laptop advice

Pigwidgeon

ok so it's my 18th soon and i've persuaded my parents to buy me a laptop. obviously i don't want to ask for a really expensive one as that wouldn't be fair.
if needs be, i will pay towards it.

basically what i was wondering is
what laptop would you recommend on a fairly low budget?
will generally be used photography wise so i know the screen is quite important, and memory, but i have external hard drives so that isn't too much of a problem.

any advice appreciated, as i have no idea where to start.

ThOnda

There is some discount code for DELL computers in Bargain Allerts thread, in case if you are going to get the DELL.

Ricky91t

Get something with a big-ish screen(unless it doesn't bother you)

Also get a decent hard drive atleast 160gb,atleast 2gb of ram and a dual core intel processor would be handy for photoshop/lightroom but isn't needed.

Do you want to buy in Ireland?Or can you buy overseas and have access to a credit card etc for paypal/google checkout for the likes of ebuyer.com

pete4130

If you can stretch to it, the white version of Apple's macbook is a cracker for the price. I think they are about €800 if you got it up north
http://store.apple.com/uk/configure/MB881B/A?mco=MzMyMzIyNg

I've got the samer version but with only 1GB RAM which was about €1250 when it was being sold originally) and its fast so 2GB would be better obviously. If you haven't used Macs before they don't take that much time to get used to. I'm not biased towards Mac either. I mostly use my 5+ year old PC for editing at home with some Ram upgrades. The screen isn't the biggest on the macbook if you can live with that. I personally can when I see mammoth laptops with huge screens that really need a desktop rather than a lap to be used on!

Ballyman

I woulsn't be overly concerned by the size of the HD as you will prob end up storing most of your stuff on an external drive anyway.

Ideally you want as much RAM as possible. I have 4MB RAM in my laptop and it can run Photoshop and LR without any problems 99% of the time but there is the odd occasion that it can't cope. I used a 2MB job before this and it could barely run LR on it's own on occasion, never mind PS as well.

And obviously the fastest processor you can afford.

Ricky91t

Ballyman wrote: »

I woulsn't be overly concerned by the size of the HD as you will prob end up storing most of your stuff on an external drive anyway.

Ideally you want as much RAM as possible. I have 4MB RAM in my laptop and it can run Photoshop and LR without any problems 99% of the time but there is the odd occasion that it can't cope. I used a 2MB job before this and it could barely run LR on it's own on occasion, never mind PS as well.

And obviously the fastest processor you can afford.

I've easily run both of those on 2gb or ram and they leave 500mb of ram

Sorry but 2GB is plenty for any user,4GB won't even be recognized on XP i'm now running Photoshop CS4,Lightroom 2.1,Msn messenger(newest)Skype beta,Tweet,Power iso,mozilla firefox and i'm only using 930mb also have antivirus and defender,So 2gb is definitely perfect

http://ireland.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-inspiron-1545?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&l=en&ref=lthp&s=dhs

The one on the left will do you fine

Or the one on the left here,which is abit better performing but a bit more pricy and you can get some graffiti cover for it

Ballyman

You're probably right Ricky, I must have been dreaming when my 2GB laptop kept crashing when trying to create panoramics and stitches with CS3.

Ricky91t

Ballyman wrote: »

You're probably right Ricky, I must have been dreaming when my 2GB laptop kept crashing when trying to create panoramics and stitches with CS3.

Oh sorry i thought you just meant for normal photoshoping,Cloning etc!

Yeah i don't really think any PC/Laptop can do one of those easily?Well ither that like a €16k dell

oshead

When buying a laptop you have to consider a lot of things. First and foremost is the weight. If weight is not an issue, then consider getting whats known as a desktop replacement. Basically a large laptop with a 17" screen. Easily transported around the house or occasionally to other locations. That's what I'm using right now. I spent 2 years commuting to and from work with a large 17" laptop and believe me, it's not nice. Excellent for photo editing, watching movies etc... and is plugged in all the time so battery life is not an issue.

If on the other hand you need something that is a go everywhere type of laptop, otherwise known as a notebook. You will need an 11" to 13" model. They are alot lighter and the battery life is generally a bit better, though not by much.

