[rparmar]

I just spent about a week over the holidays in virus hell for the first time in ten years. The family network was compromised and one computer wiped. I unfortunately had a good chance to check out what works and what doesn't.

I have a suggestion for you, and it is something you've never heard of: Panda Cloud Antivirus. This has very little performance impact on your computer (read "none") which is a pleasure after seeing computers slowed to a crawl by the very programmes that are supposed to make life better.

It's also very easy to use. In fact, it does so much in the background I wasn't even sure if it was running. No popups all over the place asking you to so things you don't even understand. (These are counterproductive since people get tired of them and after a short while end up denying or accepting everything out of habit and boredom.)

Plus it finds stuff other programmes don't. It fared the best of the several programmes I ended up trying and has now replaced the software I used to use.

The catch is it uses distributed programming resources and so you need to be connected to the net for it to do its job. But who isn't these days?

Oh, and it is free.

[rparmar]

I recommend the Sony laptops. A good friend, who is an IT specialist with Gulfstream Aerospace, recommends them as well along with the "ASUS" Brand laptops.

I agree on ASUS, who make great computers but in a bewildering array of models. They used to build for Apple.

OTOH Sony are overpriced and, worse, have zero technical support. If anything ever goes wrong (and it will) you are going to be in agony. A friend who didn't believe me made this mistake. It was weeks to get anything out of Sony.

[rparmar]

Since this is a photography forum, I should note that laptop monitors are invariably very poor (yes Macs too). By poor I mean inaccurate and with a small colour gamut. The only exception to date is the "Dell Studio XPS 16" which has the highest color gamut of any laptop display (118% of Adobe RGB). So that is your only choice if you care about what your photos look like.

I can get one for €1000 so it has to be way cheaper on the other side of the Atlantic.

The only downside is that the display is glossy. Otherwise the computer is powerful and well-speced.

If you don't need portability you can plug your laptop into an external monitor. But in that case it makes little sense to buy a laptop in the first place. Plus you must factor in the price of a good LCD panel. Save a week of research and just get the 24" "HP LP2475w", unless you have more than a grand to spend (it is €500 here).

[wlachan]

...just any four-digit T series processor is likely equivalent in desireability, apart from power consumption? It appears that for a modest cost, in the HP contingency, we can go from a baseline 'Pentium Dual Core Mobile Prouser T4400' with a 1mb cache to a 'T6600 Core 2 Duo' with a 2mb cache. I notice different names, wonder if they are of significance here.

You should see a boost in actual performance with 2MB L2 cache. How much difference there will be I am not sure. The golden rule is, always buy the best CPU you can afford so that the computer will last longer before another upgrade.

I've got a 17" HP about 2 years old. Can't stand it for most things. Way too slow. Normally I stay away from HP but the price was right. Did I mention it's slow?

PCs can be slow for different reasons, but they all use similar parts. Given similar specifications, there is no reason one should be vastly inferior. I cannot stand the touchpads of HP nb though.

OTOH Sony are overpriced and, worse, have zero technical support. If anything ever goes wrong (and it will) you are going to be in agony. A friend who didn't believe me made this mistake. It was weeks to get anything out of Sony.

If there is anything I have learnt after using PC for 2 decades, is to never expect any help from others but myself. There are so many things others cannot help w/o significant amount of time involved. Just search the web for solutions when needed. This is the best advice imho.

Since this is a photography forum, I should note that laptop monitors are invariably very poor (yes Macs too). By poor I mean inaccurate and with a small colour gamut. The only exception to date is the "Dell Studio XPS 16" which has the highest color gamut of any laptop display (118% of Adobe RGB). So that is your only choice if you care about what your photos look like.

To me, I have found the vertical viewing angle to be the major problem with notebook computers. By that I mean the colour and brightness will vary greatly from top to bottom. I personally cannot stand this if I had to do any significant amount of pp. Some of them can be well calibrated though, if not as good as PVA/IPS panels.

[opfor]

I go with the Toshiba recommendation. I worked IT for quite a few years, we had far less trouble with Tosh's than anything else.
It's what I own...

[Jasvox]

If I was in your shoes...and have been recently. I'd buy the best outfitted desktop/monitir you can afford, heavy on the RAM and graphics/video capabilities and a decent hard drive (500g minimum) and compare that to a so-so laptop, price-wise. Then, get a net book for your portable computing. I bought an 8 inch Toshiba last year for traveling (which I seem to be doing75% of the time) and it meets my needs on the road splendidly. For my photo work, I do that on my main machine at home...the net book is handy for dumping files onto a computer an off of the SDHC cards.

Jason

[bymy141]

Lots of advises here. More than a multi quote could handle

My 2 cents:

- There are good quality LED backlighted laptops out there these days. But make sure that the colour and contrast of the display is good enough for you.

