"Best" Dell laptop for CS3?

[Bob_A]

I'm looking at replacing my Dell Inspiron 9100 with a new generation Dell laptop and need some advice regarding what I should purchase. My 9100 has a 3 GHz P4 with HT and 1 GB RAM and is pretty slow when trying to handle large TIF files.

I know I need more RAM, but how much? And what kind of screen should I be looking for (they seem to all be "glossy" now ... is this correct)?

I'd like to keep the price below $3K, and weight isn't an issue. It looks like I can get a fairly loaded up XPS 1530 for around $2500, but want to be pretty certain that I'm headed in the right direction since I won't upgrade again for another 3-4 years.

Any advice would be appreciated :)

[Ryan McDede]

why not a macbook pro?

[Bob_A]

why not a macbook pro?

No, sorry not a Mac fan :)

[dilorenzo1954]

Whatever you get, put in as much RAM as you can because CS3, like CS2 is a memory hog.

[Bob_A]

Whatever you get, put in as much RAM as you can because CS3, like CS2 is a memory hog.

Is 4 GB enough? My Inspiron with 1GB really has problems.

[flareak]

try more processing power too. 2500 for that seems pretty steep though :-/

[Bob_A]

try more processing power too. 2500 for that seems pretty steep though :-/

The price is several hundred more than required because I added Media Center, bluetooth mouse, and a TV tuner along with some other "fluff".

[bryank930]

Is 4 GB enough? My Inspiron with 1GB really has problems.


Without going with a 64bit operating system, 4GB is really as high as you can go. I have 3GB, and don't have any problems at all.

*edit*: Media center is not worth the price IMO.

[dilorenzo1954]

Is 4 GB enough? My Inspiron with 1GB really has problems.
It should be. Anything above 2 GB. I'm running 4 Gig myself on my desktop (actually 3.5 after XP has it's way). CS2 alone sucks up 533MB by itself, I would imagine that CS3 uses about the same if not more.

[BigBlueDodge]

Of course you know, that you get much more machine for the money if you buy a regular PC instead of a laptop. $3K buys you a REALLY nice workstation, and just a decent laptop.

In my opinion RAM should be your first priority. You want enough so that everything (Windows, Photoshop, your image files) fits in RAM, and windows does not have to page to disk. There really is no reason not to do full 64bit these days. You will find that laptops generally max out at 4GB of RAM (where as workstations can hold much more). I would max out the RAM with 4GB. (Dell is pretty proud of their RAM. What you might do is get the minimum amount offered in the laptop model you are looking at, and then go to NewEgg and buy 4GB at a nice savings.)

The next priority is to make sure you have as fast a disk as possible, and that is generally 7200RPM SATA in a laptop. Because laptops are designed for portability (and thus optimized for battery life), you won't find fast disks because they use alot of juice. High end disks on laptops are just standard drives on regular workstations. Disks are orders of magnitude slower than your CPU. When your CPU has to read from disk, this is a VERY slow (relatively) request than reading from memory. It does you no good to have the fastest CPU that can't run at full speed because it spends 30% of it's time waiting for IO requests to disk to complete.

Last, you should focus on CPU. If you have a scenario where everything fits in RAM, and there is no paging to disk, then CPU will be your biggest bottle neck. Get enough to make you feel good, but don't sacrifice RAM or disk speed to get a faster CPU.

Photoshop is a 2D application, and thus does not require a strong video card. If you don't plan on gaming, then the standard video card should be fine.

I myself am not a fan of the glossy screens. With dark backgrounds, there is alot of glare and reflection going on and it's very annoying to look at. I like matte screens.

[C.K.]

That 1gig you have now is a huge bottleneck. Unless you have strong reasons other than slow image processing to get another computer, try an increase of ram in your current Dell.

[BigBlueDodge]

I'm running 4 Gig myself on my desktop (actually 3.5 after XP has it's way).

Actually, that is not XP robbing you of memory. That is the chipset on your motherboard robbing you of memory.

