[wlachan]

Though I like XP the most when it comes to stability and speed, it is reaching the end of its supported life by MS. If you plan to use it for as long as it can, Windows 7 seems to be the logical choice. However, having used both Vista & 7, the 7 is not that much better than Vista SP2 imho. Something will be more snappy, but the 7 is still full of bugs like the Vista. The gadget bar might not loaded properly for no apparent reason, the power plan will reset itself once in awhile (use gpedit.msc (not available to versions below Ultimate) to set them is the only solution), and the wifi connection can take a long time to connect on random occasions.

[rparmar]

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.

You are disagreeing with advice garnered through thousands of man hours of work (thankfully not mine) because of one case that was just a matter of a simple setting? Wait until the hardware itself fails and you will have a different opinion. Of course with anything like this most computers work fine. The difference in support can only be ascertained when something serious goes wrong. How well does the company take care of you then?

In a recent case when someone ignored my advice their computer failed within a month and they took another month to fix the issue. Me, I'd rather not be without my computer for a month.

There are good quality LED backlighted laptops out there these days.

But they are all fairly crap for photographic use.

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

Or not. If you look at the facts (easy to measure and done by many tech sites) and not the myth.

Toshiba seems rock solid to me.

Yep. And Lenovo and IBM and ASUS. Talk to people who do servicing for a living and they will tell you.

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.

Also good advice.The portable devices are smaller, quieter, easier to use and also more robust. But only in the short term. Eventually (sooner rather than later) they will fail, so one must back up the contents somewhere else.

[Ratmagiclady]

Ok, Rparmar, possible-sarcasm is not gonna help me, here. (I'm really kind of just taking people's various experiences as I hear them. It seems you say nothing but a couple of things meet your standards, but I can't have those things, anyway, so.. we're just trying to do the best we can with consumer stuff for now. Really, that's all. )

I'm sure you know some stuff, but so far your only suggestions have been well outside the budget and purpose of me asking this question. 'Everything you can afford sucks' doesn't help.

[rparmar]

Nowhere did I say "Everything you can afford sucks" and nowhere did I use sarcasm. You have totally misinterpreted me.

Oh well. So much for trying to help.

[Ratmagiclady]

Nowhere did I say "Everything you can afford sucks" and nowhere did I use sarcasm. You have totally misinterpreted me.

Oh well. So much for trying to help.

Actually, I just wasn't sure, in that little exchange above. Not meaning to make too big a deal of it. Just didn't want to see you boys fighting.

I know you recommend some stuff that's not in our means at this point, which is fair enough, it's just that it' hard to tell how that applies to things we *can* get hold of.

Sorry if I came off testy, I was pretty tired.

Nowhere did I say "Everything you can afford sucks" and nowhere did I use sarcasm. You have totally misinterpreted me.

Oh well. So much for trying to help.

par for the course rparmar

[m8o]

I've been shopping for another laptop lately for Mrs. M8o to use, and I'll tell you... I'm kinda disgusted at most of the major manufacturers now days. Seems screen resolution has taken a back-seat to everything else lately. The large majority of them are back to only 768 vertical resolution (sometimes even lower!) and no path to upgrade unless you get a 17" screen or larger. You hardly see any of a web page, or portrait image with that. If you're looking for a 4 or 5 lb laptop with 14" or 15" display, you're mostly out'a luck with a few exceptions; unless you get a Lenovo who seem to be an exception to this rule, and which I may be getting another one of for this reason for a thrifty $760.

Now when I was in the market a year ago, and a year before that, and a year before that, it was quite common in a 15" display to find 850, 900 and 1050 (you get the idea) vertical resolutions; or at least perhaps a 768 base, and an upgrade option to something higher. Not so much today. Blame that on your computer being "HD 720 complaint" as being something good... hey computer makers, those in the know know it's not! Some of the laptops don't even advertise, not anywhere I can find, what the resolution actually is. And I hope it goes without saying, the more screen real-estate you have, the better PP experience we RAW shooters are going to have.

