What Laptop?

daz103

daz103

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Darren
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Basically I have about £700 to spend on a new laptop. I need it to be quite portable (my current samsung weighs 2,7kg and wouldn't want to go above that) with a 15" screen.

I'm not sure whether to go for an i5 or i7 processor, I know that the i7 is better but is it worth going for an i5 with more RAM?

ideally would like between 4-6GB RAM and run Lightroom 3 and photoshop without too much hassle.

Any recommendations?
 
Quoted requirements for Lightroom are relatively modest. Adobe says Pentium 4, 2gb of RAM and 1gb of spare hard disc. I'm currently running it on an old machine with only 1bg of RAM and God knows what ancient processor, and it's dog slow, but it works and hasn't crashed.

I have asked two salespeople (John Lewis) if I need a separate graphics card in a new laptop and they both say yes, but those that actually know about these things say you don't, and even if you have one it will be bypassed in photo editing. Gaming is different, and maybe video editing too - be interested to hear experts comments on that.

I'm currently looking at an Acer 5742 for about £480 - i5, 6gb, 500gb http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Notebo...72QQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1311683440&sr=8-2 Would like to hear comments on that. Also a £200 Dell 23in IPS monitor, U2311H - or two :D
 
I'm running an XPS16, i7, 4gb ram, same graphics card with a 500gb HDD with no problems.
 
daz103 said:
I have been looking at the Dell XPS15 seems to just what I'm looking for, just comes into budget at £699

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-l502x/pd?oc=n00x5m04&model_id=xps-l502x

If anyone has experience using this would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...

I've just bought a Dell XPS 15 about 2 weeks ago. I upgraded to the full HD 1080p screen because the standard screen is suppose to be terrible.

Mine has
1080p screen
i7 quad core sandy bridge CPU
6GB ram
750GB 7200rpm HDD
GT 540 GPU
9 cell battery

It specs out at £1100 but I paid £630 from dell outlet

The screen is very sharp with great viewing angles. I've not had chance to calibrate it yet but I'm very happy with it and a must have upgrade in my opinion if it's going to be used for photo editing. It runs elements 9 with ease, everything is instant.

It's a bit bulky but it does everything I wanted it to very well. It also comes with USB 3 ports, HD webcam and JBL speakers with a built in subwoofer so sounds great for a laptop.

Great laptop but definitely get the 1080p screen and check out dell outlet. It's updated daily at about 3.15pm

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandId=7&c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh
 
DanTheManc said:
I've just bought a Dell XPS 15 about 2 weeks ago. I upgraded to the full HD 1080p screen because the standard screen is suppose to be terrible.

Mine has
1080p screen
i7 quad core sandy bridge CPU
6GB ram
750GB 7200rpm HDD
GT 540 GPU
9 cell battery

It specs out at £1100 but I paid £630 from dell outlet

The screen is very sharp with great viewing angles. I've not had chance to calibrate it yet but I'm very happy with it and a must have upgrade in my opinion if it's going to be used for photo editing. It runs elements 9 with ease, everything is instant.

It's a bit bulky but it does everything I wanted it to very well. It also comes with USB 3 ports, HD webcam and JBL speakers with a built in subwoofer so sounds great for a laptop.

Great laptop but definitely get the 1080p screen and check out dell outlet. It's updated daily at about 3.15pm

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandId=7&c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh
Click to expand...

That's a good deal.

The outlets are always the best place to make savings/grab bargains. I've used the Apple outlet in the past for my MBP's
 
Davo7 said:
Is the Dell Outlet not second hand machines?
Click to expand...

As far as I know, they are either certified refurbished, scratched, dented or customer returns.

A lot of people who buy scratched or dented say they are very minor (4-5mm scratch on the base for example) so still a brand new laptop. You can return it back to Dell within 10 days if your not happy anyway. Everything comes with 12 months warranty too.
 
HoppyUK said:
Quoted requirements for Lightroom are relatively modest. Adobe says Pentium 4, 2gb of RAM and 1gb of spare hard disc. I'm currently running it on an old machine with only 1bg of RAM and God knows what ancient processor, and it's dog slow, but it works and hasn't crashed.

I have asked two salespeople (John Lewis) if I need a separate graphics card in a new laptop and they both say yes, but those that actually know about these things say you don't, and even if you have one it will be bypassed in photo editing. Gaming is different, and maybe video editing too - be interested to hear experts comments on that.

