Notebook selection

D
Posted By
DennisD
Dec 15, 2003
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735
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12
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Closed
I could really use some help here. I’m in the process of buying a new notebook computer it’s primary function will be for digital imaging (PS 7). I will take it into the field but not that often. I’m getting hung up on processor type (Pentium 4 vs. Centrino). Could anyone recommend a notebook in the $1500 range or point me in the right direction.

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James Gifford
Dec 15, 2003
DennisD wrote:
I could really use some help here. I’m in the process of buying a new notebook computer it’s primary function will be for digital imaging (PS 7). I will take it into the field but not that often. I’m getting hung up on processor type (Pentium 4 vs. Centrino). Could anyone recommend a notebook in the $1500 range or point me in the right direction.

I’ve always been leery of notebooks as a primary computer, especially for resource-intensive applications like imaging work. But it seems to have become quite common…

I don’t think the Centrino processors pack as much punch as the P4s; I get the impression they’re optimized for general mobile use more than for powerful processing.

The real limitation for image work is going to be the display. A big (15-inch or more), fast (TFT or other advanced technology) display is going to be expensive, eat battery power, and have color rendering issues.

And, of course, you need RAM out the ears for imaging work – I’d hate to run with less than 512MB. And disk space for buffers and file storage – 60GB is probably a useful minimum if you’re going to accumulate any significant number of working files.

I just shopped for a more general-use notebook and spent quite a bit of time at it, and ended up at $1200 for a far lesser machine (P4 2.4, 30GB, 256MB, XP Pro, and a good general-class display). It was a Dell Latitude 500.

It can be difficult to get a good combination of features from Dell at a reasonable price. Time after time, I started with a $900-1000 system and even a slight number of changes would zoom the price towards $2k. The biggest jumps came from going up from XP Home (which I simply don’t recommend for any use but a lightweight home system) and a decent display.

I don’t think you can get a laptop that has everything – a P4 2.5 GHz or faster, 512MB RAM, and a suitable display – plus all the usually necessary bells and whistles (network adapter, CD-RW/DVD, modem, 802.11b, and an OS suited to imaging work such as Win2K or XP Pro) for $1500. You’ll probably have to go up to around $2k unless you find a bargain somewhere or are willing to trade off features.

Good luck!



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J
JJS
Dec 15, 2003
"James Gifford" wrote in message

I’ve always been leery of notebooks as a primary computer, especially for resource-intensive applications like imaging work. But it seems to have become quite common…

I have similar reservations, but reality has it that at home I have only a modest Apple Titanium with 364mb RAM. And amazingly, it suffices even for RGB images of a full gig – considering it’s still ‘field work’, not workstation speed.

The new iBook G4 is about $1500 and far faster and bettter endowed than my Titanium. Plenty of ports, too. Nice 14" display, 256mb of SDRAM.

Okay – so much for the Apple plug. 🙂
JG
James Gifford
Dec 16, 2003
jjs wrote:
I have similar reservations, but reality has it that at home I have only a modest Apple Titanium with 364mb RAM. And amazingly, it suffices even for RGB images of a full gig – considering it’s still ‘field work’, not workstation speed.

The new iBook G4 is about $1500 and far faster and bettter endowed than my Titanium. Plenty of ports, too. Nice 14" display, 256mb of SDRAM.
Okay – so much for the Apple plug. 🙂

No question that Macs are more efficient at running PS than WinTel machines, but I’m not sure that the original poster was considering Apples.



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RH
r.hartley
Dec 16, 2003
"jjs" …
"James Gifford" wrote in message

I’ve always been leery of notebooks as a primary computer, especially for resource-intensive applications like imaging work. But it seems to have become quite common…

I have similar reservations, but reality has it that at home I have only a modest Apple Titanium with 364mb RAM. And amazingly, it suffices even for RGB images of a full gig – considering it’s still ‘field work’, not workstation speed.

The new iBook G4 is about $1500 and far faster and bettter endowed than my Titanium. Plenty of ports, too. Nice 14" display, 256mb of SDRAM.
Okay – so much for the Apple plug. 🙂

If getting a windows based notebook, then the primary consideration is the graphics card. I run some high end graphics apps eg AMIRA (and photoshop of course, albeit not high end), and any openGL stuff suffers even on my desktop due to lack of graphics card power. Also I beleive the P3 core (not full chip) is faster than the P4. I think this is the basis for the centrino technology, however, I could be wrong here.

So my advice would be

1) go to a laptop speciallist dealler that is trustworthy. They will advise you what is the best machine for your budget.

2) Dont go to a large box-shifter, they know less than me. 🙂 And their sales teams are only interested in ANY sale and not the correct one.

3) Dont wory about processor speed. It would be better to get a 2Ghz with lots of RAM and a GREAT graphics card rather than a 2.4+ Ghz with shared graphics memory.

4)Ask here about the graphics acceleration that photoshop is best suited to and then get a machine with a graphics card that is good for this.

The alternative is to get a G4 mac.

Cheers
Bob
MR
Mark R
Dec 16, 2003
First of all, realize that with a notebook, as with any lcd screen except the newer, high end models, you are giving up the ability to color calibrate your monitor. Not that important for editing for the web, but it will make it harder to get the colors you want in prints.

