Portable High End PC System

F
Posted By
Fruit2O
Jan 21, 2007
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217
Replies
5
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Closed
I’m planning on spending my retirement traveling a lot to see my three sons (Texas, Colorado and Massachusets) and spend months at a time at each location. I’m looking for opinions on how to have a high end system (large drives, Vista Ultimate, Photoshop enthusiast) available at each location. It could be one system that is portable, a separate system (identical) at each location where I could just take my drives and peripherals with me and use caddy’s, or a very high end portable laptop or luggable (I can’t think of any other options at this time). Not sure if this is a unique problem or not – but I guess I want my cake and eat it too. Using Photoshop is my main interest (digital photography). Games are not my interest. Looking for suggestions as none of my ideas seem really practical. Perhaps there’s something on the market that could handle what I need – but I’m not aware of it. Suggestions???

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R
ronviers
Jan 21, 2007
Fruit2O wrote:
I’m planning on spending my retirement traveling a lot to see my three sons (Texas, Colorado and Massachusets) and spend months at a time at each location. I’m looking for opinions on how to have a high end system (large drives, Vista Ultimate, Photoshop enthusiast) available at each location. It could be one system that is portable, a separate system (identical) at each location where I could just take my drives and peripherals with me and use caddy’s, or a very high end portable laptop or luggable (I can’t think of any other options at this time). Not sure if this is a unique problem or not – but I guess I want my cake and eat it too. Using Photoshop is my main interest (digital photography). Games are not my interest. Looking for suggestions as none of my ideas seem really practical. Perhaps there’s something on the market that could handle what I need – but I’m not aware of it. Suggestions???

What camera do you use?
What will the bandwidth to the internet be at each location?
F
Fruit2O
Jan 21, 2007
On 21 Jan 2007 11:15:32 -0800, ""
wrote:

Fruit2O wrote:
I’m planning on spending my retirement traveling a lot to see my three sons (Texas, Colorado and Massachusets) and spend months at a time at each location. I’m looking for opinions on how to have a high end system (large drives, Vista Ultimate, Photoshop enthusiast) available at each location. It could be one system that is portable, a separate system (identical) at each location where I could just take my drives and peripherals with me and use caddy’s, or a very high end portable laptop or luggable (I can’t think of any other options at this time). Not sure if this is a unique problem or not – but I guess I want my cake and eat it too. Using Photoshop is my main interest (digital photography). Games are not my interest. Looking for suggestions as none of my ideas seem really practical. Perhaps there’s something on the market that could handle what I need – but I’m not aware of it. Suggestions???

What camera do you use?

At the moment, I am scanning (I’m researching cameras now and favor Canon).
What will the bandwidth to the internet be at each location?

I’m expecting to have a cable connection.
R
ronviers
Jan 22, 2007
Fruit2O wrote:
On 21 Jan 2007 11:15:32 -0800, ""
wrote:

Fruit2O wrote:
I’m planning on spending my retirement traveling a lot to see my three sons (Texas, Colorado and Massachusets) and spend months at a time at each location. I’m looking for opinions on how to have a high end system (large drives, Vista Ultimate, Photoshop enthusiast) available at each location. It could be one system that is portable, a separate system (identical) at each location where I could just take my drives and peripherals with me and use caddy’s, or a very high end portable laptop or luggable (I can’t think of any other options at this time). Not sure if this is a unique problem or not – but I guess I want my cake and eat it too. Using Photoshop is my main interest (digital photography). Games are not my interest. Looking for suggestions as none of my ideas seem really practical. Perhaps there’s something on the market that could handle what I need – but I’m not aware of it. Suggestions???

What camera do you use?

At the moment, I am scanning (I’m researching cameras now and favor Canon).
What will the bandwidth to the internet be at each location?

I’m expecting to have a cable connection.

A five mega pixel camera and a twenty five mega pixel camera have very different requirements and should play an important role in deciding your system configuration. Which model of Canon do you plan to get? Do you plan on doing your own printing?
I am no fan of laptops. Personally I would go with three, one or two year old, identical Dell mid tower desktops from ebay that gamers have maxed out then replaced. It is easy to find a $3000 computer for around a $1000 especially if you are willing to spread the purchases out over several months. This route would give you more to spend on monitors and a printer (which you could carry between sites).

Good luck,
Ron
CM
Carroll Morgan
Jan 22, 2007
I just ordered the Dell 12" XPS M1210, Intel Core 2 Duo for on location digital photography editing. It has a 7200 rpm hard drive wich is pretty important for ingesting images (especially if you are shooting RAW). Pretty well rated computer from Dell.

My sales person was awesome. If you are interested in a Dell computer please let me know as I would like to refer others to him…I get nothing, it’s just that he deserves the business based on his customer service skills.

If budget is no concern than I recommend you take a look at the Canon 5D.

Carroll Morgan
Atlanta

"Fruit2O" wrote in message
I’m planning on spending my retirement traveling a lot to see my three sons (Texas, Colorado and Massachusets) and spend months at a time at each location. I’m looking for opinions on how to have a high end system (large drives, Vista Ultimate, Photoshop enthusiast) available at each location. It could be one system that is portable, a separate system (identical) at each location where I could just take my drives and peripherals with me and use caddy’s, or a very high end portable laptop or luggable (I can’t think of any other options at this time). Not sure if this is a unique problem or not – but I guess I want my cake and eat it too. Using Photoshop is my main interest (digital photography). Games are not my interest. Looking for suggestions as none of my ideas seem really practical. Perhaps there’s something on the market that could handle what I need – but I’m not aware of it. Suggestions???
N
noone
Jan 23, 2007
In article ,
says…
I’m planning on spending my retirement traveling a lot to see my three sons (Texas, Colorado and Massachusets) and spend months at a time at each location. I’m looking for opinions on how to have a high end system (large drives, Vista Ultimate, Photoshop enthusiast) available at each location. It could be one system that is portable, a separate system (identical) at each location where I could just take my drives and peripherals with me and use caddy’s, or a very high end portable laptop or luggable (I can’t think of any other options at this time). Not sure if this is a unique problem or not – but I guess I want my cake and eat it too. Using Photoshop is my main interest (digital photography). Games are not my interest. Looking for suggestions as none of my ideas seem really practical. Perhaps there’s something on the market that could handle what I need – but I’m not aware of it. Suggestions???

I use a "portable" Toshiba 17" for basic PS editing. One big caveat is that when it comes to final color and density, laptop screens are not the best. I always "finish" my images on a CRT-equipped workstation.

As for the idea of having a workstation in each location, there are tons of large external HDDs, that can work very well. I use a handful of Maxtor 250GB dual (USB/FW400) drives to archive some images. These would work very well with a couple of WS’s. I also have a 2TB Gigabit LAN external HDD (adding a second unit at half the price!) for final archiving. Now, there are a bunch of good 500GB units available, and at about 1/3 the price that I paid for the Maxtors some time back. Any of these would work well. I’d opt for FW800, where possible, but the dual connection units will allow you to use them on machines without FW. If you do set up several machines, make sure to go with FW800, if possible.

Depending on what you need when, you might look into a 17" laptop for "on the road" work," then a CRT, or calibrated LCD, for your final work. The removable HDDs will work with both. Also, think of burning DL DVDs as additional backup.

Hunt

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