[Ratmagiclady]

Ok, I've been sort of dreading this process, but there's so much else involved, and I know there's a lot of expertise, here.

Basically, with my trusty old IBM just falling way too behind the times, never mind having ever been made to juggle 14 Mp files, and my sweetie's equally-old Mac machine being unable to handle some stuff needed for work, we're looking to add something more current to the house: for sweetie's purposes, it just needs to be Windows and be OK with Powerpoint.

While we're at it, though, we'd like to choose things that'll do my photo stuff well, and there are options. Anything'd be a vast improvement, at this point, but we may as well choose what'll work best for the photo stuff: eventually I'll cobble something together for the express purpose of photo, but the sooner I can start putting resources to trying to get some product out there, the better for that, too.


So, understanding that this is for someone else's priorities and their budget, (the general idea is, Powerpoint and certain other programs which don't seem like a big deal, also forestalling obsolescence as long as a small upgrade now isn't too much, (I can potentially add an upgrade or two, myself, depending on the pricing of such,) I've got questions.




What we're looking at is very likely a new HP laptop with Windows 7, (G60t series, win 7 64bit, Pentium dual core mobile prouser 4400t, 2.2Ghz 1mb Lr cache 800 mhz FSB) I don't even know for sure what some of that means, never mind how it compares.

I guess the deal is you can have 3gigs of DDR2, and a 250 gig SATA hard drive for the base price, or upgrade a bit. These choices seem pretty straightforward to me, (think that's plenty of RAM? Cause of the deal, it'd cost rather a bit extra to make it four)


One question is: media cards. I'm told this doesn't matter much for photography, but one option comes with a built-in card reader and HDMI: this one is an Intel 'Graphics media Accelerator 4500M' No idea what the spec means. Anything else that should be looked for? General comments?



My *biggest* question, I think, is displays. LED or LCD? Maybe there's a thread about that. Here, the notes sweetie left don't say anything about particular models or specs,but I'm wondering what anyone thinks of the LEDs for photo editing and such, or if we should play it safe.



Photo software will apparently be a separate matter for me to deal with properly later. For now I have what came with my K20d and PSE 2.0 (Woo woo. ) If there's some more recent version of anything that would be available for some token amount, we could tack that on, otherwise I'll obtain something separately.


Anyway, I'd appreciate any input. Other options, things I may be forgetting entirely..

Oh. Not really photo-related, but anything for security?

I guess this all comes to maybe costing six hundred by the time shipping and taxes and discounts are factored in against each other.


Thanks, everyone.

[pxpaulx]

quick reply quick reply quick reply!

Run, Run, Run as as far from that laptop as humanly possible.

I own a 1 year old version of that same model, with similar specs, and it is a painfully slow computer. our 3 or 4 year old (can't remember exactly, bought whenever vista was released) acer laptop w/1gb ram runs circles around it.

HP products in general are poor performers (haha, I say that having just bought a refurb desktop a month ago - that thing is a beast - a 1yr old PC that was top of the line, and I added a video card to it).

All but the lowest models from different companies these days come with a media card reader as well.

Have you considered a desktop and a more basic Laptop or even a netbook for around the house?

I just picked up PSE 6/premiere 4 (for video) on the bay for a small sum - as long as you don't need the latest these programs are around pretty cheap!

[pxpaulx]

Microcenter has a couple of stores in GA, don't know if they are anywhere close by but they have a decent acer/emachines for $299 on sale this week...

Micro Center - eME627-5583 - Black

That is where I got my desktop as well - they usually have killer deals on refurb PCs with excellent specs around $400 as well (for instance: Micro Center - DX4300-03 Refurbished )

[pxpaulx]

Oh for security - Microsoft Security Essentials (released by Msoft mid-2009 to little fanfare, but does its job) - bonuses are 1.its free! and 2. not a machine-bogging program like mcafee.

[sharathk]

HP laptops are not bad. i did buy one almost 5years back with 2 GB ram (then top of the line) with AMD processor. works just fine even now. i normally go to Deals2buy: Everyday hot deals and coupons good deals there. check it out.

edit: for security you could try http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage , its free and does not slow your PC/Laptop like Norton.

[Ratmagiclady]

Thanks, Ppaulx ... I'll definitely take the wave-off into consideration: confirmation would help. I'm not sure what your definition of 'running circles around' is. Definitely, anything that works would seem to be an improvement at this stage. Right now my browser's being so slow I'm reminded of a 2400 baud modem as I type this.

You figure the Acer you mentioned is superior? I'll definitely look. I don't know if that store is anywhere near here, though, also will have to look.

I suspect that for this the laptop-ness is necessary for that powerpoint thing: ( I think the computer will actually hahave to go somewhere to do that on occasion. Not 100 percent sure, though. ) which is part of why it must be Windows. For my part, I just can't get used to Mac: not their fault, but it's been a struggle to try and make heads or tails of the old one I have, so this is OK.

When it comes to building or obtaining something of my own for later, a desktop is certainly not out of the question. But that's kind of a separate matter.

(AVG free, I'm running now. I have a possibly-unfair impression of them cause it just keeps getting bloatey, bogging down this machine until possibly midafternoon, starting at 4AM, not letting me choose when it runs, but also the free version keeps interfering with my searches, redirecting at any typo, possibly with one of those agendasabout what they may not approve of, certainly trying to make me use Yahoo and sell things. Paying a little for real security would probably be OK, anyway. )

Looing at the Acer, I think we may be paying, apart from somce higher specs, for full versions of some of the software that's necessary for this whole dance to begin with. (If it were primarily about me, it'd be different.)

Personally, I'd be OK with the used/refurb market, we may have more limited options, not sure. (ie, if it involves a two hour drive it may not happen for a long time. )


Anyone have any knowings about these LED screens?

