PC or Laptop for Photoshop cs-3 2

[itech2004]

I'm planning replacing my existing desktop pc which I run cs-3. I am just a casual user of photo-shop for now. I would like to get a laptop instead of a desktop. My plans are hooking up a external monitor which I just purchased 25" and keyboard and mouse. Basically using it as I would a desktop. I have concerns about how the laptop will perform. Do I need a robust unit? I did install cs-3 on my wife's Acer laptop seems to work OK I don't think it a robust unit, I could have only paid 350.00 for it.

I am curious to see if other people are doing what I want to do.
Any recommendations on what model laptop.

Thanks
Bob

 

[fumei]

If you are going to use an external monitor and keyboard/mouse, then essentially there is no difference betwen a desktop and a laptop. The basics for performance are exactly the same.

processing speed (as fast as possible)
amount of RAM (as much as possible)
amount of disk space (as much aspossible)

As laptop rarely have a second physical drive you are likely going to have to use the scratch disk as the same as application disk.


unknown

 

[itech2004]

fumei

what do you mean by scratch disc? I have a external hard drive that I normally keep my photoshop work

 

[mscallisto]

Adobe likes to distribute it's disk load and suggests you assign a scratch disk (simply a separate disk drive where Photoshop stores it's temporary work files when it runs low on memory).

Since your disk drive is one of the slowest media on your computer adding this second drive helps speed up the processing. e.g. your c: drive for your operating system and all the apps running and the second drive for Photoshop temp files only.

If you don't have a second drive but have a newer computer with a bunch of memory and a new fast large capacity disk drive you should be OK but if it seems too sluggish you should should think about a second drive.

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Photoshop/11.0/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-7489a.html

sam

 

[bartsgb]

With your current budget I would consider buying a desktop. You will get more bang for your buck. Especially RAM and HD speed are important and laptops often lack both. Recently I bought a new system for less then 300 euro wich runs windows 7 and the latest photoshop without any problems. If you insist on buying a laptop though I would consider second hand from Ebay as I think you will get better specs.

 

[Gruuuu]

The time you save in having a higher specced desktop will be countermanded by the time wasted in not being able to work while AWAY from your desk. Laptop photoshopping works perfectly fine for me. You just want to make sure than your input and display devices are comfortable when you start doing this type of work.
It's not the worst thing in the world to work on your laptop display while away from home, but you will definitely want a wireless kb/mouse, cause the laptop's aint gonna cut it.

 

[fumei]

RE: mousing with a laptop. As far as I am concerned using Photoshop with a touch pad on a laptop is almost guaranteed to drive you mad. I use PS with a laptop, but I have a Wacom pen.

Re: scratch disk. The reason Adobe recommends a separate scratch disk (i.e. a disk that is NOT the disk photosop.exe is executing from) is that on-going operation of a file means a LOT of I/O. The very fact you can do an UnDo operation means that the previous state is stored somewhere. Where? In the massive temp files PS uses. All that stuff is being read/written from disk. Keeping all those operations (Input/Output) independent from the "normal" I/O required for the executable makes for cleaner operation.

Yes, you can use the same disk, but Adobe strongly recommends a separate disk. I do not know of real tests of this, whether there really is a performance difference.


unknown

 

[mscallisto]

As far as I am concerned using Photoshop with a touch pad on a laptop is almost guaranteed to drive you mad

Yep I agree especially if you're a coffee drinker.

I have a few dozen pc's (laptops, desktops and servers) of varying horsepower, memory and HD configurations and I have done some testing just out of curiosity.

Older PC's with older HD's really did much better when using a second HD.

HD's have come a long way (much faster) than 5 years ago and I have found that with the new HD there really isn't much benefit using a secondary temp drive when doing "normal" everyday non complicated Photoshop stuff.

I do find a slowdown when you start using many layers, channels etc. and need to do history things like "un-do's" etc.

My conclusion is if you can afford a second drive get one, if not you may only need some patience when working on larger complex projects.

sam