those in theatre, you know what i'm talking about)

Hard drives and RAM are cheaper post-sale usually though. TigerDirect has some damn fine Gig-sticks for cheap.

yukiyubi

Ooh ooh ooh! Perhaps I can help. My boyfriend is a complete computer dork. I've learned a lot from him about these sort of things. See, he really isn't all about *brands* as far as Dell or HP or something, because he builds computers. However.
If you're a photographer, using photoshop... (From personal experience!)
You're going to want a good deal of space on your hard drive, probably 160GB (for uploading high resolution photos), you're going to want a fast processor (or a dual core processor) I suggest something over 2.8GHz and a good deal of RAM so that your laptop can handle what you'll be doing. I'd suggest at least a 1GB of RAM.
As far as video cards go, MAKE SURE that your compy can be upgraded if you think that you'll ever need a different video card. (Mine can't be, I have to get a whole new motherboard, which is, essentially, the computer)
On board video cards aren't usually that great, and a good one will make a world of difference. ATI makes good video cards.

The important thing is to research and read up on what you're interested in.