Getting new Laptop... recommendations?

[un4given]

Probably early next month I'm going to take the plunge and buy a new laptop. My old 2005 Toshiba Satellite is alright, but it's quite a bit slower now and well the monitor was cracked a couple months back so I can now only use it on my tv or another monitor, which is rather annoying.

Anyway, I've been looking to get one for a while now anyway... I'm still thinking PC and Toshiba. I'm probably going to use this mainly for storing and editing photos and little else. I'll watch movies on it or browse the internet but no gaming or video editing, etc. The two main programs I'll have will be Photoshop and Lightroom 2.2

Here's the laptop I've been looking at from Toshiba.ca:

http://www.toshiba.ca/web/product.grp?lg=en&section=1&group=1&product=8191&part=8976#spectop

Bestbuy.ca has the same one, but it just looks different:

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10118382&catid=25253

I'd like to stick close to the 15.4" screen and my budget is around $1000. This Toshiba seems like a fairly good computer, but I'm not tech expert, so I'm just wondering if it would fullfill my needs for photo editing?

Oh and I've got a Canon 50D camera, so if I'm shooting in Raw my file sizes will be quite large. Of course I'm going to buy a external hard drive for backing up my photos.

[Mark1]

I shoot a 50D as well, and only shoot in raw.

I just bought a Toshiba and a Sony. I forget the Tosh model number, the sony is a NR. Both are very nice and were plenty powerful to run Lightroom and CS4. I would not want to do all my editing on either one. But is fine for edits in the field. The Tosh is a 32bit system. The Sony is a 64bit.

The Laptop they are replacing was also a Sony. a 10 year old Sony. Never a single problem. Sony equipment is great. But the Customer service is probably the worst you can find. Keep that in mind. Toshiba was the arguably reighing champ for laptops. Neck and neck with the IBM/Lenovos.

The one you link to looks like it will do fine.

[MaxxuM]

Personally, I wouldn't go with anything less than a 2.6GHz CPU if you're going to be using it for image editing. Laptop CPUs are cut down versions of their desktop cousins that produce less heat. The reason those notebook computers are so affordable is because they are using recycled technology (updating an older model line). When buying a laptop is is almost always better to buy the fastest CPU you can afford. Generally, when buying a laptop you're going to be getting 30% less power for 30% higher cost. A 2GHz CPU will probably be OK until you start zooming in to 100% and doing some cloning/patching where it will stutter a little. After six months Windows will begin to slow a little (10% avg) due to clutter, fragmentation and registry bloat and in a full year and a half new software (LR 3) which will likely make a 2GHz laptop struggle. As far as brand I would go with either Lenovo or Dell.

[tim]

Get one with a multi-core processor if you can. It helps a lot.

[un4given]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I've been looking at the Dell's and it gets expensive building your own. Here's the specs on a Vostro 1520 I built:

PROCESSORIntel® Core™ 2 Duo T9550 (2.66GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB) 35w
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate 64Bit
SYSTEM COLOR Obsidian Black
PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE Microsoft™ Office® Small Business 2007
LCD DISPLAY 15.4 inch WXGA Anti-Glare LED Display
CAMERA AND DIGITAL MICROPHONE Integrated 1.3MP Webcam and Digital Mic with webcam and video chat software
MEMORY8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz, 2 DIMM
HARD DRIVE 320GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with Free Fall Sensor
GRAPHICS CARDNVIDIA® GeForce™ 9300M GS 256MB
OPTICAL DRIVE8X DVD+/-RW with double-layer DVD+/-R write capability, Roxio and Cyberlink PowerDVD™ DX 8.1
BATTERY OPTIONS 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery


Great specs for a laptop but it came out to $2429 Canadian. I could drop or downgrade a few things but it would still be around the $1900 mark.

[MaxxuM]

After shipping it would be around $2000 and it's pretty powerful. I'm guessing that Office is what has increased your system as well as Vista Ultimate. If you take off Ultimate for Home Premium that's $160 less on the price. If you drop the higher end graphics (below) to a 9300 that would be another $60. Overall, it sounds about right. Don't forget to look for Windows 7 upgrade deals due out soon so you'll be able to order the OS for the cost of shipping.

Studio 15" Dell - $1849 Canadian

Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate Edition, 64-bit SP1
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9550 (2.66GHz/1066Mhz FSB/6MB cache)
15.6” Full High Definition (1080p) High Brightness LED Display with TrueLife™ and Camera
6GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz
HDD 500GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570
8X Slot Load Super Multi (DL DVD+/-R Drive + RAM support)
Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell)
Dell Wireless 1397 802.11g Half Mini-Card
High Definition Audio 2.0
Standard Keyboard
1 Year Limited Warranty w/1 Year Return To Depot Service

[roman_t]

when i was looking for notebook i found an on-line shop - www xoticpc com they'd build a nice laptop from barebone one you'd choose. but i have bought new lights instead :-)
imo, first of all find a good chipset it based on - rest components you can add yourself

[un4given]

I'm actually liking this Toshiba as well, it's the Satellite 350... a slight upgrade from the 300 I posted in original thread... I think I'd like the 16" screen more as well?

http://www.toshiba.ca/web/product.grp?lg=en&section=1&group=1&product=8970&part=8978#spectop

Intel Core2 Duo processor P7450 (2.13GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 3MB L2 Cache) with Intel Centrino 2 processor technology
Standard Memory: 2GB + 2GB DDR2 (800 MHz), Maximum Memory: 8GB DDR2, Expansion Modules: 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB DDR2
Hard Drive: 400GB (5400 RPM); Serial-ATA hard disk drive
DVD SuperMulti (+/-R double layer) drive supporting 11 formats.
Graphics Controller: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 using HyperMemory technology; Dedicated memory: 512MB (up to 2301MB) dynamically allocated shared graphics memory using Hypermemory with 4GB of system memory

The processor is slightly faster at 2.13 GHz, but still not 2.6 or higher, but the rest of the specs are really good.

Pretty good price as well, just over $1200.

[MaxxuM]

I'm actually liking this Toshiba as well, it's the Satellite 350... a slight upgrade from the 300 I posted in original thread... I think I'd like the 16" screen more as well?

http://www.toshiba.ca/web/product.grp?lg=en&section=1&group=1&product=8970&part=8978#spectop

Intel Core2 Duo processor P7450 (2.13GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 3MB L2 Cache) with Intel Centrino 2 processor technology
Standard Memory: 2GB + 2GB DDR2 (800 MHz), Maximum Memory: 8GB DDR2, Expansion Modules: 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB DDR2
Hard Drive: 400GB (5400 RPM); Serial-ATA hard disk drive
DVD SuperMulti (+/-R double layer) drive supporting 11 formats.
Graphics Controller: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 using HyperMemory technology; Dedicated memory: 512MB (up to 2301MB) dynamically allocated shared graphics memory using Hypermemory with 4GB of system memory

The processor is slightly faster at 2.13 GHz, but still not 2.6 or higher, but the rest of the specs are really good.

Pretty good price as well, just over $1200.

Personally, I think that is too slow, but if you plan on upgrading again in around a year or two then it's fine. If you could, I would download LR 2 onto a USB drive and see if your local computer store will allow you to install it on a laptop with a 2.1GHz CPU and take like five or six RAW files and edit them at 100% to see if you're OK with the speed.