Which laptop, if money was no object?

10/30/2006 04:10:36 PM · #1

Which laptop computer would you get, if money was no object? How would you spec it up, with additional RAM, harddrive upgrade, etc? Where would you buy it from?

I'm a Windows user, so probably wont go the Macbook pro route, although thats not absolutely inflexible, if I can be convinced to make the big switch.

Advice please........

yann

10/30/2006 04:14:57 PM · #2

I'd get an IBM.

Sony SAL-50F14 Normal 50mm f/1.4 Autofocus Lens for the Sony

10/30/2006 04:16:40 PM · #3

*puts on star-struck eyes* Ooohhh, I would get the fastest biggest MacBook that there was. With a harddrive upgrade, RAM upgrade, DVD reader/burner.....everything. I would upgrade everything I could if money were no object :-)

Someday......

someday.....

Canon EF 28-135mm F/3.5-5.6 IS USM

10/30/2006 04:19:18 PM · #4

Appreciate the thoughts Yann.......exactly what my brother advised. He also gets a corporate discount on IBM, so that's additional incentive. But which one, and what upgrades?

Ladyhawk.....so you would go the macbook route? The issue with photoshop not being 100% compatible puts me off a bit. Or is it not really an issue?

DanSig

10/30/2006 04:23:26 PM · #5

well... I'd get the new macbook pro, Core2Duo with everything...

and you get the flexibility to choose between WinXP and MacosX...

and the main reason... it looks SOOOOO much better then the PC competitors.....

mist

Canon EOS-60D

10/30/2006 04:24:25 PM · #6

Depends what it was for. For gaming, probably high-end Alienware. For business? Who knows, the are much of a muchness these days. I'd get the one I most liked the look of.

PurpleFire

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

10/30/2006 04:25:14 PM · #7

Originally posted by Sinky:

Ladyhawk.....so you would go the macbook route? The issue with photoshop not being 100% compatible puts me off a bit. Or is it not really an issue?

What issue with Photoshop? Works 100% fine on mine.

tapeworm_jimmy

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

10/30/2006 04:27:53 PM · #8

New 15" macbook pro with upgrades! ...droool.

escapetooz

Canon EOS-500D Rebel T1i

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

10/30/2006 04:29:19 PM · #9

MAC! MAC! MAC! LOL.

I've had absolutely no issues with photoshop. Macs are just fantastic for editing. And if this is a money is no object game... get a Wacom tablet too! Makes dodging, burning, cloning, selections... EVERYTHING! So easy. At least when you get used to it. Doesn't take long.

Canon EF 28-135mm F/3.5-5.6 IS USM

10/30/2006 04:29:46 PM · #10

OK, I'll tell you what it's for.

Firstly, digital photography, photoshop CS2, etc. I've been using a crappy little Dell monitor for the last year, and it's not been good enough for photos, so I need a really cool monitor, and probably graphics card.

Then, I also do radiology, and need to look at my CT scans and MRI's on Osirix, a digital workstation program. The datasets are huge, and manipulating them takes tremendous processor power and ram, so it's kinda tantamount to gaming.

And then just basic Office stuff, skyping family around the world, etc. I lug it around each day, so portability is a plus.

mist

Canon EOS-60D

10/30/2006 04:32:46 PM · #11

Intel Core 2 duo is probably more affordable than high-end AMD stuff at the moment, and probably better for your number crunching.

//www.alienware.com/intro_pages/aw_nbcoreduo.aspx

mmmmmmmm, yum.

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

10/30/2006 04:32:47 PM · #12

Purplefire, I thought there was an issue with CS2, that it ran slowly on bootcamp, or rosetta, or whatever one uses. I'm pleased to hear it's not an issue for you. How do you run it.........bootcamp?

SamDoe1

Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT

10/30/2006 04:33:05 PM · #13

Originally posted by mist:

Depends what it was for. For gaming, probably high-end Alienware. For business? Who knows, the are much of a muchness these days. I'd get the one I most liked the look of.

I'll second Alienware for high end gaming. Another option is the Dell XPS. The battery life on these sucks though because of all the power draining components. I personally have an HP NW8440 mobile workstation. It's a fairly high end business laptop. Core2Duo CPU, 1gb RAM, 256MB ATi FireGL V5200 graphics car, 3-4 hour battery life, integrated wireless, DVD burner, bluetooh, high res widescreen, 80GB SATA hard drive, the works. It goes for something like $3000 at HP's website.

Edit to add: The NW8440 can take up to 2GB of RAM (I think), I just didn't add it to mine because of the fairly hefty graphics card that's already in there.