- Go have a look at the display of your laptop of choice before buying! Compare models side by side. For photo purposes many laptops fail to give enough black contrast, independent of the type of back light.

- Display quality of Apple is always good, if you'd consider moving away from Windows.

Buy enough RAM and disk space. On my ultra light Sony with a slow U1200 processor and 2 Gb RAM I run Lightroom 2.6 successfully. Connected to an external USB harddrive for extra storage. Just make sure to resume windows instead of restarting it every time. A fast processor is nice, but always impacts battery performance.

We have a large number of laptop, consumer and professional ones:
To be short on the brands:
- Acer: lots of good specs, also lots of quality problems. Batteries are aging too fast, losing capacity over a short period of time. Faulty motherboards etc. Personally I will not buy any Acer laptops any more.
- HP: nice products, consumer and professional, however we had several quality issues with the build of the consumer laptops: connection of displays with main case, loose keys, etc. Also I think the colour & contrast of the displays of our HP's not the best for photo apps. Batteries are good, price is ok.
- Sony: very expensive but very well build, the high contrast displays are comparable to the Apple displays, good for photo apps. Sony's power management software (settings to 80% max) keeps batteries healthier than the other brands, comes with a lot of crap s/w newly installed. You'll have to remove because all that stuff is slowing the machine down.
- Toshiba: best build quality. Lasts for ever. Medium priced. Depending upon the model, not the best display's for photo apps. Have a look before you buy.
- Asus: no experience.

I'd buy Sony or Toshiba, HP if the price is real low.

For virus protection, remove whatever comes with the laptop and use Microsofts security essentials as was suggested before.

PCs can be slow for different reasons, but they all use similar parts. Given similar specifications, there is no reason one should be vastly inferior. I cannot stand the touchpads of HP nb though.

The HP is notoriously slow however. And it's most models. The Acer I traded in for the HP was much faster. It has to do to an extent with the parts they choose for the machines plus the OS. Most of the hardware works but works borderline. I'd never get another HP laptop or desktop.

[pxpaulx]

The HP is notoriously slow however. And it's most models. The Acer I traded in for the HP was much faster. It has to do to an extent with the parts they choose for the machines plus the OS. Most of the hardware works but works borderline. I'd never get another HP laptop or desktop.

Exactly - if you choose the cheapest components to use for caching and transfer of data, it doesn't matter if you slap in 8gb of ram and a top notch processor. The refurb HP I bought is a beast of a computer (8gb ram, AMD quad core and ATI 4650 video card - which I added), but (video card aside) if you go and read the reviews of the PC - against similar spec'ed PCs it is in last place. I will take it because last in that category is still a monster, but HP is HP - best of the lousiest, lousiest of the best.

Bymy - finally someone agrees with my Microsoft security essentials recommendation - everyone else, give it a try - it is a great, suprisingly minimalist program that integrates well with windows (esp. 7).

[Ed n Georgia]

, Toshiba

I agree on ASUS, who make great computers but in a bewildering array of models. They used to build for Apple.

OTOH Sony are overpriced and, worse, have zero technical support. If anything ever goes wrong (and it will) you are going to be in agony. A friend who didn't believe me made this mistake. It was weeks to get anything out of Sony.

Well, two things. re: Sony

I took the specs on the Sony VAIO and tried to find a comparable "pre-build" in Dell, HP, Toshiba & ASUS. Pricing was comparable. In fact, it was almost dollar for dollar.,

I went to several manufacturer sites and tried to build a laptop with comparable features and the were all more than the Sony. So based on that experience, Sony's are not over priced.

Sony's tech support. I have already had a chance to put them to the test for an issue that I thought I had with one of the laptops. Something that ended up being simply a setting. Their tech support was very easy to reach and helped me solve the problem immediately.

So, at this point, I'll have to disagree with you about Sony.

[Clicker]

* 17" screen.
* fastest processor that you can afford.
* add max RAM yourself (it's not hard) DDR2 is fine.
* built-in; multi-card slot(s), wifi G is fine, bluetooth (optional), firewire port, usb2 ports (the more the merrier) ...whatever else they add into the price.
* manufacturer, i personally don't care as long as all the inners are there BUT i will research each model i'm interested in first before purchasing here's a good site. Notebook Reviews - Laptop Reviews and Netbook Computer News & Reviews

* if you get an Apple, DON'T load windows, doing so you might as well just get a notebook from any of the other manufacturers

* note although the newer notebooks are more advanced, they still make you pull your hairs out, if you have any left from previous notebook

[Ratmagiclady]

Ok, yay, this'll help me get the lay of the land: regarding displays, it seems one problem here is most of the sites simply don't elaborate much on what make, model, or spec a compy in our price range has.

--Just for those tuning in late: It has to be a Windows machine, this time: sweetie's buying this for work and needs it to be Windows. I'll just be using it a lot at least till we add something else. It needs to be carry-able on occasion, but smallness isn't prioritized: this will mostly stay at home unless a machine from work isn't available to do actual presentations with.

