best WINDOWS laptop for CS2 & CS3 1

[jdubz]

hey all,
i've been using an alienware m51 laptop for the last few years to do all my graphic work.
photoshop, illustrator, flash, dreamweaver and fireworks.

it's time to get a faster better laptop, and my budget is the 1750-2500 price range.

my old thinking was a gaming laptop was going to give the best results for graphics...

i'm not going to buy a mac, so don't even say suggest it.
i started out on macs, don't like them. sorry, you may be a mac, but i'm a pc who does graphics, listens to music and can open a spreadsheet.

anyway...

i know 2gigs or ram is important, as well as a fast hard drive. (7200).

any suggestions?

 

[wahnula]

Have you thought about a DIY laptop? I built my Asus M6N 3 years ago, it has been perfect to date, and I know only the apps I installed and scheduled at boot are using CPU cycles.

Unfortunately, the ATI graphics (9400 I think) is integrated on mine...not so with the Asus 84Jp, it features upgradeable GFX. If you're an AMD fan, Clevo and MSI both have AMD-based platform.

It is not difficult to assemble as all you need to do is install a CPU, HSH/heat pipe, and plug in PCBs. You choose the exact hardware for your rig. Mine sports a 60GB 7.2K Travelstar, 1GB RAM, and all moving parts like the DVD-RW are modular and replaceable. This is important as the longevity of a laptop is usually determined by its weakest integrated component. I have seen several laptops lose functionality due to a dead CD drive.

And, best of all, if you build it you can fix and/or upgrade it yourself as you will have a photo-illustrated shop manual for assembly and disassembly. Look here:

http://www.ajump.com/ajump/ConfigItem_cs.asp?dept_id=8500&pf_id=SS10812

Although they do not offer the Go7700, at least not in this ad. Hey, you might even get to cram a 15K Savvio blade server HDD in there...with water-cooling .

My point is this is an enthusiast forum. As an enthusiast, don't feel you need to settle for a pre-packaged unit. It seems there is always one component on every laptop that keeps it from being "perfect".

To get an idea of what to expect, look here:

http://www.directron.com/laptopdiy.html

If you still feel like tyou want a pre-built, look at Voodoo and Alienware for options.

Tony

 

[kmcferrin]

If I'm not mistaken, some of the Dell models are pretty modular. With most laptops the memory and hard disk are upgradeable anyway, but I think that some of those Dell's use a miniPCI card for the graphics controller?

At any rate, they offer a pretty decent choice when it comes to graphics capability as well.

 

[cdogg]

In CS2, Premiere, Acrobat, and other Adobe products, both the Athlon 64 X2 and the Core 2 Duo are pretty equal when comparing CPUs offered from each around the same price. AMD might still have a slight edge here in terms of a slightly lower price and lower power consumption.

But ultimately, the Core 2 Duo line of processors are still on top, especially when dealing with gaming and video editing. You might find this article interesting if you want more info:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/05/04/which_is_the_best_mainstream_cpu/

Aside from the processor, be sure to focus a lot on the grpahics card. Get your hands on an Nvidia GeForce Go 7900 GTX or 7950 GTX if you can. Also you're right about 2 gigs of RAM - that should be the minimum you consider these days when dealing with multimedia. In fact with Vista, you should really have more.

When someone tries to tell you that you're getting overkill, remember that you have to for a laptop. It doesn't take long for overkill to turn into the standard, then eventually slide into bottleneck status. When you can't hardly upgrade anything on a laptop, you want to grab the best now.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[jdubz]

thanks everyone for their advice!

a home-made laptop is the way to go, i have to check prices...
my home tower i had built from monarch computers and it is all upgradable. that's also what made me move away from drinking the kool-aid mac way of thinking.

thanks again!

 

[kmcferrin]

The home built laptop is better than most pre-builds, but you're still limited to whatever motherboard fits in the case. So in a sense you are limited.

Also, I checked the Ajump site linked above for the Acer build-your-own laptops and tried to spec one out to match the laptop that I bought last month. All bits were the same except the acer had a 17" display and a GeForce 7600, whereas mine has integrated grphics and a 15.4" display. My laptop was $899, the Asus was $1699. That's a huge difference in price.

 

[jdubz]

it's true... a larger screen jacks the price up!

i must admit, the asus Z84Jp seems to be the way to go... now just finding who sells it for the least!

 

[wahnula]

Check with

http://www.directron.com

over the phone. It's not listed in their online catalog but they are laptop DIY headquarters and may be able to order it for you.

Tony