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Hi all, I have visited and asked for recommendations in this forum, and thanks to all of you I have upgraded my system numerous times with the right parts and quality. Thank you all! Recently, I begun to take a plunge into photography (not full time, but its getting there), and I will like to get rid of my desktop system, since I do not care as much about playing games anymore (I am content with Hearthstone and similar paced games). Therefore, I am asking how much I should save up to get something just as good and possibly better. In the order of what I need, I need something Powerful, Durable, and maybe Portable, in that order. I am planning on saving up to $3000-$5000 for this, but this might be a bit excessive (up to you guys if I need that much saved up). I'd like to do the upgrade next year. I am currently using Windows 7. Software list: Photoshop*, Lightroom*, Premiere, After Effects * Denotes most important software I'd like a dual drive system, a fast drive with my OS and programs, and a big drive for data. That said, I do plan on using HD external bays to access my archived content. I'd like an IPS panel as well. If you need more information please let me know. I understand that its a long ways till my next upgrade, but I will like to get a feel of what is possible with a laptop, thank you all!
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Mar 2, 2014 04:24
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LuisX posted:Hi all, I have visited and asked for recommendations in this forum, and thanks to all of you I have upgraded my system numerous times with the right parts and quality. Thank you all! Hate to sound like a broken record, but most people I know own a 15" MacBook Pro and throw Win7 on it if need be. They are really nice to use plugged in, but they also work really really well off the wall.
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Mar 2, 2014 04:27
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LuisX posted:I am planning on saving up to $3000-$5000 for this, but this might be a bit excessive (up to you guys if I need that much saved up). I'd like to do the upgrade next year. sports posted:Hate to sound like a broken record, but most people I know own a 15" MacBook Pro and throw Win7 on it if need be. Do you even read? Your title suits you.
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Mar 2, 2014 04:29
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LuisX posted:Hi all, I have visited and asked for recommendations in this forum, and thanks to all of you I have upgraded my system numerous times with the right parts and quality. Thank you all! Look at the Dell Precision M3800 if you want to see the upper end of the quality spectrum.
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Mar 2, 2014 04:33
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Thank you all for the responses! I'll wait a year and take a look at the Dell Precision M3800 while tracking the next trends/hardware upgrades!
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Mar 2, 2014 04:50
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I loving hate Apple, but the OP addresses this matter: If you are willing to pay the price, you will get an astounding machine. Powerful, Portable and Durable (in that order) are the Macbook Pro in a nutshell. The OS can take a bit getting used to, but it is a dream to use. What you will not get is a large second drive. Macs these days will come with <=500GB of (relatively blazing fast) SSD storage, but no second storage drive. You would need an external HDD for that. Also, depending on what screen size you really want, the 13" MBP is p. much the perfect laptop. The Dell Precision M3800 is the Windows alternative, and the Lenovo Thinkpad T440S is another Win option. But what you really need to do is z06ck posted:Save your money until then and ask this question again when the time comes Things change fast in this market. By this time next year many people are expecting a new realm of SSD options to become officially available, not to mention new processors and graphics. Intense Photoshop is not as demanding as it once was, but for $3000 today, you can buy something next year that will do the same for quite a bit less.
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Mar 2, 2014 04:54
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Hadlock posted:Intel Advanced or preferably Intel Ultimate with the 2x2 or 3x3 antennas, respectively. I get a solid 130mbps connection (about 7MB/s in explorer) anywhere in the house, and I have thick walls. Tiny apartment currently. But I'll remember that when it's time to move up. Thanks for the responses. It helped a ton, but I think I'm going to sit on my budget a bit because I felt somewhat bummed about how much I'm getting for such a high price right now with the laptop market. It feels like the start of a big push in a direction I'm interested in but I think the next round of devices (or heavy discounts on the current round of laptops I want that are far out of budget) looks like a better nexus point for me. This thread is very good though. Really appreciate the discussion here. Without reading through here I'd have spent a lot of money on something that didn't make me happy or otherwise became outdated incredibly fast, like my last laptop purchase.
