Which Laptop or Desktop to buy for PP.

Mickwreay

Mickwreay

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Mick
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Hi,

I currently have a Compaq Presario V5000, but it's getting old & faulty.
I'm gonna look at repairs but quite often it's simply not worth it.

Can anyone suggest a machine as a decent PP tool?

It will get used for the usual, word processing etc. Web surfing but not much more.

Mick

Budget up to £500
 
Sure someone will advise, but prob help if you state your maximum budget :)
 
I have just got a 13" ultra thin HP Pavilion DM3 with 4gb memory and 320GB on the hard drive, plus a clained 10 hour battery life from one charge! Really pleased with it. It doesn't have an on board dvd reader / writer, but it comes with an external one, making it so light to carry in my bag! Metal casing, too!!!:thumbs:
 
I had a v5000 uploading a full 8gb card would take 1hour 30min at least,Iv'e now got a macbook pro and the upload speeds are so fast I don't bother timing them anymore plus i can even edit when uploading with no slow down.
 
I'm guessing then that the v5000 uses USB 1.1 whereas new computers (including your mac) use USB2, there are a few windows computers with USB3 now too. :)

For that sort of money I'd suggest Dell TBH. Have a look at their range and come back with a couple you think may be what you're looking for then we can tell you what we think is better. :)
 
I would recommend a macbook pro but you would need to add £1,000 to your budget
 
What else do they have? RAM, HDD etc?'

I'd steer clear of PC world tbh. Most of the stuff in there is cheap tat and the decent stuff you can usually get elsewhere for cheaper.
 
Amp34 said:
What else do they have? RAM, HDD etc?'

I'd steer clear of PC world tbh. Most of the stuff in there is cheap tat and the decent stuff you can usually get elsewhere for cheaper.
Click to expand...

I'm also in the market for a desktop, if PC World is not up to much does anyone recommend anyone?
 
I'd say anything with 4gb ram, decent hdd memory and a fast dual core cpu.
I've got a HP DV6 and it runs pretty well when running CS4 as well as other things.
 
Had mine put together by the local computer shop when the old motherboard packed in after six years

Don't know much about all this stuff, but it has 500gb hard drive, 4gb ddr3 ram and Athlon dual core processor

Used my old case, DVD burner along with the exisiting Windows XP and other sundry items

No useless software bundles that I would rip out and paid 290 quid for that little lot

Seems to run Lightroom and Elements very well, so might be worth a try if you have a local shop
 
mastertrinity said:
at christmas i bought a dell inspiron 1545 for £429 and its sooo fast, it runs photoshop cs5 in a breeze and its 64-bit!
Click to expand...

Interesting - I know less than nothing about computers - but my current lappy often crashes when running Bridge in CS3 as it seems to just run out of memory/ability :D and I have to reboot to finish editing

Are you saying such a new, and be honest fairly cheap, lappy is now so much better it could handle sorting though 1,000+ images in Bridge no probs ??? :shrug:

DD
 
What is your laptop? It must be pretty old to crash on things like that?
 
Amp34 said:
What is your laptop? It must be pretty old to crash on things like that?
Click to expand...

About £400 4 years ago - no idea what it is as such :shrug:

Actually, my 3 yr old Dell pc does the same sometimes and that was supposed to be a 'fast' one at the time

I hate computers with a vengeance as they have NEVER done the 'simple things I want of them without problems or being painfully slow :(

I may well be after some pc advice soon on how to spec a new one for image processing & the odd bit of internet too - I know the advice is on here :thumbs:

DD
 
That's odd then. Unless they were grossly underspeced when you got them they shouldn't do that!

My desktop is essentially 6 years old (excpt for case and HDD) and my laptop 3 years old and neither would do anything like that. How much RAM do you have?
 
It's such a mine field in the PC market.

Nobody (as in sellers) make it clear.

All we want to know is "great for games" "great for office" "great for surfing"

Beyond that, I think you need to be a trained mechanic & you'll probably build your own!

Keep it coming as personal rec is the way forward!!

Mick
 
Stay away from PC world.
If I would have £500 to spend, I would look for Asus laptop with good LCD matrix.
Or Dell. Pick the model closest to your desired spec and use configuration tool to upgrade/add components.
Or I would build the desktop PC myself. It's not too hard. Plenty of on-line stores are offering on-line configuration tool that select compatible components for you to choose from.
 
