Which laptop / mac to go with new slr?

[Woza]

I have posted this in the computer section but wondered if anyone here would have some good knowledge also?

As above, have recently bought a new slr and my current laptop struggled when i processed and edited some of the images in the Sony Picture Browser software and also Photomatix (whilst attempting hdr)

I have been toying with gettting a refurbed macbook from apple but wondered if i could get a decent laptop for half the price!

What minimum spec should i be looking for an how much £ am i talking?

Thanks in advance,

Woza.

[james_tigerwoods]

Whatever you get - I would strongly recommend that it has a dedicated graphics card. Shared memory can slow things down.

Get something with lots of memory and, for the love of God, don't get Vista.

A Macbook pro might do you if that's what you want - but for that money, you can get a LOT of Windows laptop.

Cost is, however, subjective - To get you a vague idea, I'd try the Dell website and spec up a laptop (if you can still do that on the Dell site that is....)

ETA - Don't get a Celeron processor....

Edited by james_tigerwoods on Thursday 27th August 15:38

[Don]

A key resource when it comes to image editing is memory. Max out whatever you buy (i.e. fill it with RAM to it's maximum capacity).

[james_tigerwoods]

Don said:

A key resource when it comes to image editing is memory. Max out whatever you buy (i.e. fill it with RAM to it's maximum capacity).

But... Make sure you spec memory carefully at time of purchase as it can be very expensive.

For example - I went to the Dell site to spec up a laptop (I got bored and gave up - sorry) and an extra 2Gb RAM came to something like £200-300. When I bought a Dell laptop years ago, I noticed this then and ended up just buying memory from Crucial for a lot less.

As said - memory is very important - Try to ensure you get, at least, a non-celeron dual core processor

Edited by james_tigerwoods on Thursday 27th August 16:19

[Snapper7]

I would say working with photos, a mac would be your best option. I recently played about on a photographers PC and it was just not as good as a mac IMHO

So it comes down to what your budget is

[Ordinary_Chap]

Snapper7 said:

I would say working with photos, a mac would be your best option. I recently played about on a photographers PC and it was just not as good as a mac IMHO

So it comes down to what your budget is

If you spend as much on the Windows laptop as you do on a Mac the Windows laptop will be considerably quicker as you can get more bang for your buck when comparing them like for like.

Personally I'm a massive Macbook fan and have one that I think is great but lets not fool ourselves a similary priced windows laptop should always be considerably quicker than the Mac due to the price premium for the Apple machine.

If budget and performance are not too much of an issue I'd go Apple everytime.

[Woza]

best price i have seen a mac for is £800 from the refurb store......can anyone beat that?

was hoping to only have to be about £500 but i think it will be worth it!

[TheD]

Bang for your buck you need to go Pc IMO. If you can get a nice core 2,4gb of ram, dedicated video on vista with the free windows 7 upgrade. Or wait a few weeks and buy a Lappy with 7 installed. Just make sure it's not an Acer.

[ehasler]

I just got myself a 13" Macbook Pro from the refurb store for £750, and am very impressed with it. You can as people say get cheaper PC laptops, but when I was looking, most weren't anywhere near the same quality - the Mac feels bulletproof compared to most others, and the Mac touchpad is so much easier to use.

However, I've tried editing photos on a laptop before, and would always favour a desktop. You'll almost always get more performance for the same cost, and the screens are bigger and more suited to photo editing (colour gamut etc...). High performance graphics cards don't really make much difference to Photoshop, but memory and disk performance will, and these will always be greater/faster on a desktop.

But if you have to stick with a laptop, then I'd vote for the MBP

[Fordo]

macbook gets my vote - bought one 2 years ago- i them maxed out the ram and put a 500 gig hd inside. and its bullet proof, and still performs just as quick as when I bought it. I know you get more value for money with a pc, but I bet if i had a pc laptop, id have needed to upgrade by now. Buy cheap and you buy twice!

I also have a large external monitor for any serious photo editing. Often, i used the laptop and big monitor together for a dual setup. I have all the photoshop tools on the laptop screen, and my image full screen on the big monitor. I found i can also use two fingers on the track pad to move around the image when zoomed in, with my left hand, and use a plugged in mouse with my right- really speeds things up. I can zoom in for some delicate clone stamping/ healing etc, do the work with my right hand with the mouse, and use the left hand with 2 fingers on the trackpad to move around the image. Saves me having to to stop working, use the navigator to go to another area, then start work again

[Woza]

Does £650 for a macbook with 2.13ghz and 2gb memory seem like a steal?

Will it do what i want or should i look for a better processer and memory?

Woza.

[TheD]

Woza said:

Does £650 for a macbook with 2.13ghz and 2gb memory seem like a steal?

Will it do what i want or should i look for a better processer and memory?

Woza.

Yes it does.......them from you

[GetCarter]

james_tigerwoods said:

for the love of God, don't get Vista.

+1 - bloody nightmare

[Woza]

my local apple store is offering me two different macs and says that the pro would be the one to go for....

here are the specs:
macbook
13" screen
2.4 ghz
2gb memory
250gb hard drive
£861

macbook pro
2.26ghz
2gb memory
160gb hard drive
£894

Now to me the top seems to have the better spec and is cheaper, can someone explain to me in simple terms why the pro is better?

Woza.

[...Mole...]

Woza said:

my local apple store is offering me two different macs and says that the pro would be the one to go for....

here are the specs:
macbook
13" screen
2.4 ghz
2gb memory
250gb hard drive
£861

macbook pro
2.26ghz
2gb memory
160gb hard drive
£894

Now to me the top seems to have the better spec and is cheaper, can someone explain to me in simple terms why the pro is better?

Woza.

Macbook Pro all the time, Larger screen assuming its a 15" model, Seems more solidly built(my one has been thrown about and generally had a hard life from day one and has had no problems at all) Upgrading memory to 4GB is cheap and easy, and upgrading the Hard Drive isnt as simple as on the Macbook's but is still easy enough to do. I got a 320GB Hard drive for about £60 to replace the 120GB.

The Macbook Pro's tend to have better GPU's as well, which will come in handy if you are using Photoshop as new versions will utilise the power of the GPU.

[Woza]

here are the two mac's in question, the pro is still only a 13"

macbook http://www.cancomuk.com/Apple-Mac/Mac-Products/Mac...

macbook pro http://www.cancomuk.com/Apple-Mac/Mac-Products/Mac...

woza.

[ehasler]

Check out the Apple refurb store

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/specialdeals...

I recently bought the same 13" Macbook Pro in your link for £749, although they don't seem to have any of that spec in at the moment.

[S. Gonzales Esq.]

I was looking at these recently, and while the MPB's glossy screen could be a bit annoying, the appalling screen on the MacBook would make editing very difficult. The MacBook spec fits what I need, but I couldn't buy one with that screen.