Right Laptop for Photographic editing work

[naford]

Hi all,

Looking at a new laptop, already have Adobe CS4 suite so need to stay with Windows 7 operating system, rather than move over to Apple macs. Sony Vaio AW series appears a very good photographic laptop computer, has anyone got a particular model that they would recommend, or another make that they would recommend ?

[mikekelley]

Just so you know, you can transfer adobe licenses from Windows to Mac. But I don't know much about windows-based computers so I'm afraid I can't help you :)

[irishman]

Interested in the answer as well.

[naford]

I didn't know that about the licence swap over, but kind of a non Apple Mac person in any case, but thanks for responding.

[wyofizz]

Sony and Toshiba are both rated high.
Get as much Ram as you can afford(no less than 4Gb). If you can get a machine with 2 drives that would help also. Fast processor is a must.
Expect to pay $1700-2,000.

[naford]

Sony Vaio I am looking at is 2.8 hz processor, 500GB harddrive and 8 GB Ram. Any other make provide that kind of spec for better value ? It is circa £1800 sterling.

[JayStar86]

Do it right and get a Mac..... you will NEVER regret it if you make the switch.... my 2c.

[philwillmedia]

Do it right and get a Mac..... you will NEVER regret it if you make the switch.... my 2c.

Yeah.. just get a Mac

[kevitivity]

It's a crying shame Macs out out of the question as they are the best solution for creative computing. And not having to worry about spy-ware and viruses is an added bonus.

I just need to second the recommendation for maxing out the amount of RAM you get. 4gigs minimum. Too many PC manufacturers still ship their machines with an anemic amount of RAM.

[CW Jones]

Yup Mac is the way to go. Cleaner OS better performance

[GuitarFreak]

I disagree. A Windows laptop can do just about anything a macbook can. Plus, macs are quite a bit more expensive for worse hardware. The 17" MBP starts at $2500. This 18.4" is $1400 and just as capable.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834114706

[Roy G. Biv]

http://www.acquisio.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/mac-pc.gif

[gorgon2k]

I go to a school where all we use is Macs and I have a PC at home and work. I have zero complaints about macs performance wise, but if your used to PC's like me, stick to a PC. There's a lot of Mac fans who swear by them, but I never heard a true valid reason why. They're far more money for less performance. They also lack support for many many piece of software that isn't geared towards the professional.

[nphsbuckeye]

Dell makes XPS laptops with Intel's i7 processor. Depending on what your post looks like, that will be much faster than any other laptop on the market.

[gkarris]

I use a Mac, I have Windows machines also. I've recommended the Sony's to people and they like them and never had a problem with them...

[neeko]

If you want to stick with a PC rather than a mac, Sony's have proven too much money for what you get. Thinkpads are great performers and you get what you pay for dollar to dollar.

I deal with a bunch of firms that use Adobe products and while sony vaios can display projects, they are almost never used to edit them. While they can, our users find waiting 20 seconds to a minute to compute the move of a layer way too long.

[CW Jones]

see I was pretty stuck on PC's at first and feared switching over, but now that I have I couldn't be happier. As far as a "learning curve" .... ya like a day if that lol

I had a sony laptop for a while... crappy. then I had a Dell, which the HDD crashed beyond recovery in under a year... I would say a nice Toshiba or HP

[toxic]

For those who keep chanting about how overpriced Macintosh is, that's been proven false over and over. Some models are on the more expensive side given their specifications, but none are beyond reason. Hardware is not all created equal.

Anyways, I would stick with Lenovo Thinkpads. I like Dell Latitudes but I'm not sure if they offer suitable hardware for serious photoediting. Other than that, probably Asus. I haven't been keeping up with what's going on, but I have worked on enough computers to know that I wouldn't buy anything else.

Whatever you buy, budget for a PVA or IPS monitor as well, if you don't have one already.

[5x5 photography]

I have 2 Gateways (one is about 3 years old and is used everyday) and I have had zero issues with either computer.
I use Canon and Faststone software for my editing and they do just fine for my use.
Every other photographer uses a Mac but after using a few I am more comfortable with my PC.

[neeko]

For those who keep chanting about how overpriced Macintosh is, that's been proven false over and over. Some models are on the more expensive side given their specifications, but none are beyond reason. Hardware is not all created equal.

Anyways, I would stick with Lenovo Thinkpads. I like Dell Latitudes but I'm not sure if they offer suitable hardware for serious photoediting. Other than that, probably Asus. I haven't been keeping up with what's going on, but I have worked on enough computers to know that I wouldn't buy anything else.