Sebastian said:
Stay away from PC world.
If I would have £500 to spend, I would look for Asus laptop with good LCD matrix.
Or Dell. Pick the model closest to your desired spec and use configuration tool to upgrade/add components.
Or I would build the desktop PC myself. It's not too hard. Plenty of on-line stores are offering on-line configuration tool that select compatible components for you to choose from.
Click to expand...

I built (with help) a couple of PCs for my lads, a few years ago. It seems, that to do it now is almost as much as buying a ready built one.

I'm really after the best processor & graphics that will do the job.

Mick
 
Amp34 said:
That's odd then. Unless they were grossly underspeced when you got them they shouldn't do that!

My desktop is essentially 6 years old (excpt for case and HDD) and my laptop 3 years old and neither would do anything like that. How much RAM do you have?
Click to expand...

CPU 3.40GHz 3.00 GB RAM :shrug:

DD
 
I'm really after the best processor & graphics that will do the job
Click to expand...

As I mentined earlier I don't know much about computers, but have listened to those who do.
Don't think you need worry about having an all singing all dancing graphics card for photo editing.
My last pc had a pretty good graphics card for my daughter to play games on it. Can't see any difference on the new machine with its integrated graphics facility, so concentrate more on the processor speed and ram.
 
tijuana taxi said:
As I mentined earlier I don't know much about computers, but have listened to those who do.
Don't think you need worry about having an all singing all dancing graphics card for photo editing.
My last pc had a pretty good graphics card for my daughter to play games on it. Can't see any difference on the new machine with its integrated graphics facility, so concentrate more on the processor speed and ram.
Click to expand...

That's where I'm looking TBH, was just looking to see if anyone had found a bargain which hits the spot.

Mick
 
DiddyDave said:
CPU 3.40GHz 3.00 GB RAM :shrug:

DD
Click to expand...

Well essentially they/it is better than my computers (ony 2GB here). Have you tried reinstalling windows as that really shouldn't be happening.

Mickwreay said:
I built (with help) a couple of PCs for my lads, a few years ago. It seems, that to do it now is almost as much as buying a ready built one.

I'm really after the best processor & graphics that will do the job.

Mick
Click to expand...

Graphics will usually only just help with games not PPing, however CS5 (and 4?) has GPU accelerated things so may not be so clear cut.
 
I bought this Compaq laptop a few months ago, and it has no problems with CS5.

Don't do much batch editing, but when I did a RAW to Jpeg conversion of about 350 files there was no problems. :)

I bought it with Photoshop in mind, so went for at least 4Gb RAM and a Dual Core Processor. It has built in graphics, but doesn't seem to affect CS5 working in any way. :shrug: :)


I had a £400 maximum budget though and after looking at seemingly hundreds of Laptops I felt I got the best for my money on the Compaq from Ebuyer.


If I had more money I would consider Quad Core, maybe more RAM and a built in Graphics card. All that would push the price up quite a lot though. ;)


Unless you need the portability of a Laptop, you get more for your money by buying a desktop. :thumbs:
 
i bought all of my pc components from ebuyer and got a mate to build it
 
Unless you specifically need a laptop I'd stay away from them for PPing. You'll get a bigger bang for your bucks by going for a desktop PC.

Quickly looking at Dell, you'd get an Inspiron 560 for £419 without monitor.
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/t...nspiron-560-D005617?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

That's got:
* Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E7500 (2.93GHz,1066MHz,3MB)

* Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English

* 4096MB Dual Channel DDR3 1333MHz [4x1024] Memory

* 750GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive

* 16X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write)

* Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X4500 Graphics

* 19-in-1 Media Card reader

For £60 extra I'd add the ATI Radeo graphics card and that machine will fly with Lightroom, photoshop etc.

Later on I'd add another harddrive and more ram, but not from Dell.
 
FWIW if you already have a decent screen and you don't need it to be portable you will get a much better desktop for £500 than a laptop.
 
Laptops have a great advantage in terms of their portability.Desktops offer other advantages.The fastest way is to connect both computers to a lan.Then proceed by networking then choose workgourps.
 
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