Seeking Laptop advice

I'm looking for a laptop just to surf the net and edit photos & audio. I don't need a powerful CPU & GPU, but I don't want anything that is slow to boot up or can't handle working in multiple apps like photoshop + interenet explorer + eiting large wav files all at the same time.

You don't necessarily have to recommend a certain laptop, although that would be nice, but maybe what kind of components (CPU, RAM, HDD, etc.) I should look for in a laptop? I've never owned a laptop before (as you can probably tell).

Thanks in advance!

160gb hdd
4.00 ram
2.0 cpu
and u should have all you need and more.
advise you to get wireless keyboard and mouse.
keys go out on lap and its gonna suc.
later ...

Will you be using it as a desktop replacement or more on the mobile side?

hi i have compaq laptop c702 tu when its on battery mode it run only 15 20 min plz help he for rebuild the battery and tell me how i open battery so i change the cell

let's not jack the thread now. regarding the OPs question: your laptop requirements are quite general, modest, and are bordering on somewhat vague. depending on your photoshop requirements, even a relatively cheap laptop in the entry level segment may be enough for your needs, but maybe not.

the important thing to consider is what type of files are you working with in photoshop? tons of raw files or just a few jpegs? will you be doing a lot of complex manipulations or just some simple tricks?

It burdens me greatly to recommend this product as I greatly dislike the brand. I only brought it because at the time I could not find many other laptops which supported 8gigs of RAM.

The Dell XPS 1530 is a really great product, top draw build quality, nice feel, fantastic looks and with the 9 cell battery option has decent battery life.
I own one and it really surprised me just how good it is. The XPS is a really really impressive bit of kit, well worth the money imho

Thanks for the input so far.

This is to replace a desktop. As far as being mobile - might use it in another room of the house, but not taking it to Starbucks or anything like that.

As far as photoshop is concerned, no RAW file handling or anything really processor intensive. Just basic JPEG/photo work (resizing/cropping, making histogram adjustments). That's it.

Being able to work large 100MB WAV files. Though I'm thinking 2-3 MB's of RAM should handle that just fine.

So am I still looking for what chopndropped said:

4.00 ram
2.0 cpu

?

Or will 2-3 RAM suffice?

Please state a price range, this will help us hit the sweet spot that you are looking for. If you want faster start up speeds I would suggest to put in a 7200 rpm hard drive.

For what you are describing a $600-$700 BB special should do fine.

For CPU, a 2.0ghz C2D will do.

For RAM, 2GB should be more than enough, unless you are going to be editing many big raw images at the same time. If you do, it MAY help to go for 4GB. Anything more would be just for bragging rights (and placebo effect). When there are empty slots, there will be people trying to fill them up.

You have pretty modest requirements, and pretty much any laptop on the market right now will suffice (skip netbooks, though).

Since you aren't going to be moving it around much, and weight + battery life will be of little concern. I would recommend a 17" (if you are not going to use an external monitor) or 14-15" (if you do, because they are usually the cheapest).

If you are not going to be moving it around at all (or very very rarely), it would be a good idea to just get a desktop. Cheaper, faster, more upgradeable, components replaceable, more durable...

As for harddrive size, that's really up to you. No one can recommend a size for you. Just calculate how much you need (leave 20-30GB for OS and applications). If you want some blazingly fast boot times and application start times (and opening big files), and don't need much capacity, and have a bit of money to spare, go for a SSD. Don't get the first-gen ones (OCZ Core V1 & V2, G.Skill non-falcon, ... and many others), though. They stutter badly (newer ones don't have this problem at all).

well the thing is i DO have a desktop. it's an E8400, HD4850, 4GB of ram.. a gaming rig pretty much.

but i no longer game. nor find myself at the PC for very long hours anymore.

i never owned a laptop before, so that's why i'm questioning...

$600 is a good price range.

UnseenMenace said:

It burdens me greatly to recommend this product as I greatly dislike the brand. I only brought it because at the time I could not find many other laptops which supported 8gigs of RAM.

The Dell XPS 1530 is a really great product, top draw build quality, nice feel, fantastic looks and with the 9 cell battery option has decent battery life.
I own one and it really surprised me just how good it is. The XPS is a really really impressive bit of kit, well worth the money imho

Click to expand...

+1 on XPS's

-1 for XPS. Every XPS I have seen is junk.

If your not looking for anything special then just wait until newegg has their next sale on Asus notebooks. I do suggest getting something with a LED backlit screen and silver coated keys, but that will cost you a little extra.

If you don't mind spending a little coin, you can grab a pretty good deal on an Studio XPS 16 from the Dell Outlet. I just grabbed one with the P9550 (2.66ghz, 6mb cache, 1066 FSB), 4GB 1066mhz DDR3, Radeon HD3670 512mb, 320gb 7200rpm drive with free fall sensor, bluetooth, a/g/n wifi, slot load DVD-RW w/blu-ray, 6 cell battery, 900p LED backlit screen, and free upgrade to windows 7. I grabbed it for $999 on a free shipping deal. Under $1100 after taxes and fees.