--Also, thousand-dollar machines or five hundred dollar monitors aren't in the cards, at least not yet. When it comes time for me to put together something of my own, then it can be whatever I can scrape together for: a desktop surely isn't out of the question: it looks like some pretty well-specced stuff can be had quite cheaply. (Toward the end of semester, a lot of stuff that departing students don't want to move can be available pretty cheaply, though, there may be a decent monitor, for instance) This may all just take some time, though. It can take me a while to accumulate even a few hundred bucks: My own discretionary income is thin. It's starting to look as though if we can muddle through with whatever we get here, the next thing I could do is get some kind of decent monitor to build whatever else around.

--Basically, the idea is that while we're about *this,* it may as well be as good for photo use as it can reasonably be: this'll enable me to get going on some post-processing and mean it doesn't take all day to even post photos online, till I can come up with something better for myself. Anything will likely be a vast improvement for the time being.

It seems that there's lots of agreement on Toshiba's build quality: I did notice that myself last time I was shopping.

Does anyone think much of Lenovo? I see one likely-looking one of those, and I know they're the heirs to IBMs like my aging-but-solid Thinkpad.

[philbaum]

On my previous message, i didn't rave about my new Toshiba buy, because i don't feel i'm any sort of expert on the laptop market. Having said that, I bought the Toshiba because i always like their "keyboard touch". Then in the store, comparing HP with Toshiba, some of the HP trim looked flimsy and like it might not stay attached forever. Perhaps superficial observations.

I also talked to a local computer repair shop, not one of the big box stores, and asked a repair technician which laptops would be easier for them, e.g. Toshiba. he said it doesn't matter, "they are all getting their parts from 2 or 3 major suppliers so we can repair any of them"

I'm always transporting my Toshiba laptop to another town, once a week, so my laptop is getting a lot of handling and so did my last Toshiba - never had any problem in the last 6 years of doing this with any items needing repair. Toshiba seems rock solid to me.

Buy laptop with plenty of USB 2. ports, i have 3 and 1 more would be convenient. Its because of how i use external drives.

I have something to tell you with regard to external drives that might be useful. External drives have really gotten cheap, one terabyte drives are now at the $100 mark, i believe or lower. And some books on photo processing recommend that you keep your photos on them and back them up to other external drives. I do that. But there are two kinds of external hard drives: A. those that are physically larger and have an external power supply of their own and B. those that are much smaller and seem intended for laptop travel and are powered by the 4.5 volts available via the USB 2. port and have no external power supply. The latter are very durable, but slower. Don't carry the former around with you. I've had one of the 110 volt powered hard drives tumble 15" onto a well padded wood floor and it killed it. My brother had the same experience. On the other hand, i've had the laptop powered external drives tumble onto the same carpeted floor a few times and it keeps on ticking. I'm convinced that these small external drives intended for laptops are bult to a higher standard for shock and are much more durable. So i use the laptop external drive for temp storage of photos till i get home and then transfer them to my "main" storage drive, which is backed up on a regular basis.

Best wishes on your laptop hunt.

[pxpaulx]

Haven't heard any Lenovo horror stories - I think they tend towards the business class but are probably just as well made as others have already mentioned. Regarding the laptop monitors, I think at this price level you aren't going to get much difference between manufacturers. Your suggestion to get a monitor in between this laptop and eventual desktop is a good one - we used our laptop w/a monitor for quite awhile - it is easy to hook one up, and all laptops typically have a monitor or HDMI output. 23" monitors are routinely sub-$200 these days, and this is a very nice size for photo usage (I use it for gaming as well).

[Ratmagiclady]

Ok, guys.

Definitely will bear a lot of this in mind: like I am with cameras, I'm pretty big on how things feel, so the potential of a nicer keyboard is another factor in favor of Toshibas.

Part of the rationale here is that if we're buying new or nearly-new, we may as well pump it up somewhat so it'll last longer before obsolescence. (Whatever we spend, a large proportion of that spending will be 'It's a computer,' and 'It's software.' ) (I'd actually thought the necessary software was more out of the price we'd pay than it turned out to be, so that improves the odds of doing better than HP. )

The fact that Vista was so crappy does complicate the notion of going cheaper and getting an earlier machine: what we have in the house dates from probably no more recently than 2002, so apart from that, and the fact that everything out there for programs and media seems to be real resource-pigs, cheaping out might even be a better option: this Lenovo I'm looking at here has XP Pro: I'm wondering how viable that might be, these days: it's what I'm running now, and I know the service packs and all the accumulated other stuff has gotten quite bloatey.

(Here's the one, by the way: should come out about the same on price at the end of the day as HP: it seems to be the main differences are it's a little slower on the gHz, can't come with a card reader (Not a biggie, but that'd be handy) ...and the RAM is more expandable.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0326118)