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Mar 2, 2014 05:37
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z06ck posted:Do you even read? Your title suits you. -photography -not-games -lots of money for a really good laptop Not really seeing any reason to not suggest a MBP, regardless of whether or not he's going to put windows on it? You can get them with 1TB SSDs and SDXC cards go up to 256GB, that should be more than enough for anything that hasn't already been backed up to something not as tenuous as a laptop. I mean his only real option for tons of storage in a laptop is a silly 10 pound desktop replacement with three or four drive bays (on top of a couple mSATA drives) but that's a pretty huge compromise for functionality that can be replaced with one external drive.
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Mar 2, 2014 08:19
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^^ Agreed, even a broken clock is right twice a day Photography + unlimited budget is going to point you towards an Apple halo product here 18 months is a long ways out, but today if you didn't bite on the apple recommendation, would be a Samsung AITV+ or the Yoga 2 pro, although that screen might be too small. Nobody besides Apple or Alienware makes a laptop worth buying over $2100 these days. They just don't exist except for some niche markets. Maybe a fully loaded W530, or if you really like numpads a W540, fully loaded for around $2100 A rooted Chromebook Pixel would be interesting. Once you swapped in a larger drive, you'd be out about $2200. Hadlock fucked around with this message at 09:21 on Mar 2, 2014 |
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Mar 2, 2014 09:19
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LuisX posted:Hi all, I have visited and asked for recommendations in this forum, and thanks to all of you I have upgraded my system numerous times with the right parts and quality. Thank you all! As someone doing photography as a hobby, my suggestion would be to spend <$1500 on the laptop and put everything else into lenses and other equipment. Wouldn't even recommend anything specific a year in advance, that's just silly.
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Mar 2, 2014 09:46
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mobby_6kl posted:As someone doing photography as a hobby, my suggestion would be to spend <$1500 on the laptop and put everything else into lenses and other equipment. Wouldn't even recommend anything specific a year in advance, that's just silly. Basically, if you're spending more than $1500-$2000 on a laptop for Photoshop, you're wasting your money. The rest of the photography kit, on the other hand...there seems to be no end of ways to spend stupidly large amounts of money on that stuff. So whenever you do buy your <$2k laptop, be happy knowing you can take the remainder and dump it into poo poo that won't immediately devalue into nothingness over the next 12-24 months.
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Mar 2, 2014 10:16
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Thank you all for the replies, I like to plan ahead on what my next move is. It seems that my approach was wrong, instead of replacing my desktop, I should supplement it with a decent laptop to take for travel and then sync it up with my drives in my desktop. I have 10 drive bays full of data and photos (already maxed a 2TB drive and about to max another one soon if business is good!). I should have been more clear that I was thinking in terms of travel and being able to have a performing laptop to quickly edit 200-400 RAW photos on location (away from home). Therefore I should save up for a Durable, Portable laptop and then upgrade it with a massive SSD. mobby_6kl,Dr.Dork, although this is a tad off topic, I am at a point where I need to invest in a proper studio, I have plenty of bodies/lenses/lights  I do have an HP LP2475w monitor alongside a large LCD TV that I use to show the clients the frames of the shoot.
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Mar 2, 2014 15:20
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Are there any Windows laptops with a glass trackpad similar to the MacBook? Basically, I want a MacBook Air but native Windows... So -- what's the best Windows laptop trackpad? (glass-type only). I also only want something around 13" and lower resolution is perfectly fine...
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Mar 2, 2014 19:58
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Vinlaen posted:Are there any Windows laptops with a glass trackpad similar to the MacBook? Boot Camp does give you native Windows. It's not emulated in any way.
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Mar 2, 2014 20:04
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Vinlaen posted:So -- what's the best Windows laptop trackpad? (glass-type only). I also only want something around 13" and lower resolution is perfectly fine... I would bet it's the Panasonic Let's Note CF-MX3's, not that I've used it personally. I'm not sure if it's "glass" and I don't believe "glass" is really a type of trackpad -- they don't have types the way pokémon do. Don't consider this answer to be a purchase recommendation. Unless you have plenty of money and don't use the right shift key.
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Mar 2, 2014 20:15
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shrughes posted:I would bet it's the Panasonic Let's Note CF-MX3's, not that I've used it personally. I'm not sure if it's "glass" and I don't believe "glass" is really a type of trackpad -- they don't have types the way pokémon do. Don't consider this answer to be a purchase recommendation. Unless you have plenty of money and don't use the right shift key. Panasonic is really really overpriced for a Windows machine, though.
