Did all my processing at home but now looking into something mobile. Something with Windows 7 preferably. that will easily run CS5, Lightroom and the NIK Suite that won't break the bank. Excellent display of course. Thanks.
I have a 5 year old dell 17" studio that I've never had a problem with, I think keeping the anti virus software up to date is the key. I also have a new laptop with windows 8 and prefer the windows 7 still. Good luck.
Take a look at Sager/Clevo laptops - they are targeted at the gaming market, but you can get a display that is wide gamut, multiple hard drives, ram up to 32 gb, and the option to use an SSD as a cache for the system drive. You can order Win7 with it if you want, and they have 15" and 17" screen choices - you can find them at www.xoticpc.com. Xotic also sells high-end machines from other mfgrs.
What's your budget? One thing you definitely want for image editing purposes is a non-glare IPS screen for much better color gamut, color accuracy, and viewing angles. You can find more info. and recommendations at this laptop review site.
Give Puget Systems a call. Let them know what you plan to do with the computer and your budget. They will work with you.
I have one of their 15" laptops. It's based on a Clevo with a 240GB SSD, an i5 quad core CPU, 8GB of RAM and a NVidia video card. I recently had Puget upgrade the screen to a wide-gamut, matte TFT panel.
They do great work, and their customer service is among the best I've seen.
The Dell M4700 from the list I linked to above should do the trick, and you get a beautiful IPS monitor to boot.
You can probably get it on or a bit under your budget using online coupons and installing your own extra RAM.
Bruce - That budget very much depends on what you consider to be "decent". Personally, my last couple of laptops have been high end Dells (an Inspiron (high end at the time), followed by a Studio XPS with the very high end RGB backlit LCD screen), with very good screens, and have been well north of $1500. But I've also had just the 2 laptops the last 10 years (with a few minor upgrades like more RAM or a bigger hard drive) - so it's a lot of bang for the buck.
The biggest issue might be finding a good screen - there are only a few screen makers/options out there, but it can be hard to figure out which laptops have the good screens. IPS monitors are best, but pretty rare in the laptop world. Really good TFTs get close, but it's hard to tell which laptops will have a good TFT - with viewing angles close to IPS - and which will shift color dramatically with minor angular movements.
In the case of running PS, I'd personally look for :
-- 15" range (I find 17" too bulky/heavy)
-- Wide gamut monitor, with at least 1080 (vertical) resolution (I like glossy myself -- personal preference)
-- 12GB of RAM or more (with at least the option to go to more with an upgrade later)
-- Video card with 1GB or more of memory
-- Core i7 processor of a recent generation
-- 256 GB SSD or larger (with the ability to use 2 hard drives preferable)
-- Higher end case and components/structure (a lot of folks forget about this one - it's a big deal with Apples and other high end laptops, they're VERY well put together compared to budget laptops)
The SSD option is still pretty expensive by itself. Without that you're still probably talking about $1500 - $2000.
For $1000, the differences you'd probably be looking at :
-- Standard HD @ 5400 RPM
-- Core i5 / slower processor
-- 8GB RAM/less expandability
-- Smaller memory and/or slower graphics card - or maybe integrated graphics (no separate card) which is usually slower and uses up some of the main memory
-- Less resolution screen
For instance, with Dell you'd be downgrading from the XPS, high-end line, to the standard Inspiron line. Still nice, but more cheaply made and with the lower end features.
Looking at Puget Systems, a 15" lower end model (Core i5, small fast HD, Nice 2GB video card, 1080 resolution) runs about $1500, and is probably a very well built machine, with (by every report I've ever heard) excellent customer service.
The Sager ones (also built on the same Clevo base platform as the Puget) seem to be a good value for the features, but I personally don't know much about them for reliability or customer service. Here's an example around $1000 - looks pretty nice to me.
The other option to think about that some people really like is having a laptop, and an external monitor. They can run the good monitor when at home, but still have portability. That takes the screen issue largely out of play for some folks.
Just a quick remark about IPS screens. They typically do have good contrast, black point, a small Delta E, and excellent viewing angles, but you need to pay attention to the color gamut they are capable of producing.
I just looked at a listing of ultrabooks (with 15" IPS screens) at Anandtech. The lowest, as a percentage of Adobe RGB is 45.4%, and the highest is 69.3%. Food for thought, if you need a wide-gamut screen.
Another note: The screen on my Puget laptop is a wide-gamut, matte, TFT, 1920x1080p that is capable of 95% of the NTSC gamut. I took a look at some gamut plots that compared NTSC with AdobeRGB and the two gamuts are quite similar. My images look great!