[Bob_A]

Thanks for the feedback everyone ... it's much appreciated. You've given me a lot more things to mull over :)

[wilvoeka]

I just got a Dell Inspiron 1520 this week from the Dell Outlet for $560.

It came with a 2.2 Gig Core 2 Duo 160Gb Sata drive and 1 Gig of Ram. I bought 4 Gigs of ram from newegg for $80.

The extra ram shows up as 3.850 Gigs.

I can have music playing and Run lightroom and CS3 at the same time without any issues.

[Tdragone]

I have a 9100 also.

I just re-loaded Vista on a friends Inspiron 1720 and was blown away by it's horsepower. Sad to say; but the core 2 duo's out now whoop my 9100's butt.

If you had the 9100; I doubt you'd go back to the 15" display, so the 1720 is your best choice.

I HIGHLY suggest going to the scratch and dent area for Dell. Most are laptops that are brand new and either the owner reconsidered the price, or like my 9100, was delivered damaged. Mine had a broken screen when the orig owner received it. They put a new screen in and I got it for almost 50% less when I bought it.

Get 2 gigs of ram and whatever processor you can afford. You'll have a laptop that will be as fast now as when you got your 9100 :)

[Steve Beck]

You really need to consder something without a glossy screen if you are serious about using this for editing photos.

3gb of ram is the most a 32bit OS can see/use so your wasting money on 4gb.

[Village_Idiot]

I skimmed through but I don't think I've seen any post on this; don't buy your memory with the computer. It's expensive. Buy the computer with as little memory as possible them buy memory from some place like new egg or crucial. You'll save cash.

[cosworth]

You really need to consder something without a glossy screen if you are serious about using this for editing photos.

3gb of ram is the most a 32bit OS can see/use so your wasting money on 4gb.

Both of these are incorrect.

I have a dell XPS m1710. Glossy screen. Works just fine and edits just fine beside my matte dell 2407WFP. I think I'm pretty serious about my images. I used to make %100 of my income from it. Proper calibration is far more important that matte or glossy.

Secondly, all 32bit OS are limited to 4gb. What the OS has access to and reports access to is another story. If you have 4gb of RAM, your chipset and OS can only address 4gb. So if you have an OS that reserves 512 for the kernel and a video card that has 512, programs only have access to 3gb.

Vista manages this best - and your new dell will come with Vista. But remember that no laptop in the world can use more than 4gb of RAM, the chipset is the bottlneck. You'll see that disclaimer on dell's site.

[_aravena]

I'm on 1GB and can run a lot on it but I am going to upgrade when I get the money to 3GB so it runs that much smooter. Although I run Lightroom, PS, and music without any problems. Then again I'm on XP without anything else really running. Vista sucks up some power man.

[cosworth]

Vista sucks up some power man.

Funny you know, if you have 3gb installed why not let the OS dynamically utilize it?

Vista does this by design and when you NEED the power it gives it to you. Vista works very well on a laptop where you only have one drive and limited memory addressing. My machines are faster with Vista.

[_aravena]

Well yeah if you have it why not. Still,t he best suggestion is buy little RAM with the computer and then buy some later.

[SuzyView]

I do a lot of work, but wanted a big screen, not mobility. I sprung for the 1721 from Dell with the 17 inch glossy widescreen 1920x1200 screen. It's beautiful and really easy to use as a two screen companion to my Samsung 22 inch I recently acquired. I have 3 gb RAM and all the bells and whistles, cost around $2100 with the discount. Worth every cent. I have a 500 GB WD HD attached all the time for the photos I take.

[Steve Beck]

Every 32bit OS I have dealt with with 4gb of ram really only makes 3.2 available. As far as glossy vs matte, is well known fact that flatte finish is much better for editing, no matter what your calibration process is.

[madddman]

I just bought a laptop from Dell. A couple of my friends from out IT dept. told me to checkout the refurb site. They come with the same warranty as a new on. I bought a Lattitude 830 running XP Pro with core 2 dual processors running at 2.0 GH, 4MB of ram, 120 Gig 7200rpm drive, 15" high res screen, flat not glossy. Paid $1349 for it. Just got it Friday, opened it and looked like brand new. So far it's been great, loaded CS2 and Lightroom and have been thrilled with the performance.
Just my 2 cents.