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Mar 2, 2014 21:53
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Really? Are you sure it's not your imagination?
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Mar 2, 2014 21:55
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z06ck posted:Do you even read? Your title suits you. Didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Sorry.
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Mar 2, 2014 21:56
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sports posted:Panasonic is really really overpriced for a Windows machine, though. "For a Windows machine" Not commenting on the specifics of that laptop or anything, but it's insane to think that an Apple logo ads actual value to the machine. (Does in the second hand market, though!)
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Mar 2, 2014 22:27
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LuisX posted:Thank you all for the replies, I like to plan ahead on what my next move is.
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Mar 2, 2014 23:40
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My work HP 2560p has a glass surface on the trackpad. Aside from that it isn't at all Mac-like though, the surface is comparatively small and it has two sets of physical buttons (one for the track pad, one for the trackpoint)
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Mar 3, 2014 01:57
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HalloKitty posted:"For a Windows machine" Well it is -- I mean, that's why I'm not recommend getting it (the other reason of course is that it's only available in Japan so you're stuck with a weird keyboard layout, crappy support). They're more expensive than Apple laptops by a large margin too. The only machines that are close in ridiculousness are undiscounted HP Elitebooks (don't ask me if discounted Elitebooks even exist).
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Mar 3, 2014 02:57
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HalloKitty posted:"For a Windows machine" shrughes posted:Well it is -- I mean, that's why I'm not recommend getting it (the other reason of course is that it's only available in Japan so you're stuck with a weird keyboard layout, crappy support). They're more expensive than Apple laptops by a large margin too. The only machines that are close in ridiculousness are undiscounted HP Elitebooks (don't ask me if discounted Elitebooks even exist). I do get how Toughbooks can cost a buttload- they have production runs in the tens of thousands and they are really nice for the anemic stipends the design team must get (because they only roll out a new model once every two years or so). They are really nice, but it's a shame they still have DVD drives and really archaic features (or maybe that is a good thing for some people) but I still can't see paying full price for one of them when there are offerings from Apple (provided, I'm really no Japanophile).
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Mar 3, 2014 03:57
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sports posted:It's the really nice software/hardware integration and design you pay for in an Apple, not the logo. There might be a larger profit margin when it comes to manufacturing/componentry cost versus the consumer MSRP, but that's not taking in the actual thought that went into developing the laptop. Windows machines instead have to compete with Dells and HPs that are off-the-shelf OEM designs with some cosmetic tweaking, so the price that went into developing each device is very minimal when compared with Cupertino's spending on end user experience. You're making poo poo up. Edit: sports posted:(because they only roll out a new model once every two years or so) LOL you must be trolling, how often do you think Apple rolls out a new model? shrughes fucked around with this message at 04:14 on Mar 3, 2014 |
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Mar 3, 2014 04:12
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sports posted:They are really nice, but it's a shame they still have DVD drives and really archaic features (or maybe that is a good thing for some people).
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Mar 3, 2014 04:13
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DrDork posted:One of the biggest users of Toughbooks is the US military, which makes having an optical drive basically required, because apparently every single god-damned flash drive, memory card, USB stick, etc., ever made has been infected with hideous Chinese spyware that will steal the keys to the nukes or some crap. Plus for whatever reason, Japan loves staying about 5-10 years behind on any type of computer technology that isn't a cell-phone. All of this is true, I was in the military (and also in japan).
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Mar 3, 2014 04:14
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DrDork posted:One of the biggest users of Toughbooks is the US military, which makes having an optical drive basically required, because apparently every single god-damned flash drive, memory card, USB stick, etc., ever made has been infected with hideous Chinese spyware that will steal the keys to the nukes or some crap. Plus for whatever reason, Japan loves staying about 5-10 years behind on any type of computer technology that isn't a cell-phone. Well, I believe we were talking about the "business rugged" Toughbooks i.e. the consumer Let's Note line sold in Japan.
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Mar 3, 2014 04:15
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shrughes posted:Well, I believe we were talking about the "business rugged" Toughbooks i.e. the consumer Let's Note line sold in Japan.
