Hi, I'm overwhelmed.

November 1, 2008 3:54 PM

Laptop purchasing advice. I used to have a clue but somewhere in the past 5 years I lost track of what a user of my level needs compared to what a, say, 24-hr W.O.W. / black-market-DVD-ringleader might consider necessary.

I process large images, use Photoshop, and download a lot of music. I want my hard drive well-hung, but how much is too much when it comes to RAM? And I want a 17 or 19 inch LCD.

Do I have an option besides creating my own system on Dell.com? They give me too many options. And they keep trying to push multicolored accessories. That my mouse and my laptop match are less than important to me.

Mac's are out of the question for certain reasons.

I guess I want somebody to point me in the direction of the website with exactly what I'm looking for for less than $1500.

I find the details overwhelming. Helps me please. Thank you.

posted by sarelicar to computers & internet (19 comments total)

You don't want a Dell. they were good once upon a time, but you just do not want one now. The motherboard WILL fail, and you will have to deal with their atrocious customer service.

I've had a great experience with my Toshiba, and my boss, the most tech-savvy person I know, loves Thinkpads (but they are dorky looking in the extreme).

Don't worry too much about memory out of the box- you can upgrade and it's usually cheaper to do so. If you need serious HDD space, you may not be able to get it onboard in a laptop, at least affordably. However, i currently have a 320GB external HDD plugged in to my laptop. it's tiny, powered through USB (no power cables!), and only cost $120.
posted by drjimmy11 at 4:02 PM on November 1, 2008

I still haven't seen a laptop with too much RAM. Mine came with 3G and I really wish I had 4.

That said, if you want to use lots of RAM you'll need a 64-bit OS.

Still, lots of RAM makes Photoshop happy.
posted by dunkadunc at 4:32 PM on November 1, 2008

RAM is cheap. $30 for 2GB. I wouldn't worry about it too much.
posted by smackfu at 4:43 PM on November 1, 2008

sony vaio? are they good? 6 of one half dozen of the other?
posted by sarelicar at 4:45 PM on November 1, 2008

Still, lots of RAM makes Photoshop happy.

Up to a point, sure, but note that according to the Ars review of CS4 the 64-bit version doesn't make that big a difference for most tasks.

Note that you should consider the onboard graphics of a laptop to get the most out of PS if you're upgrading to CS4 - a compatible GPU will can get you a big jump in performance.

I quite like the Vaios from past experience, although I generally like Thinkpads. I haven't picked up any of the Lenovo-era ones, so I can't speak to how well they've continued the IVBM heritage of well-engineered, tough-as-old-boots laptops.
posted by rodgerd at 4:57 PM on November 1, 2008

Since it was always Lenovo building Thinkpads for IBM anyway, I don't imagine they've changed too much.

If we had a clue about the "certain reasons" that put Macs out of bounds (given that you can run any OS you like on them these days), the things that are important to you might become clearer.
posted by flabdablet at 5:04 PM on November 1, 2008

no macs because i need everything to be as simple as possible for my colleagues. aren't super tech-savvy and i have too much on my plate to pick up the slack in that arena. i feel more comfortable with PCs

and i sort of need to buy everything in one package, ready to go. prefer not to bother with external drives.

also i'm under the impression macs are more expensive.

that being said, i'm liking what i see in thinkpads but the largest screen i'm seeing is 15"?

am i wrong about the mac issue? i know they're better for my personal art work but i need this to be a business machine as well.
posted by sarelicar at 5:15 PM on November 1, 2008

You can run Windows on a Mac, also.
posted by dunkadunc at 5:21 PM on November 1, 2008

ok cool! i kind of knew that about the windows thing. not being sarcastic. i know i must sound like a dumbass but i'm seriously looking for basic "you should do this" kind of advice.

thank you all so far, now if somebody could just make up my mind...:)
posted by sarelicar at 5:27 PM on November 1, 2008

And I want a 17 or 19 inch LCD.

The 17" MacBook Pro is $2799 and the ThinkPad W700 is $2499. So both of those are far out of your price range.
posted by smackfu at 5:47 PM on November 1, 2008

Don't overthink it. Buy a laptop with at least 2 gigs of ram, the biggest HD available and the fastest processor available. Manufacturer is not important at all, in my opinion.

