Laptop and monitor - buying help, please.

Noodles

Noodles

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Adam Partridge
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Hi, first of all I apologise if this has been asked before but I need some help with a purchase.

I need to up grade my Pc (as it is old and slow) and have decided to go for a laptop as this gives me the flexibility I need and I can dedicate it to photography editing.

However I have decided as well to purchase a new monitor so I can do my finer editing on there with the laptop plugged into to it. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good laptop and monitor to buy which is ideal for photography and what I should be looking for when buying a monitor and laptop (I’ve been looking at Dell laptops and monitors???)

My budget is around £400-£500 for a laptop and £150-£200 for a monitor

Many many thanks in advance

Noodles
 
I'd say you should probably be looking for a good 19 or 22" (possibly used 24") monitor. With the budget you have set for the laptop, you have a pretty big field to choose from
 
For around £200 for a monitor Dell are making a 22" e-IPS screen (2209WA) which seems to be getting rave reviews. An IPS screen for that price is a rarity, but e-IPS is a technology I've not seen before so can't comment on how good it is.

Can't help with the laptop I'm afraid.
 
thanks for your help guys much appreciated :thumbs:
 
I have a 22" Samsung Monitor and love it to bits. The 24" Version can be had for £206:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150970

Or save some pennies for a 22" - £143!!:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145472

As for laptop I brought a Dell XPS M1530 becase it had a decent graphics card for the price. Its been great and still runs super fast. Cost me £660 6 months ago, so a bit over budjet, but well worth it in my opinion. The 15" screen is good for working normally especially if you have a monitor for the big stuff. If you start with the £619 model, then just upgrade the screen to the 1440x900 version which is £70 extra, but definatly worth it, then you have a nice compact but powerful enough package for £690. Basic spec is 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo, 3GB ram, 256mb graphics and 250GB hard drive. The SD card slot is very fast which is a god send, but it doesn't have a CF card slot, and only has 3 usb ports. The battery life is good (around 2.5-3 hours internet browsing, photo editing or enough to watch a 2 hour dvd), but mine has the larger battery option. Best thing about it is it has a hdmi port, which I've used a few times to plug it easily into large tv's.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1530?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs

My mum has a £440 Acer laptop and its about as useful as a toilet. Its super slow, the screens rubbish and the battery lasts 20 minutes
 
many thansk GJ, thats a great help. You mention a good graphics card. Quite a few people I have spoken to mention needing a good graphics card, I am normally quite good at working out what is a good bit of kit for the money, but am really struggling to understand what I am looking for when getting a good graphics card. can anyone point me in the right direction on this??

Thanks
 
If you want a photo-editing monitor then TN panels aren't the best choice..

Lenovo do a 22" S-PVA panel for £300 which gets very good reviews,

I've just placed an order though for the new Dell 2209WA 22", E-IPS Monitor, not loads of reviews around at the moment as its new but those I've seen are all good... it displays 8 bit colour rather than the TN panels 6 bit

Ebuyer have them for just under £200

{edit} just read the other posts & realised someone has already mentioned the Dell :bonk:


simon
 
I'm no computer expert, but basically there are 2 types of laptop graphics. Integrated, which uses the main systems memory, or Dedicated, which has its own memory. Integrated graphics are cheaper, smaller, run cooler and use less power, so they are very popular in cheaper or compact laptops. If you don't need the extra graphics power offered from a dedicated graphics card then integrated graphics are brilliant. If however you want to play games, watch decent films, edit large photos or run duel monitor regually then a dedicated graphics card is a must IMHO.

On a very simple level a decent graphics card needs to have a decent amount of memory. 128mb cards are the least you'd want to look at, and are very common, along with more expensive 256mb cards. 512mb and above cards are rare in laptops, and only needed for super needy new games. Memory is not everything though, which is where pc geeks start loosing me, but you could use a list like this to get a basic idea:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html
 
thanks for all your help, Ithink I'll have a good look at the Dell 2209WA 22", E-IPS Monitor you suggest. and thanks for the info on the graphics card.

Just got to try ot get a laptop for £500 with a good dedicated graphics card and plenty of RAM and decent size hard drive.

I do need to make my life easier in my post processing as working on a slow pc and tiny old screen is costing me with things I've missed when the prints come through!!
 
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