Still another note: You should seriously consider an SSD for a few reasons. First, they are more shock resistant than regular HD's. Second, they are much faster than regular HD's. And third, they generate much less heat, which is a big concern with a laptop because they don't have the cooling capabilities of a desktop. You could use the SSD for your OS and programs and have a regular HD for your user files. If you go this route, I suggest you have this done at build time: working on a laptop is not as easy as getting into the innards of a desktop.
A final note: There are excellent, highly portable external USB hard drives available as backup devices. I have a Nexstar-3 with a 500GB WD HD that is perfect for my laptop.
OK. I've used up my notes allotment for today. I hope you find them useful, and I hope you can obtain a machine that will meet your needs.
Bruce, I normally try to stay off threads in which I'd be recommending my own company, but your address in Bonney Lake is too much for me to pass up! You should give us a call or drop in for a visit. We're right down the hill in Auburn! Heck, our production manager (who happens to do all our wide-gamut screen installs himself) even lives in Bonney Lake!
Discussion
10 repliesI have one of their 15" laptops. It's based on a Clevo with a 240GB SSD, an i5 quad core CPU, 8GB of RAM and a NVidia video card. I recently had Puget upgrade the screen to a wide-gamut, matte TFT panel.
They do great work, and their customer service is among the best I've seen.
--P
You can probably get it on or a bit under your budget using online coupons and installing your own extra RAM.
The biggest issue might be finding a good screen - there are only a few screen makers/options out there, but it can be hard to figure out which laptops have the good screens. IPS monitors are best, but pretty rare in the laptop world. Really good TFTs get close, but it's hard to tell which laptops will have a good TFT - with viewing angles close to IPS - and which will shift color dramatically with minor angular movements.
In the case of running PS, I'd personally look for :
-- 15" range (I find 17" too bulky/heavy)
-- Wide gamut monitor, with at least 1080 (vertical) resolution (I like glossy myself -- personal preference)
-- 12GB of RAM or more (with at least the option to go to more with an upgrade later)
-- Video card with 1GB or more of memory
-- Core i7 processor of a recent generation
-- 256 GB SSD or larger (with the ability to use 2 hard drives preferable)
-- Higher end case and components/structure (a lot of folks forget about this one - it's a big deal with Apples and other high end laptops, they're VERY well put together compared to budget laptops)
The SSD option is still pretty expensive by itself. Without that you're still probably talking about $1500 - $2000.
For $1000, the differences you'd probably be looking at :
-- Standard HD @ 5400 RPM
-- Core i5 / slower processor
-- 8GB RAM/less expandability
-- Smaller memory and/or slower graphics card - or maybe integrated graphics (no separate card) which is usually slower and uses up some of the main memory
-- Less resolution screen
For instance, with Dell you'd be downgrading from the XPS, high-end line, to the standard Inspiron line. Still nice, but more cheaply made and with the lower end features.
Looking at Puget Systems, a 15" lower end model (Core i5, small fast HD, Nice 2GB video card, 1080 resolution) runs about $1500, and is probably a very well built machine, with (by every report I've ever heard) excellent customer service.
The Sager ones (also built on the same Clevo base platform as the Puget) seem to be a good value for the features, but I personally don't know much about them for reliability or customer service. Here's an example around $1000 - looks pretty nice to me.
The other option to think about that some people really like is having a laptop, and an external monitor. They can run the good monitor when at home, but still have portability. That takes the screen issue largely out of play for some folks.
I just looked at a listing of ultrabooks (with 15" IPS screens) at Anandtech. The lowest, as a percentage of Adobe RGB is 45.4%, and the highest is 69.3%. Food for thought, if you need a wide-gamut screen.
Another note: The screen on my Puget laptop is a wide-gamut, matte, TFT, 1920x1080p that is capable of 95% of the NTSC gamut. I took a look at some gamut plots that compared NTSC with AdobeRGB and the two gamuts are quite similar. My images look great!
Still another note: You should seriously consider an SSD for a few reasons. First, they are more shock resistant than regular HD's. Second, they are much faster than regular HD's. And third, they generate much less heat, which is a big concern with a laptop because they don't have the cooling capabilities of a desktop. You could use the SSD for your OS and programs and have a regular HD for your user files. If you go this route, I suggest you have this done at build time: working on a laptop is not as easy as getting into the innards of a desktop.
A final note: There are excellent, highly portable external USB hard drives available as backup devices. I have a Nexstar-3 with a 500GB WD HD that is perfect for my laptop.
OK. I've used up my notes allotment for today. I hope you find them useful, and I hope you can obtain a machine that will meet your needs.
--P