If you want to stay in the $600 range, I recently picked up a Dell Studio 15 for my fiance with a T6500 (2.1ghz, 2mb cache, 800mhz FSB), 4gb DDR2, integrated 4500mhd graphics, 320gb 5400rpm drive, a/g wifi, slot load DVD-RW, 6-cell battery, 1366x768 screen, and free upgrade to Windows 7. I picked it up at Best Buy for $599 on last friday, but I think that its $629 now.

Tophinater said:

-1 for XPS. Every XPS I have seen is junk.

If your not looking for anything special then just wait until newegg has their next sale on Asus notebooks. I do suggest getting something with a LED backlit screen and silver coated keys, but that will cost you a little extra.

Click to expand...

I've recently purchased an Alienware Laptop, a brand reknown for performance and quality. This laptop has backlit keyboard with coated keys and the feel of the keyboard for typing is not even close to that on the XPS

At this time I have two Dell Laptops (insperon and XPS 1530) a WakBookPro, Alienware M15x and Asus, having have previously owned Sony's and Acers
All these laptops are less than 6 months old and the only one I can truly say I think is worth every single penny without a doubt is the Dell XPS 1530
I hate the Dell brand and look to slate them at every opportunity, however credit where it is due the product is such that I can only rave about it. (notice im not recommending any of my other laptops)

Out of curiosity, what laptops do you own at this time and what XPS models have you seen and what made you consider them junk.

the only one have fame of being junk. is the xps 1330 because of the video card it has, nvidia messed up on this card and it over heats. But that also happened on the dells inspiron 1420, latitude d620, d630, d630c, d820, d830, precision m4200, m4300, m65, m90, few vostros and the xps 1330... but this was an nvidia issue that alooot of laptops are suffering not only dell..

UnseenMenace said:

I've recently purchased an Alienware Laptop, a brand reknown for performance and quality. This laptop has backlit keyboard with coated keys and the feel of the keyboard for typing is not even close to that on the XPS

Out of curiosity, what laptops do you own at this time and what XPS models have you seen and what made you consider them junk.

Click to expand...

First off, alienware is not know for quality machines. They are known for very expensive space heaters. Also, Alienware = Dell (XPS)
http://www.betanews.com/article/Dell-Acquires-Alienware/1143070457

I honestly don't remember the models. The last one I laid my hands on was maybe about a year ago and I think it had a 9800GT video card and a 8400 C2D proc, although that could be wrong as it was so long ago. What I do remember, is that even though the machine was only a couple months old and cost $3K at the time, my 6 year old IBM T41 outclocked it in boot time and calculating Pi to a 50k places using a VBA script in Excel. The XPS machine also had some major issues with getting hot, even when it was running that hard. The thing couldn't pass a memtest86+ test either. If the newer XPS machines are better, then I'm sorry I am mistaken. But I have yet to see any recent products from dell that would make me thing otherwise.

I currently own (and am typing on) a Samusng X460-44G as it says in my sig. I have owned HP, IBM (NOT lenovo), and Samsung. I've used extensively Asus, Lenovo, Twinhead, Gateway, Compaq, Toshiba, and Dell as family and friends use them and I of course perform any maintenance or repairs. I have repaired quite a few Dells, Thinkpads, and I once helped repair an ORIGINAL Alienware.

Tophinater said:

First off, alienware is not know for quality machines. .

Click to expand...

Tophinater said:

First off, alienware is not know for quality machines. They are known for very expensive space heaters. Also, Alienware = Dell (XPS)
http://www.betanews.com/article/Dell-Acquires-Alienware/1143070457

Click to expand...

At no point in the URL do you post does it suggest, that Alienware is either not a quality and high performance system or that Alienware=Dell(XPS). The Alienware system I have just purchased used less power and is has less heat than either the Dell or Wackbook pro, the cooling of the alienware lappy it is substantial.

It is common knowledge that early Dell XPS's had issues with the graphic cards failing due to the implementation of them Dell even recognize this and took the action needed to resolve the issues, which is also acknowledged

I was like you, im not a fan of Dell products or branding and believe that they lack build quality however the XPS1530 is a far better laptop in terms of quality, performance and value than either the wackbook pro or alienware.
The XPS 1530 really is an impressive bit of kit and far surpasses overall what I have seen offered by the current generations from any other manufacturer in the prince range.

Its a bargain imho

I have a HP DV4-1225dx and it is pretty close to what you are looking for. There was one for sale in the classies a few days ago also. Since you are looking for a desktop replacement it may not be for you since it only has a 14.1" screen and no number key pad but it is great for me. I use it to process RAW files from my Canon XSi with Photoshop CS3 and although it is slower than my desktop it is great if I am not at home. Also has a media card reader so I do not need the canon USB cable. These things coupled with a HDMI port and fairly light weight make it a winner in my mind. I picked it up on clearance at Best Buy 2 weeks ago only because I got the sales guy to give me 10% extra off................