You'll find fans and detractors for virtually every manufacturer out there. I have a three year old Dell that I log at least 8 hours a day on, every day, and have had nary a problem. Others will tell you to avoid Dell like the plague, often for vague reasons.

It seems to me that some people have problems with their computers, and some don't - it has way more to do with perception and troubleshooting ability than anything specific to a brand.

With a 17" or 19" display, I hope that you don't plan on lugging this laptop around too much - I find the larger displays to be extremely unwieldy.

Quick answer? Go to Dell and buy one of their Studio 17" laptops at the standard out of the box level. Should do the trick for you.
posted by davey_darling at 5:53 PM on November 1, 2008

I liked my Toshiba tablet PC. I triple boot Windows, Ubuntu, and Ubuntu (development version) without much trouble. One warning about batteries: lithium ion fails over time. Don't buy a second battery (unless you really need it), save the money for a replacement battery later.

As for the harddrive, don't worry too much about throughput as much as capacity. With as much RAM they throw at you by default, most of the important stuff ends up being cached in RAM anyways.
posted by pwnguin at 7:08 PM on November 1, 2008

Note that you should consider the onboard graphics of a laptop to get the most out of PS if you're upgrading to CS4 - a compatible GPU will can get you a big jump in performance.

This is worth repeating. Some of the new features in CS4 will not run on lower-power GPUs (including my current desktop system, as it happens). If Photoshop matters to you, make sure the system you buy has a supported graphics processor.
posted by Lazlo at 7:18 PM on November 1, 2008

you should do this:

-get any major brand of laptop: dell, sony, lenovo, hp, etc.
-look a core 2 duo processor around 2.2ghz or higher
-click on the option to customize it and choose the following:
-add on 3 or 4gb of RAM if it has less
-choose a hard drive with 250gb or more
-make sure its cd/dvd player can burn dvds
-choose the monitor size you want.

thats it, you're done. pay the bill and wait for it to arrive.

You should be able to get all that under $1500.

you might want to look for e-coupons before you pay for it. Look at techbargains.com (scroll down to lower right side of the webpage, you'll see coupons for major manufacturers including dell etc). Some of these will give you hundreds of dollars off.
posted by jak68 at 7:40 PM on November 1, 2008

Dont spend 2800 on a Mac!!

Dell Studio 17 17" inch laptops start a t $849 w dual cores. Knock up the ram to 4 gigs and get the nice videocard and call it a day. Should run around 1100 or so.
posted by damn dirty ape at 8:32 PM on November 1, 2008

What jak68 said, + get an nVidia video chipset if you plan on using Photoshop CS4.

Don't get anything with Intel video.
posted by doowod at 9:51 PM on November 1, 2008

Dell Studio 17 17" inch laptops start a t $849 w dual cores. Knock up the ram to 4 gigs and get the nice videocard and call it a day. Should run around 1100 or so.

The resolution on that 17" monitor is 1440x900, which is the same as a 15.5" Macbook pro, if you want a 17" screen with a decent resolution it'll cost you more($150 looking at that page) it also wouldn't let me select any graphics card other than the integrated intel one.
posted by MrCynical at 7:07 AM on November 2, 2008

if you can live with the smaller screen, nthing everyone who said Thinkpads - they are as tough as old boots, my three year old R50 has had 'flying lessons'(!), fallen down holes with me (and come off better than I did ) as well as coming back from the dead after a serious coffee/keyboard incident, though do try to avoid anything with a Matshita DVD drive (the clues's in the name) as they aren't the best...
posted by Chairboy at 7:25 AM on November 2, 2008

HP dv7t with a 1680x1050 screen upgrade, graphics upgrade (256MB is fine), then whatever CPU upgrade your budget can handle. Get the minimum of RAM and max it out afterwards via crucial.com. It's cheaper that way, but be sure to leave room in the budget for that purchase.

...and get a USB drive for your music.
posted by rhizome at 12:27 PM on November 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]