Once you've figured out the above, the next most important thing is the screen. I prefer screens with a matt finish. The glossy screens may look better initally but are not very nice to use to use in a bright environment.

After that you are down to the tech specs. These days nearly all laptops can do nearly all jobs. Browse the internet, watch movies and run a photo editing program all sumultaniously. So you shouldn't really have much to worry about here. What should concern you when buying though, is the minium specs. These should include at least 2GB of ram, a 160GB hard disk drive (check the speed, no slower than 5400rpm). A 2GHz processor (look for core 2 duo). For a smaller notebook 1.6GHz minium. Native screen resolution should be no lower than 1280px x 800px for smaller notebooks and 1440 x 900 for larger desktop replacement.

Some extras you could look out for that might get some use, webcam, cardreader, builtin bluetooth(almost standard these days), builtin firewire connection, at least 4 USB connections and not to forget and external mouse.

You should be able to get all those requirements and still come home with change from €600.

Dave OS

kensutz

Have a look at laptopsdirect.ie, they have a decent range and for the money it's well worth it. You can pick up a nice bargain or 2 on their site and afaik it's €10 postage.

Pigwidgeon

thanks for all the help everyone. really helped, i have an idea of what i should be looking for now. thanks again

Mr Quiet

kateos2 wrote: »

thanks for all the help everyone. really helped, i have an idea of what i should be looking for now. thanks again

Good to see

As someone mentioned above weight is a huge factor. When you are going around airports you would be suprised how much a normal 15inch laptop can start to weigh!

If it is a desk top replacement or not I have over the last 5 years found Dell to be the best bang for your buck. Considering I paid 2300 for a state of the art Sony 13in 2 years ago Piece off utter sh1te!!:(

The following site has all the latest dell deals

http://www.dmxdimension.com/

gl

[EDIT] I always found the business deals to be best like the Vostro range but I have not really checked Dell out in about 8 months, recession and all that

coylemj

One factor which affects performance and which a lot of people overlook is the spin speed of the hard drive. On a laptop it will be 5400 rpm (revolutions per minute) by default but I'd strongly recommend that you stretch your budget to a a 7200 rpm drive, it will make a huge difference to the overall performance of the machine since almost every transaction involves multiple disk I/Os and the faster spin speed of the 7200 rpm drives makes for spectacular performance relative to the 5400 rpm drives.

oshead

coylemj wrote: »

One factor which affects performance and which a lot of people overlook is the spin speed of the hard drive. On a laptop it will be 5400 rpm (revolutions per minute) by default but I'd strongly recommend that you stretch your budget to a a 7200 rpm drive, it will make a huge difference to the overall performance of the machine since almost every transaction involves multiple disk I/Os and the faster spin speed of the 7200 rpm drives makes for spectacular performance relative to the 5400 rpm drives.

Thats good advice coylemj. I recommended minium 5400rpm drive is because a lot of the cheaper manufacturers are putting 4200rpm drives in their machines to keep the price down. However bad the 5400 are you don't want to get stuck with a 4200 disk.

kjt

Don't forget the Dell outlet store, some great computers up there!!!

wasper

kateos2 wrote: »

ok so it's my 18th soon and i've persuaded my parents to buy me a laptop. obviously i don't want to ask for a really expensive one as that wouldn't be fair.
if needs be, i will pay towards it.

basically what i was wondering is
what laptop would you recommend on a fairly low budget?
will generally be used photography wise so i know the screen is quite important, and memory, but i have external hard drives so that isn't too much of a problem.

any advice appreciated, as i have no idea where to start.

The sound store in Cork has a Toshiba with 17' screen & a good Intel Dual core processor for €599. I was tempted but I own an Apple macbook.
Toshiba make their own screens. They are supplied to other laptops makers & it should be good machine.

Nforce

I'd recommend picking up a high spec second hand notebook from the likes of adverts.ie.

Sleepy

One thing to consider is if you can get Windows XP on the laptop rather than Vista. Almost any hardware you can think of will run better with XP than the bloated POS that is Vista.

challengemaster

A Dell or the Macbook that pete posted if you can stretch to it... OS X is really a lovely interface to use...

melekalikimaka

sony are lovely
great screens