Whatever you buy, budget for a PVA or IPS monitor as well, if you don't have one already.

Thinkpads are the way to go if going with a PC laptop for editing.

[kevitivity]

Macs are the BMWs, PCs are the chevys.

A Windoze machine can do it all. It just that things like a color managed OS, and not having to worry at all about spy-ware and viruses let you focus more your photography.

Stuff like solid construction, industrial design, Unix, and LED back-lit displays are the kind of things that get us Mac geeks excited, but probably off-topic for this forum...

[Retouch UK]

+1 for Lenovo. I used a T400 for a while and it was a good for editing. Nice LED backlit screen and high resolution too. Nothing like desktop performance though if you have a quick desktop.

[neeko]

Macs are the BMWs, PCs are the chevys.

A Windoze machine can do it all. It just that things like a color manages OS, and not having to worry at all about spy-ware and viruses let you focus more your photography.

Stuff like solid construction, industrial design, Unix, and LED back-lit displays are the kind of things that get us Mac geeks excited, but probably off-topic for this forum...

I'm not denying that the Mac os is a great editing machine. But if the OP is going to choose a PC, we're better off pointing them in the right direction.

Besides, I can't wait to see someone take advantage of Snow leopards new 64bit architecture capable of running 16TB of ram.

[Zansho]

I have both systems - a Mac G5 for my home, and a Dell XPS 1530 with 64 Bit OS and 8GB Ram.

The G5 has 4GB Ram, and two HD's while the Dell has one HD, and the 8GB Ram. I did a benchmark test, and the Dell actually did better than my G5, albeit marginally.

Get what you feel comfortable with - not with what everyone else says you should get. Both systems are tools, a means to an end.

[OdiN1701]

Do it right and get a Mac..... you will NEVER regret it if you make the switch.... my 2c.

If you want to do it right, save some money and get a PC. If he likes his PC then he'd regret getting a Mac.

It's a crying shame Macs out out of the question as they are the best solution for creative computing. And not having to worry about spy-ware and viruses is an added bonus.

I just need to second the recommendation for maxing out the amount of RAM you get. 4gigs minimum. Too many PC manufacturers still ship their machines with an anemic amount of RAM.

Macs are certainly not the "best solution" for "creative computing". That's a load of hogwash, and mostly false advertising that Apple has been cramming down people's throats for years. Of course all of the sheep buy into it. Added bonus of not having to worry about spyware and viruses? I have a PC and I don't have to worry about spyware and viruses. I don't even run a virus scanner. There's no need if you aren't a complete neophyte. If you're the kind of person who thinks "Hey this website wants to install a program for me. Sure I'll let it go ahead and see how nifty it is!" then you should get a Mac to limit your abilities in the computing environment.

PC manufacturers play the price game to get people to buy them. Buying a cheap POS off the shelf is going to end up with you getting a cheap POS experience. Yes max out the RAM. At least it won't cost you an arm and a leg and your firstborn like with a Mac.

Yup Mac is the way to go. Cleaner OS better performance

Cleaner OS? Whatever. I don't like the Mac OS. Windows is far better IMO. Mac's and their ridiculous one button mouse approach. Well you can right click if you hold something down on the keyboard. Have they gotten beyond that crap yet? Better performance? Not even. You can get more performance for the $$ on a PC than a Mac.

Besides, I can't wait to see someone take advantage of Snow leopards new 64bit architecture capable of running 16TB of ram.

Oh are they finally catching up?

[OdiN1701]

Anyway for a laptop that you want, I'd recommend a Dell.

Don't get the pre-built crap. Pick a model and customize it. Upgrade the CPU, Hard Drive, RAM. Get a 3 year warranty and don't worry about a thing.

HD's will fail - moreso it seems in laptops at times but a lot of that is how the user treats the laptop. Care for it properly and it will last. If it doesn't, the 3YR warranty is there for you. Backup everything. HD's are mechanical. They can and do fail. Not backing up and having the HD fail is not the manufacturers problem. It's yours. Blaming a bad HD on the maker of the laptop isn't accurate either (unless it's a Toshiba and they use their own drives). The HD maker is who made the drive. They aren't perfect.

If not a Dell, look at a Lenovo.

[Zansho]

I actually thought about buying a customized PC (or making one, rather) that does everything I want and made exactly how I want it with the amount of ram and the HD's I want.