So ok, that's one thing. Screen resolution. And if you're on this forum, you'd probably be happiest having the highest rez you can have.

Color accuracy is right up there. But I don't have any really good way of knowing which displays are the best "PP-friendly" screens. I do know my corporate issued Dell Latitude E6500 is the best screen I've ever seen; even better than on my Dell Inspiron w/upgraded 1920x1200 rez. The screen on the Latitude is the only screen I have that clearly tells me when I've over-sharpened an image. The halo created from over-sharpening "pops", and I know I need to re-do it and back-off the sharpening. Problem is I don't PP on my work-issued laptop for obvious reasons, so it's very tedious to discover instances of over-sharpening as I'm sure you can imagine, when I only discover it after the fact.

Next, of course, memory. 3 Gigs at least. If you run 64-bit, more more more.

The other thing is, CPU. Use this as a guide to get the most for your money:
PassMark Intel vs AMD CPU Benchmarks - High End
PassMark CPU Benchmarks - High Mid Range CPU's

The rest is per your needs.

[Ratmagiclady]

Hey, well, see my PSE question gthread fo rsome idea what we actually ended up with *bonking head on desk.*

Ought to run, anyway.

As for "more, more, more" in any sense, my camera ain't started making any bigger files since last year, and this kind of talk only makes me suspect computer-makers are only trying to make sure we can do 'less' with 'more' at every turn.

[m8o]

Hey, well, see my PSE question gthread fo rsome idea what we actually ended up with *bonking head on desk.*

err... umm.. LOL!!! I had to go looking, but found it. And I see you'd made a similar observation as me. Oh, well ... I don't know what to say to make it better.

[bobrapp]

There is a for letter word that fits your requirements and they are:

DELL

As a heavy user of laptops for 15 years, these are the best overall in terms of reliability and long service. My only problem seems to be wearing the letters off the keys on the keyboards!

I normally update every 3 years and I still have 3 older models still working.

[Ahab]

There is a for letter word that fits your requirements and they are:

DELL

As a heavy user of laptops for 15 years, these are the best overall in terms of reliability and long service. My only problem seems to be wearing the letters off the keys on the keyboards!

I normally update every 3 years and I still have 3 older models still working.

I can say the same about my Mac's.

[Canada_Rockies]

I can say the same about my Mac's.

And I about my ThinkPad notebooks.

[brofkand]

What software does your wife need that is only available on Windows?

Very few pieces of software require Windows anymore; there are almost always cognates on the Mac unless we're talking about custom software for a large corporation.

There is always the possibility of BootCamp or Parallels on a Mac.

[Ratmagiclady]

What software does your wife need that is only available on Windows?

Very few pieces of software require Windows anymore; there are almost always cognates on the Mac unless we're talking about custom software for a large corporation.

There is always the possibility of BootCamp or Parallels on a Mac.

I don't know, really, what program, or why. Some suite of stuff.

This is one of those things I don't think was to-be-questioned. Sweetie's a fairly-dedicated Mac user, actually, so I presume there's either good reason or ...unavoidable stupid reason imposed by people in charge. You know, boss says jump, ... doesn't mean they know what they're talking about.

It's me who can't seem to adapt to Mac, so that part isn't bothering me. I've got enough on my plate in terms of adapting to the digital medium as it is.

I'll tell you one thing about this Thinkpad I've been typing to you all with all this time, not only are some letters worn off the keyboard, some of them are actually just about dished out to where you can see the stems of them through the top. This was some company's fleet computer before I got hold of the fellow, too. Can't fault the old IBMs for durability. It's probably part of why my dear one went with the Lenovo, really. The only thing was we were looking pretty priced-out of the brand when I shared my bit of research, so 'The monitors on some of these are substandard' just didn't get big attention.

[landscaped1]

Go with a mac! I think the 13" mac pro would be right up your alley. great design light weight and amazing machine. plus if you really want, you can run windows on it. doesn't get any better then thatt.