[philbaum]

ratmagiclady,

I bought a Toshiba A505-s6960, DuoT6500, 4GB SRAM, 320 GB HDD 16"HDD a few months back. The performance was way above my last laptop, 6 years old now. It wasn't the slighly better cpu speed, it was the duocore. I guess the AMD label cpu has quad core but not all software is capable of taking advantage of it.

The Toshiba came with an upgrade offer for Win 7, whichi haven't done yet, its sitting 2 feet from me daring me to take advantage of it. Once i complete a full backup, guess i'll do it. I'm also considering putting in 8 gb of ram. At times i've had Elements, LR, and Photomatix all open, and amazingly it did ok but at other times, it seems to get bogged down.

I've got free McCafee through comcast account, but am not too happy with it. It'll start in on a full disc scan when i'm in the middle of working on an image, drag the whole computer down, and it doesn't seem to want to pause its scan no matter how many times it tell it to stop. irritating as heck, not to mention the frequent downloads.

My advice is to stick with the laptop. I'm over 60 and i don't like sitting at a desk anymore. For me, i love to sit in some easy chair in the evening and look/process photographs. I also spend a lot of time in my van traveling to another photo location, and its very convenient to have a laptop around that i can communicate with the internet via WIFI. No more desktop computers for me, ever.

best wishes for your search.

[boriscleto]

An Apple logo on the front.

[Ratmagiclady]

Thanks, Phil. It's seemed to me on a couple of occasions that Toshibas have nice build quality, haven't noticed much else. Doesn't sound like a totally-ringing endorsement, though, I gather.

(And there's no sense saying 'Get a Mac,' people, that's not on the table, here: it has to be Windows for my sweetie's work. When it comes time for something *I* buy, it's a possibility, if a remote one. I generally like the company, but I just can't seem to adapt.)

(Incidentally, I don't know why it's this particular size we're looking at or how important that is. I figure there'd be both advantages and disadvantages to either bigger or smaller)

[wlachan]

If you aren't going to game, then you might just look for any 17.3" 1600x900 LED notebook with 4GB ram, 500GB hard drive and Windows 7 Premium 64bit for around $600. The choice of CPU would be between AMD Turion 64 X2/Turion II, or Intel Txxxx/Pxxxx (Turoin II/Pxxxx are being more power efficient against their own other CPUs). As to overall reliability according to the link below, Asus/Toshiba are the best, and Acer/HP being the worst. However, there are always lemons for whatever you buy. BTW, the major difference I have found between LED and CCFL backlight is that there is virtually no warm up time for the LED, while the CCFL can take 1-3 hours to reach full brightness.

laptop-reliability-1109 | SquareTrade Warranties

[pxpaulx]

That acer/emachines will likely be a decent laptop. It will probably run at a similar pace with the level of HP laptops you are looking at as well. If you are able to get to the store they (based on their website) have about a dozen different refurbished laptops, which is in addition to their new stock as well.

If you are wary of your current anti-virus, I suggest giving microsoft security essentials a try (even now!). I was using a 'free' program from my cable company as someone mentioned they were - it was constantly being intrusive, running updates randomly and generally bogging our computers down. The microsoft program is very minimal, runs once a week and checks for important patches on a regular basis - all without clogging up the computer - I am very happy with it so far.

As far as other programs that come pre-installed - most computer manufacturers are alot better with regards to that than they used to be. HP has alot of unnecessary bloat programs, the first thing I did was UNinstall a bunch of software (first thing I always do!).

You wanted to know what 'run around in circles' means? On the HP g-series laptop with windows 7 installed, it takes over 20 seconds to open internet explorer. Now, these aren't exactly scientific numbers, but with the new desktop (yes, also an HP), a quad core AMD with 8gb of RAM, well, in a blink pretty much sums it up.

Phil - I don't think either chip maker has a quad-core for laptops (too power-hungry). I could be wrong though!

Edit: Forgot to mention, most laptops/PCs being sold w/vista (and possibly XP, even the refurbs) at the moment will probably come with a free (or possibly cost of shipping) upgrade to 7 (which is great!), so if you buy a refurb don't forget to ask about that as well.

[Ratmagiclady]

Cool. So, whatever happens, no photo-based reason to avoid the LED screen? (No one seems to have a bad thing to say about them so far... )

(Net-hiccups there. ) I do like the store you recommended, from what I can see... Looks like a good place for *me* to go looking when it's time to make something of my own. They have something Lenovo there we may look at, anyway. My pal here is an old IBM Thinkpad, and you can't complain about how well made the fellow is.

It seems that the differences in the pricing of software my sweetie needs may eat up any pricing differences, though, at least. (This is where the one who's better with the math than I am can figure things out. )

[Ed n Georgia]

I just purchased 2 Sony VAIO Laptops for my wife and I. Windows 7 Professional, 500GB HD, 4GB Ram and LED display.

I get initial results of a little better the 4.5 hours battery time. In full power saver mode, probably near 6. LED Display has much to do with that cuz of its low power consumption.

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.

Whatever you do, however, get the extended warranty. Statistically, most laptops have a catastrophic failuer within the first two years.

[Ratmagiclady]

Ok, then. Making some progress, here. Woo. One does boggle at all the variables.

I think, now, at least we know what to do regarding this HP sweetie's been looking at. We've gotten a breakdown of what costs what among what we've been looking at, so now I can see if I can find better according to some of these recommendations. It does appear that this may be quite possible.


When you say this, Wlachan: "The choice of CPU would be between AMD Turion 64 X2/Turion II, or Intel Txxxx/Pxxxx (Turoin II/Pxxxx are being more power efficient against their own other CPUs)."

...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.

Thanks again, everyone, btw.

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?