Message edited by author 2006-10-30 16:37:24.

Nefir

Canon EOS-30D

Canon EF 28-135mm F/3.5-5.6 IS USM

10/30/2006 04:34:22 PM · #14

Aah, its been a while since I geeked out. Hehehe..

99% of my work is done on a laptop, so I would definitely prefer to use something that 1) won't break my back (3-6 lb), 2) can hold a charge for 4 hours or longer, and 3) has a high enough screen resolution for my needs while low enough to avoid constantly squinting (I don't have a problem reading at 1920x1200, but I know many people who do).

Widescreen makes a WORLD of difference, especially if you need to view two images at once while editing in Photoshop, for example.

IBM/Lenovo is good. HP Compaq business laptops are great too (thats what I use).

512mb ram is bare minimum for XP - I'd max it out if you do Photoshop work, to whatever the machine supports (1-2 gigs usually). Hard disk space - no less than 60 gigs, but i wouldn't get anything bigger than 100-150, for the simple reason that laptops are at greater risk for hard drive failure. Its hard to keep a big drive constantly backed up, so I prefer smaller, cheaper, easily replaceable drives. I'm still recovering from the death of a 300 gig drive full of photos that I've got "mostly" backed up!

Sony SAL-50F14 Normal 50mm f/1.4 Autofocus Lens for the Sony

10/30/2006 04:38:34 PM · #15

I'm not running a Mac with Intel....so I'm not sure what Photoshop problems you're talking about. I know it runs fine on my iBook. My parents have run their ad agency with all Macs since 1984 and never had a problem with any Adobe software. In fact, it tends to run much more smoothly on a Mac....Adobe has a slight bias :-)

If you're worried about processor power....I love the Mac. My comp is a couple generations removed from the current models, but I can run email, web, photoshop, iPhoto, iTunes, a word processor....and.....well, that's all I've really ever needed to run altogether. Never had a problem. Programs don't quit on me and the reduction in speed is minimal.

Monitors on the new Apples are fantastic. My parents just got a couple new flatscreen monitors a couple months ago and they are STELLAR.

philcozz

Pentax K-5

Pentax FA 31mm f/1.8 AL Limited AF

10/30/2006 04:59:22 PM · #16

Originally posted by DanSig:

well... I'd get the new macbook pro, Core2Duo with everything...

and you get the flexibility to choose between WinXP and MacosX...

Ditto.

mamba

Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II

10/30/2006 05:03:18 PM · #17

as much as i liked my laptop i got burned (literally) i haad an e-machines one and they apparently are famous for a bad power connection and overheating..and boy did this one do that, even if i got a good one it wouldnt be worth it, i never take it with me anywhere so i would jsut get the biggest most powerful pc tower posible and a feckin HUGE monitor....in fact 2 monitors while im daydreaming :P. yeah id stick with a pc myself.

10/30/2006 05:14:03 PM · #18

Mamba - the only absolute in this choice I face, is that it has to be a laptop, for various reasons, not all to do with the computer itself.

Ladyhawk - the reason why I had thought there was an issue with Macbook-Photoshop incompatibility, is because I have the windows version of PS CS2. I understood that when this runs on the Intel macs, under bootcamp or rosetta or whatever, its performance is poor. I'm not inclined to re-buy the mac version of CS2 at this stage. But I'm open to correction....

Sony SAL-50F14 Normal 50mm f/1.4 Autofocus Lens for the Sony

10/30/2006 05:24:50 PM · #19

Originally posted by Sinky:

Aaaaahhhhhh.....that makes some difference then. I do wish Apple would offer some sort of rebate to those who were switching to help cover the costs of buying the more effective written for Apple Adobe software.

Does it help if I tell you that your PC version of Photoshop probably runs slower on your PC than the Mac version would run on the Mac?? Maybe you could find a friend with a Mac to test out how much the PC version slows down the machine.

doctornick

Apple iPhone 13 Pro

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

10/30/2006 05:30:16 PM · #20

Originally posted by Sinky:

....Ladyhawk - the reason why I had thought there was an issue with Macbook-Photoshop incompatibility, is because I have the windows version of PS CS2. I understood that when this runs on the Intel macs, under bootcamp or rosetta or whatever, its performance is poor. I'm not inclined to re-buy the mac version of CS2 at this stage. But I'm open to correction....

There is NO incompatibility. You can boot in windows on the MacBook Pro and run your Windows programs natively, so there will be NO problem at all.

I see you mention Radiology using Osirix, another reason to get the MacBook Pro. OsiRix is the best FREE radiology/3-D modelling programme I've ever seen and runs on Mac OSX