PC's are friendlier to upgrade, I still remember the hell I had when I had to get a new HD for my Mac. On my old PC, I would just swap it in, and mirror the HD, and be done with it.

/shrugs. I do like the Mac, and I'm comfortable with both platforms. One last thing you need to remember is that laptop screens are NOT good for editing - at least, not the color managed editing and calibration that you will want if you want accurate colors.

[TurboDream17]

I've had a Vaio for 3.5 years now, (SZ-280P) and I completely agree they're overpriced for what you get.

I'm really not all that impressed by the build quality with a lot of PC's as of late though. I think my next computer might be a MB Pro with Windows 7 installed :)

[nphsbuckeye]

I'm not denying that the Mac os is a great editing machine. But if the OP is going to choose a PC, we're better off pointing them in the right direction.

Besides, I can't wait to see someone take advantage of Snow leopards new 64bit architecture capable of running 16TB of ram.
Actually, 64 bit can facilitate up to 16,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes of RAM, but the hardware has to catch up.

[neeko]

Oh are they finally catching up?

Yeah. The Mac OS had a good lead until the 64 bit OS for windows started crunching numbers in an alarming rate.

People have been clamoring for a Mac 64 bit os, but it has yet to show a benchmark as revolutionary.

[Retouch UK]

Something worth checking out is the Anandtech mobile buyer guide. I think its usually quite good for pointing in the right direction. This one was only published a couple of days ago so it should give a good idea of thats currently on the market.

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3685

Chris

[SwitchBlade]

I'm going to add a +1 for the Lenovo Thinkpad range. Been using Thinkpads for the last 10 years and am yet to play with anything else with the build quality to make me want to change. I'll also say have a look at the X series tablets. Yes they are small and don't have a huge hard drive on board, but once you start using a tablet screen for image editing anything else seems so unintuitive. I love my X41 tablet, just wish I had the cash to upgrade for a newer faster one.

[aaiezz]

honestly... i dont know what the fuss is about.. ive got a basic dell inspiron 1525 with a core2 due running vista home basic with PS CS2, and its pretty much all ive ever needed. cost me $500 AU from the dell website and it runs perfectly. sure if you have the finances for a fancy machine go for it, but if you just want something for quick image processing look for something that gets the job done and have money left over to spend on lenses.. if photography's your game, keep money for lenses, no matter what machine you buy with the latest and coolest features and what not its still going to end up obsolete down the track in a few months, lenses on the other hand.. well timeless..

[SwiftFootTim]

The Core i7 series is the top of the line right now, don't let the 1.6 Ghz they put on those deceive you, they are screaming fast right now.

[nphsbuckeye]

The Core i7 series is the top of the line right now, don't let the 1.6 Ghz they put on those deceive you, they are screaming fast right now.
Four core and eight threads will do that.

[CalPiker]

This type of question always leads to the old debate of Ford vs. Chevy, Nikon vs. Canon, blond vs brunette, etc. I've been using Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and all of their other programs on PCs for about 9 years now and have never needed to touch a Mac to get it done.

You will need a few things in your to take full advantage of it though. Lots of memory - 4GB minimum, 8GB preferable. Best (fastest) processor you can afford. Largest hard drive you can afford. These are really cheap nowadays, so getting a 500GB drive shouldn't be too hard. And get a really good video card.

I'd recommend looking at Dell Outlet (delloutlet.com) and their Scratch and Dent specials. These are new computers that were scratched while being put together. I saved 50% on my laptop buying it from there and about 35% on each of the two desktops I bought there. There were mostly minor scratches on them and I was able to fix the ones on my laptop. The only problem is you can't customize them before they ship it. You have to do it afterward, if you can.

[René Damkot]

kind of a non Apple Mac person in any case, but thanks for responding.
Well. That should take care of this thread going downhill fast...

Please stay on topic ;)

[basroil]

The Core i7 series is the top of the line right now, don't let the 1.6 Ghz they put on those deceive you, they are screaming fast right now.