That said, I think the most important thing is to get enough real estate on the screen for the modest size screens you’ll have in a laptop. I would advise an 15" SVGA+ . The native resolution is 1400 x 1050. Be sure, however, that your comfortable with the smaller text size of the high res screen. There is also an even higher res screen with native 1600 x 1200, but most people find that text is too small. If you are not aware of it, you have to run lcd’s at their native resolution or you’ll give up a huge amount of clarity.

After that, a reasonably fast processor is adequate. Be sure it’s a mobile processor. Some manufacturers put desktop processors in notebooks. The heat is a real problem. As said, probably and P4M or centrino about 2 gig or better. I’d stay away from a celeron, though it wouldn’t be deadly if price becomes a real factor

Get lots of memory. 512 mb min. 1 gig would be better.

I disagree that you need the hottest graphics card. The fastest graphics accelerators are more used for multi-media processing and especially for games, where the display needs to be changed constantly. For photo editing, the requirements of the graphics card are modest.

Get a fair sized hard drive, and a cd-r. Be sure it has USB2.0 since down the road you’ll need more hard drive space and can then get a USB 2.0 external hard drive.

For $1500 you should be able to do pretty good. Check the usual suspects for specials (Dell, HP etc). You might also want to check out abs computers (http://www.abspc.com/) – a lot of photoshop users like their desktops. I just ordered a desktop from them, but I’ve heard no feedback on their laptops.

HTH

MarkR

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"DennisD" wrote in message
I could really use some help here. I’m in the process of buying a new notebook computer it’s primary function will be for digital imaging (PS

7).
I will take it into the field but not that often. I’m getting hung up on processor type (Pentium 4 vs. Centrino). Could anyone recommend a notebook in the $1500 range or point me in the right direction.

BF
Beverly Ferree
Dec 17, 2003
I have a Fujitsu N Series Lifebook and I LOVE it. Have used it now for 6 months.

N Series Lifebook: Pentium 4, 2.66 GHZ, 1GB SDRAM, 15" LCD, 60 GB Harddrive.

I’ve used Photoshop in computers with smaller memory but let me tell you the extra money for 1 GB of memory makes for working on large files. I experimented to see how high I could go before computer turned up toes. At 50MB Photoshop 7 will freeze when applying some filters.

Take a look at www.computers.us.fujitsu.com. The starting price is $1400. The memory upgrade will take the price up.

The thing I like is the Awesome colors on the LCD. It cost me some money, but have almost given up on my desktop…almost.

Beverly Ferree
V
vizrosplugins
Dec 20, 2003
I think IBM has the best Centrino Notebook.

Tony G. Smith
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"DennisD" …
I could really use some help here. I’m in the process of buying a new notebook computer it’s primary function will be for digital imaging (PS 7). I will take it into the field but not that often. I’m getting hung up on processor type (Pentium 4 vs. Centrino). Could anyone recommend a notebook in the $1500 range or point me in the right direction.
P
Photo1v01
Dec 20, 2003
Centrino is not a processor.

"Vizros Plug-ins" wrote in message
I think IBM has the best Centrino Notebook.

Tony G. Smith
Vizros – Realistic 3D page curl plug-ins and more
Demo at http://www.vizros.com/gallery.html

"DennisD" wrote in message
news:<%AoDb.27$>…
I could really use some help here. I’m in the process of buying a new notebook computer it’s primary function will be for digital imaging (PS

7).
I will take it into the field but not that often. I’m getting hung up on processor type (Pentium 4 vs. Centrino). Could anyone recommend a
notebook
in the $1500 range or point me in the right direction.
S
Stuart
Dec 22, 2003
Photo1v01 wrote:

Centrino is not a processor.

He didn’t say it was!

Stuart
A
adelphia
Dec 23, 2003
read the first post in this thread, I beleive that the post sugested that centrino was a processor ie:(pentium4 vs centrino)

My understanding is that centrino has to do with wireless technology. Also you can calibrate a laptop monitor, my colorvision spyder has an attachment to do it. I also heard though that a crt is better for photo editing and provides a more accurate representation of color.

Mark
"Stuart" wrote in message
Photo1v01 wrote:

Centrino is not a processor.

He didn’t say it was!

Stuart
FG
funn_guy
Dec 26, 2003
What’s your battery life on that Fujitsu?

"Beverly Ferree" …
I have a Fujitsu N Series Lifebook and I LOVE it. Have used it now for 6 months.

N Series Lifebook: Pentium 4, 2.66 GHZ, 1GB SDRAM, 15" LCD, 60 GB Harddrive.
I’ve used Photoshop in computers with smaller memory but let me tell you the extra money for 1 GB of memory makes for working on large files. I experimented to see how high I could go before computer turned up toes. At 50MB Photoshop 7 will freeze when applying some filters.
Take a look at www.computers.us.fujitsu.com. The starting price is $1400. The memory upgrade will take the price up.

The thing I like is the Awesome colors on the LCD. It cost me some money, but have almost given up on my desktop…almost.

Beverly Ferree
S
Stuart
Jan 5, 2004
adelphia wrote:

read the first post in this thread, I beleive that the post sugested that centrino was a processor ie:(pentium4 vs centrino)

My understanding is that centrino has to do with wireless technology. Also you can calibrate a laptop monitor, my colorvision spyder has an attachment to do it. I also heard though that a crt is better for photo editing and provides a more accurate representation of color.

Centrino is about mobile technology which more or less covers wireless technology and power saving.

So in the original post he replace centrino with Pentium M, so it should be Pentium 4 v Pentium M.

Stuart

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