Laptop/monitor suggestions

I knocked my laptop onto the floor the other day and I don't think I'm going to be able to bring it back to life, so it's off to the city I go next week to replace it. My past experience with salespeople is that rather than help you get a proper setup for your budget they will often try to dump the crap that isn't selling very well onto you if they get the feeling you don't know what you want so I'd appreciate a little help getting prepared.

I'm willing to spend up to $2000 if necessary and would prefer a 17" screen. The laptop will mostly be used for photo editing and surfing the net but if it had a decent sound system that would be a plus. I shoot with a D800, which means large files and use Lightroom, Nik and Capture NX2 for processing but plan on trying out Photoshop CC very soon. I've never used a Mac so would prefer a PC but might consider Apple if it was head and shoulders above the other choices in that price range. Aside from having decent speed and storage my primary concern is getting a machine with good color rendition and a decent viewing screen so was wondering if it would be better to go for a somewhat less expensive laptop and just buy a decent IPS monitor to go with it.

Appreciate any help
Thanks
Carey

Carey,

This 17" from Puget Systems is a bit out of your price range, but it will fulfill your needs. You can save money by going with the NVidia GTX 870m, rather than the 970m video card.

I have a 15" laptop and desktop from Puget and they are worth every penny.

Give Puget Systems a call and tell them what you need. They'll help you configure a system.

I trust them, and when I've needed tech support, they were a phone call away.

Edit 3/8/15: Carey, you could go for a laptop with a smaller screen and also purchase an external monitor. You would keep your editing UI on the laptop and your image on the external screen. Both Mac and Windows support multiple monitors.

If you decide to go with an external monitor, look for one with an IPS panel and a wide gamut (usually expressed as a percentage of Adobe RGB). The reason I say this is because not all IPS screens are wide gamut.

From a size standpoint, your external monitor should be at least 22", but a larger size would be better.

You will also need to have the software and ware necessary to calibrate your screens, so you'll need to factor that additional cost into your plan.

My Puget laptop is connected to a NEC 22" monitor. The NEC is calibrated, but the laptop screen is not. It doesn't matter because I put the image I'm working on on the calibrated screen.

I hope this helps.

--P

Preston, it sounds like Puget Systems would be a pretty good option but as you mentioned, the price is a little over my budget and given the weak Canadian dollar at the moment and factoring in shipping costs, that is going to push it well out of range. I think going with an external IPS monitor is probably the better option and for 2k I should be able to get a reasonably good laptop/monitor combo with calibrating hardware and maybe even some money to spare for another external hard-drive. I just want to make sure I get something with the appropriate specs so I appreciate the suggestions.

Thanks
Carey

Hi Carey,

This is a little premature because they are still in the prep stage, but I have two identical Acer laptops that I will be posting for sale in the next week. They are ones I arranged for purchase for friends of mine in their late 60s and it turns out they then wanted a 17" Dell that has a touch screen and a backlit keyboard. There were bought a few months ago and only got light use because they were travelling and didn;t take the laptops with them. I actually decided to keep one as my mobile workstation and just sell one of them, and then coincidentally (and almost strangely) last week I received an Alienware 17" to review and I get to keep it, so both Acers will get sold after all.

No pressure, I just want to let you know these are available. They are absolutely screaming fast, Photoshop CC 2014 opens in 2 seconds flat, seriously. Here are the specs:

Acer V3-772G-7616
Windows 8.1 64-bit
Intel Core i7-4712MQ Quad-core 2.30 GHz
17.3" Full HD (1920 x 1080) Screen
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M with 2 GB Dedicated Memory
16 GB, DDR3L SDRAM
256 GB SSD as the C drive for OS and apps (it's an m.2 SATA drive which doesn't use up a hard drive bay)
1TB Hard drive for file storage
Another open bay for an SSD or hard drive (yep, this laptop has two hard drive bays)
BluRay Burner Optical Drive (does DVDs and CDs of course)
SD card reader, USB 3.0 ports
Warranty: half of the initial 1 year warranty has passed, but I bought the additional two year Complete Coverage warranty which covers oopsies like dropping the laptop from a window ledge. You just need to produce the parts and Acer will replace it. You get one incident of replacement due to accidental damager per year. The warranty IS TRANSFERRABLE, I confirmed that with Acer. I have to call with the buyers info and request the transfer once a sale is completed.

The stock version only has 8GB ram, I added 8GB more, but it has 4 slots so you can do up to 32GB. The stock version also only comes with the 256GB SSD, I added a 1TB drive, and the 2 year warranty extension. All in all they are $1500 out of pocket, and are asking $1,100 cash price for each of them. That includes shipping to the 48 states. i can take PayPal, the buyer just needs to add $25 to cover the fees.

So there you go, screaming fast rig for less than your budget. Again no pressure, just letting you know it's available. Here's the link if you want to see it. BTW, a couple weeks before I got the Alienware I set up one of these Acers for me, with 32GB ram and an additional SSD for working files and Scratch Disk. Wow, absolutely lightning speed. The thing boots up almost as fast as an iPad.

And if you get it and aren't thrilled, this is NPN, no hangups, just send it back and I'll refund you. Thanks!

Thanks for the offer Paul, that machine sounds like it would meet my requirements nicely in terms of speed but again, with the Canadian dollar at around 79 cents right now that is going to push the price up to nearly $1500. I think I am going to stick with plan "B" which is to get a laptop that is better than what I had and a good monitor to go with it along with a proper calibration tool. Will probably have to go right to the limits of my budget for that set up but it will be an improvement over my Gateway which was somewhat slow opening and closing files in Nik and had a not so great screen.

Yikes, 79 cents?? Wow, that's a wallop. Understood!

I'm going to list them in Classifieds this week. I want them to be a great deal to our members so I'm cutting the price to $950 including shipping, so they should go pretty quick. Hope you get what you're after!