I'm currently looking at an Acer 5742 for about £480 - i5, 6gb, 500gb http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Notebo...72QQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1311683440&sr=8-2 Would like to hear comments on that. Also a £200 Dell 23in IPS monitor, U2311H - or two :D
Click to expand...


the salespeople talk rubbish my friend :)

Graphics cards are there to aid RAM as when you run a game without a ded graph card then the game relies on the computer RAM for refresh rate etc and so a graph card replaces the need for computer RAM and is ded RAM for gaming and video only, pretty much anything that works on a fps refresh rate like games will benefit from ded graph cards but single things like photo editing won't be affected as you need little RAM anyway for a photo plus it isn't refreshing constantly and pushing the computer to the edge :)
 
Yes I'm gonna say it...and I dont care about the bitching that will follow ;)

Buy a used Macbook Pro
 
mastertrinity said:
the salespeople talk rubbish my friend :)

Graphics cards are there to aid RAM as when you run a game without a ded graph card then the game relies on the computer RAM for refresh rate etc and so a graph card replaces the need for computer RAM and is ded RAM for gaming and video only, pretty much anything that works on a fps refresh rate like games will benefit from ded graph cards but single things like photo editing won't be affected as you need little RAM anyway for a photo plus it isn't refreshing constantly and pushing the computer to the edge :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for that Luke :) So a separate graphics card for games and video - got that :thumbs:

Would a graphics card help in this situation? Say I have 300 images from a shoot, and I edit the first one, make a few tweaks in Lightroom, and then want to auto-apply all those adjustments to the other 299. What part of the machine is doing the hard work there? Presumably the speed of the processor, but what about the RAM and graphics card etc?

Also, burning files to CD takes for ever, like hours, literally, on my current steam powered machine :eek: What would speed that up?

Apologies to the OP for going a bit OT... ;)
 
rakester said:
That's a good deal.

The outlets are always the best place to make savings/grab bargains. I've used the Apple outlet in the past for my MBP's
Click to expand...

You got a link for the Apple Outlet?
 
nikonuser said:
Darren - before you buy check this company out, join their forum and ask loads of questions from people in the know both users and their own Technicians
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/contact-us/

Dave
Click to expand...

I bought a machine from them. I had to return it three times in the first three months, and eventually it was completely rebuilt. They claimed that the problems were all software related and initially refused to give me any support. It's only when I started to make a claim through Small Claims Court that they started to look into the problems. Software? No way. Hardware all along, and I'm still not convinced that it's running 100% properly.

It didn't work straight out of the box, and when I advised them that I wanted a refund under distance selling regs they told me that they didn't work under that system.

When I tried to put comments about this on their forum they were removed and I was told that any complaints had to be made via Customer Services, not on their forum. It follows that there will be not problems seen on there, just complimentary comments.

Caveat Emptor.
 
daz103 said:
Basically I have about £700 to spend on a new laptop. I need it to be quite portable (my current samsung weighs 2,7kg and wouldn't want to go above that) with a 15" screen.

I'm not sure whether to go for an i5 or i7 processor, I know that the i7 is better but is it worth going for an i5 with more RAM?

ideally would like between 4-6GB RAM and run Lightroom 3 and photoshop without too much hassle.

Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

Hi mate,

You going to the US in the near future?
I bought the Toshiba Satellite A665-S6100x i7 from Best Buy
Paid around £550 & it's awesome.

Mick
 
Thanks for all the info. I would love a mac book pro, but I think a little out of my price range. I will have to investigate this further.
 
HoppyUK said:
Thanks for that Luke :) So a separate graphics card for games and video - got that :thumbs:

Would a graphics card help in this situation? Say I have 300 images from a shoot, and I edit the first one, make a few tweaks in Lightroom, and then want to auto-apply all those adjustments to the other 299. What part of the machine is doing the hard work there? Presumably the speed of the processor, but what about the RAM and graphics card etc?

Also, burning files to CD takes for ever, like hours, literally, on my current steam powered machine :eek: What would speed that up?

Apologies to the OP for going a bit OT... ;)
Click to expand...


yeah separate graphics card for games and video :)

not sure about that tbh but I still don't think it'll affect it as the RAM is usually the temporary memory stored and so for games/video it has to store literally thousands of frames plus cope with the refresh rate, 300 photos in auto apply would equate to 5 secs worth of video frame so the RAM will most likely not be affected although I would personally restart my computer after doing 300 just to give it a fresh start.

as for the CD burning that's down to the drive and disc speed, a bit like a usb/hard drive where you have read and write speeds. you either need a separate disc burner at a faster speed and/or faster discs.

hope this helps you mate :)
 
mastertrinity said:
yeah separate graphics card for games and video :)

not sure about that tbh but I still don't think it'll affect it as the RAM is usually the temporary memory stored and so for games/video it has to store literally thousands of frames plus cope with the refresh rate, 300 photos in auto apply would equate to 5 secs worth of video frame so the RAM will most likely not be affected although I would personally restart my computer after doing 300 just to give it a fresh start.

as for the CD burning that's down to the drive and disc speed, a bit like a usb/hard drive where you have read and write speeds. you either need a separate disc burner at a faster speed and/or faster discs.

hope this helps you mate :)
Click to expand...

Thanks Luke :thumbs:
 
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