They actually aren't 1.6gh, it's actually 800mhz to 1.6ghz + auto overclocking up to 2.8gh (single core only, 2ghz+ for all four cores in the right conditions)

[GuitarFreak]

Well you can always go all out with a desktop i7 in a laptop :D

http://www.sagernotebook.com/product_customed.php?pid=171297&action=customize
i7 975, GTX280M, 12GB DDR3, 3 500GB hdds. :p

[basroil]

Well you can always go all out with a desktop i7 in a laptop :D

http://www.sagernotebook.com/product_customed.php?pid=171297&action=customize
i7 975, GTX280M, 12GB DDR3, 3 500GB hdds. :p

And ends up being slower than my stock i7 920 due to heat limits :rolleyes:

[GuitarFreak]

And ends up being slower than my stock i7 920 due to heat limits :rolleyes:


Haha yeah. Though they do have beefy heatsinks in there (for a laptop anyway), those i7's get quite hot on even really good air cooling in desktops.

[Yossarian22]

I find it amusing that the Mac people are attempting to convince PC people to switch and using the lower risk of contracting malware as a reason. I hope they do know that one of the large reasons why Macs have a relatively low chance of getting malware is because they control such a minuscule amount of the market so a virus is rarely written for their platform. You're digging your own grave!

[GoHokiesGo]

Adding another +1 for Lenovo Thinkpads. I bought one because I liked their performance at work. I've had one at home for 2 years now (R61 thinkpad), and it's been rock solid. The performance is still great, the build quality is absolutely second-to-none, I dont have anything negative to say about them. I've been rocking Windows 7 for several months now and it's been great. The screen is nice, and the keyboard has a perfect feel.

I owned/used several dell, sony, compaq/hp notebooks throughout college. The Lenovo quality is way above the others. I'll never buy another brand again after using this.

[EOSNewbie]

because they control such a minuscule amount of the market

Wrong!!
It's because of the 'NIX based operating system not allowing malware to run on the machine.

If you are a Windows PRO with an administrator type account then count your blessings there are people who can fix your rig.

[basroil]

Wrong!!
It's because of the 'NIX based operating system not allowing malware to run on the machine.

If you are a Windows PRO with an administrator type account then count your blessings there are people who can fix your rig.

Actually quite wrong, since most malware infections are trojan in nature. No amount of OS protection will help when you install the program yourself. The next highest set of issues is with installed programs that have vulnerabilities, and those have nothing to do with the OS. Just look at the big deal caused when apple shipped an old version of flash with their machines. Now, unix/linux come in so many flavors that it's even less practical for mass malware attempts, but if one person want to hack you directly, not that much harder than any other OS used by the same victim.

Systems are more or less as secure as their users, so that's a point that shouldn't have any impact on OP's choice. OS look and feel, fine; performance, security, reliability, not even worth discussing minor differences in each.

Considering OP doesn't want OSX, I think we can assume that all unix/linux variants are also out of OP's mind.

[Mathiau]

Sony and Toshiba are both rated high.
Get as much Ram as you can afford(no less than 4Gb). If you can get a machine with 2 drives that would help also. Fast processor is a must.
Expect to pay $1700-2,000.


Where?


Toshiab has known over heating issues over the years and sonys you pay out the nose for the name.


You want ram and cpu speed, if your doing alot of post processing and working with larger images.

get an SSD and you can use a single drive and it should be fast enough.

HP, Dell do have good laptops once you get over their cheap budget ones.

No reason to get an apple unless you like the OS, everything else is the same.

As for security OSX had more exploits in the first few weeks i recall then Vista had in it's life time and same with Windows 7, also OS X was comprimised in a competition in 3 minutes, vs linux and windows that lasted 3 days, i wish people would stop spreading this false sense of security OSX does NOT have. Also, apple had it on their own website you should run at least 2 antivirus programs, of course once it got public they quickly took that out of their site!

[basroil]

Where?


Recent post here has a link to reliability studies. Asus and toshiba are the top two, sony and apple and dell are all around the same. Running hot doesn't always mean higher failure, just generally means higher risk given everything else is the same.

[toxic]

get an SSD and you can use a single drive and it should be fast enough.

flash memory is not the answer to everything, not at this stage.

No reason to get an apple unless you like the OS, everything else is the same.

pretty much, but Apple doesn't typically cheap out on internals. As I said before, just because the specifications look the same doesn't mean the hardware is equal.

As for security OSX had more exploits in the first few weeks i recall then Vista had in it's life time and same with Windows 7

source?

also OS X was comprimised in a competition in 3 minutes, vs linux and windows that lasted 3 days, i wish people would stop spreading this false sense of security OSX does NOT have.