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Mar 3, 2014 04:20
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Some people in this thread might be interested in reading Building my Own Laptop Update on Our Laptop (aka Novena)
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Mar 3, 2014 04:49
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Hey, this refurbished little Lenovo (Lenovo X201 12.1" Laptop - Black (Intel Core i5-540M/160GB HDD/4GB RAM/Windows 7) just popped up on Bestbuy.ca for $400 CAD: http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product...7263a525a95en02 I know the computer is a couple years out of date, but is that a good deal? It seems like it'd be a decent small and tough laptop to tote around.
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Mar 3, 2014 06:50
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I don't know whether it's a good deal, but it's a good laptop. The last of the 16:10 X-series. Based on eBay prices it seems like the price is too high.
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Mar 3, 2014 06:56
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That seems slightly high but if it does have an i5 in it, it's at least worth looking at. T410's frequently go on Woot for ~$300 USD. If there's a CAD lenovo outlet store you can probably find a better deal there. Monday mornings are usually the best time to look, that's when all their new deals go up.
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Mar 3, 2014 09:15
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Is the hdd on this https://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/N550LF/ user replaceable? I doesn't have a maintenance hatch, but i figure you can pop off the little plastic nubs and there'll be screws. Friend wants to put an ssd into his, but i can't seem to find for sure if he can. edit: Oh and if you want a thinkpad but live in europe can't justify the cost, the next best thing is still the dell latitude 6000 series? canada jezus fucked around with this message at 13:47 on Mar 3, 2014 |
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Mar 3, 2014 13:37
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Will the Y410p hold up to use like carrying it in a backpack on a regular basis? I really do want a Thinkpad for the durability, but I need something as soon as possible to replace my Dell latitude d630 before it inevitably craps out on my completely, and I just don't have the extra cash right now. The Y410p has the specs I want and more (it's mostly the 6GB of RAM, to be honest), but I want to make sure that it's not going to completely fall apart on me. The OP suggested that the newer Dell Latitudes are more durable, but after being burned on this current laptop I'm really wary of Dell products. I also think it's kind of weird that 1366x768 is the new standard since what I'm using right now has 1440x900, but it probably doesn't make sense to compare anything to a six year old laptop. The fact that downgrading to Windows 7 void the warranty also is putting me off a bit, but it's not like I can afford to buy 7 in the near future anyway; are there any other warranty restrictions that I should worry about?
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Mar 3, 2014 21:37
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Without a doubt. My y510p lives in my backpack 99% of the time it's not in use, has survived a couple of short drops and a few "woops the backpack wasnt closed" incidents and aside from a few scratches, it's fine.
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Mar 3, 2014 21:42
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Vertigo Ambrosia posted:I also think it's kind of weird that 1366x768 is the new standard since what I'm using right now has 1440x900, but it probably doesn't make sense to compare anything to a six year old laptop. The fact that downgrading to Windows 7 void the warranty also is putting me off a bit, but it's not like I can afford to buy 7 in the near future anyway; are there any other warranty restrictions that I should worry about? Get the Y410p with 1600x900 screen.
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Mar 3, 2014 21:49
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Vertigo Ambrosia posted:I also think it's kind of weird that 1366x768 is the new standard since what I'm using right now has 1440x900, but it probably doesn't make sense to compare anything to a six year old laptop. The fact that downgrading to Windows 7 void the warranty also is putting me off a bit, but it's not like I can afford to buy 7 in the near future anyway; are there any other warranty restrictions that I should worry about?
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Mar 3, 2014 23:03
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Thanks for the advice, everyone. Looks like there's a really great deal at the B&N site...that expires on Wednesday. I could afford one today...if I didn't need Microsoft Office 
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Mar 3, 2014 23:13
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Don't worry--it'll almost certainly be immediately replaced by a new "sale" on Thursday for +/- $20 of whatever the current "sale" is. As for Office, do you actually need it? I mean, things like OpenOffice and Google Docs are actually pretty reasonable these days, if there isn't some specific functionality you need that you can only get from Office. Similarly, you can look into doing the Office 365 subscription thing, which is a lot cheaper than plunking down for a full copy of Office.
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Mar 3, 2014 23:54
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Office.com is free, too! Here is a Microsoft blog post talking a little about it. E: I can't actually figure out if Office Online is gimped relative to Office/Office 365 if all you need is Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.
sourdough fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Mar 4, 2014 |
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Mar 3, 2014 23:59
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