[sandpiper]

I'm running an Inspiron 9400, core 2 Duo, 2Gb RAM, runs CS2 and lightroom beautifully. Cost me around £650 (GB) on ebay.

[wilvoeka]

Every 32bit OS I have dealt with with 4gb of ram really only makes 3.2 available.

Thats a limitation to of the motherboard, not the OS. I believe 32 bit OS's can use 4Gigs. As I mentioned my 1520 sees 3.8 Gigs of the 4 i have installed.

The intel Core 2 duo chipsets are capable of using more ram than the AMD and core duo chipsets.

Another thing to consider when upgrading your ram, is that matched sticks will perform better. So 3 gigs may give you more ram to access, but 2 gigs will run faster because you have matched sticks in each slot. So I would recommend you go for either 2 gigs or 4 gigs.

Your hard drive is another thing to consider for CS3 performance. Avoid any of the 4500rpm drives. you want either a 5400rpm or a 7200rpm, and SATA will perform mutch better than IDE.

[Road2Show]

Here's another recommendation for the outlet. Look at the Latitude D830 or the Precision M4300. The 4300 is a workhorse. The M6300 is another option if you want a 17" screen. When you visit the outlet site, be sure to select the right category filter. You can remove items like scratch and dent and lease returns. I've had lots of systems from the outlet personally and I have referred a lot fo people there with zero concern.

Mike

[BigBlueDodge]

Every 32bit OS I have dealt with with 4gb of ram really only makes 3.2 available.

I have a write up about this in the 4GB sticky on this forum, found here

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=441063


I skimmed through but I don't think I've seen any post on this; don't buy your memory with the computer. It's expensive. Buy the computer with as little memory as possible them buy memory from some place like new egg or crucial. You'll save cash.


Beat you to the punch. See my post on page 1 that mentions

(Dell is pretty proud of their RAM. What you might do is get the minimum amount offered in the laptop model you are looking at, and then go to NewEgg and buy 4GB at a nice savings.)

[Bob_A]

Just got home from work ... Wow! lots of really good advice and things to think about.

Is the XPS 1710 the previous model of the 1730 which Dell sells as a "Gaming" laptop? It looks like I can get a nicely loaded M1730 for just over $3K.

[_aravena]

Something I forgot. I wouldn't opt for too big a hard drive. They cost a lot to add on and I'd rather get a small portable if I need more memory. Right now I only have a 40GB but it hold w/e important photos I need and aren't on my laptop and a few selection of other stuff.

[Bob_A]

Something I forgot. I wouldn't opt for too big a hard drive. They cost a lot to add on and I'd rather get a small portable if I need more memory. Right now I only have a 40GB but it hold w/e important photos I need and aren't on my laptop and a few selection of other stuff.

Thanks. Right now I have a 60GB internal drive along with a Lacie external. I won't go for a monster sized internal but was looking at something like a 7200 RPM 160 GB SATA. 60GB for me is just a bit too small.

[Bob_A]

Both of these are incorrect.

I have a dell XPS m1710. Glossy screen. Works just fine and edits just fine beside my matte dell 2407WFP. I think I'm pretty serious about my images. I used to make %100 of my income from it. Proper calibration is far more important that matte or glossy.

Secondly, all 32bit OS are limited to 4gb. What the OS has access to and reports access to is another story. If you have 4gb of RAM, your chipset and OS can only address 4gb. So if you have an OS that reserves 512 for the kernel and a video card that has 512, programs only have access to 3gb.

Vista manages this best - and your new dell will come with Vista. But remember that no laptop in the world can use more than 4gb of RAM, the chipset is the bottlneck. You'll see that disclaimer on dell's site.

I just saw the weight of the XPS M1730 ... it's even heavier than my Inspiron 9100 :lol:

[Bob_A]

I just ran the speed test posted here: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=170063&highlight=speed+test

10 minutes and 40 seconds! I think this is the worst time I've seen posted ...