I remember this, but I don't remember if it was actually a crippling security breach. The biggest advantage of Unix-based systems is that it's difficult to compromise the entire system. Case in point: the only sort of virus I've ever encountered on Macintosh (before the iLife '09 thing a little while ago) was a DNS changer, think it's referred to as the Facebook virus. It doesn't do very much, it's just annoying.

Another difference between MS and Apple is that Apple typically fixes problems much more quickly.

Also, apple had it on their own website you should run at least 2 antivirus programs, of course once it got public they quickly took that out of their site!

False. Apple has had a recommendation for all users to run ONE antivirus program for years. It is still there if you want to look it up.


I don't understand why people keep bringing up this Windows vs Macintosh junk. The OP wants Windows. Shall we start singing the praises of Linux while we're at it?

[EOSNewbie]

Shall we start singing the praises of Linux while we're at it?

Nope, It's definitely got it's limitations. I run both Windows and Linux and basically to do anything with commercial software I use the Windows.
Although Windows can be a very secure platform, most users don't know a few simple security practices that will keep their machines malware and virus free. It's really a weakness of Windows, and the ignorance of users that make it so insecure.
I don't know that much about Mac, but I can honestly say that I believe that they ship their Operating system and it gets installed in a secure state, hardly the case with it's Microsoft competition. The only other ...? (dream...?, understanding...,? belief...?,)
that I have about Mac is that they actually test and verify the hardware that they include in their systems.

[basroil]

Nope, It's definitely got it's limitations. I run both Windows and Linux and basically to do anything with commercial software I use the Windows.
Although Windows can be a very secure platform, most users don't know a few simple security practices that will keep their machines malware and virus free. It's really a weakness of Windows, and the ignorance of users that make it so insecure.
I don't know that much about Mac, but I can honestly say that I believe that they ship their Operating system and it gets installed in a secure state, hardly the case with it's Microsoft competition. The only other ...? (dream...?, understanding...,? belief...?,)
that I have about Mac is that they actually test and verify the hardware that they include in their systems.
For anyone that wants to join the windows/osx/linux security bashing party: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/12/09/malicious-linux-screensaver-proves-any-oss-biggest-vulnerabilit/
Yes, it's the user's fault most of the time. The remainder of the time it's someone making money attacking the largest user base they can.

[SwiftFootTim]

I love linux for the relative security when browsing the web, less chance for pass-by infections. However, to state that the 'NIX platform is more secure than Windows is simply not true. There are actually studies that suggest UNIX and it's variants are more susceptible when considering the open-source movement and risk of malware, however, due to the popularity of Windows it is still the most infected by volume.

[René Damkot]

I don't understand why people keep bringing up this Windows vs Macintosh junk.

Neither do I.
And if it continues, the thread will get locked.

[SwiftFootTim]

I think the whole Windows vs. Mac thing is way overblown. An OS is a tool with which to perform basic file I/O and host applications that do the real work. If you aren't a professional doing a TON of editing work, a generally good system on either OS will work for you. You will probably also be more productive with an OS you are familiar with, be it Mac or Windows.

Base your decisions one the hardware. Also, some of the newer laptops with the Nvidia 200 series may also be able to perform many graphics calculations that were available only on processors a few years back, not sure if they've done this for the mobile cards yet but the desktop cards are going that way.

[themadman]

Sigh... it looks like these threads are more about "Mac vs Windows" than actually answering the OP. There is no where to run, whether it is "mac vs pc" or "ff vs cropped", too many threads just beciome stupid battlegrounds for people to argue.

As to the OP, I would recommend going to some place like BestBuy or something and just looking at the computers. I heard ASUS makes some good laptop screen (note, SOME not all the ones they make are good). I would take a look at ASUS laptops.

[hollis_f]

get an SSD and you can use a single drive and it should be fast enough.

flash memory is not the answer to everything, not at this stage.

Nope, it's not the answer to everything. But it can be the answer to the question - "How do I boost the speed of my machine now that I've got a fast processor and loads of RAM?"

An intel 160GB G2 SSD and a trim-supporting OS is quite possibly the best answer to that question.

[hollis_f]

Hi all,

Looking at a new laptop, already have Adobe CS4 suite so need to stay with Windows 7 operating system, rather than move over to Apple macs. Sony Vaio AW series appears a very good photographic laptop computer, has anyone got a particular model that they would recommend, or another make that they would recommend ?

When I was looking for a new laptop I realised that the things I was looking for (fast processor, lots of fast memory, decent graphics card and a good screen) were also the things that gamers look for. So I started looking for a laptop recommended for playing games.