Laptop

[htid]

My dad is a member of a camera club who are looking to buy a laptop to show their photos to each other when they meet - he wants to buy it from Dell or some respectable dealer as it will be paid for by a grant so the council (who will give the grant) say it has to be from somewhere like Dell or PC World (so unfortunately no scan)

So looking at Dell, would this be any good? (the £789 one). It has 1gig ram which would be good since they will only be using photoshop, but the thing is the cpu. I dont know anything much about cpu's, so is the one there a decent one or what?

The default hdd is 60GB (5,400 rpm) SATA Hard Drive, but that can be upgraded to 100GB (7,200 rpm) SATA Hard Drive, would that be ok? As for graphics since the laptop will be used soley for viewing pictures with slight editing, no graphics card will be needed i assume.

So, what do you think, does it sound ok? (oh and price isnt an issue so it doesnt matter if it can be found cheaper elsewhere, unless its at another proper reputable retailer/etailer.

Cheers!

[htid]

*bump* anyone?

[Steve B]

you could also try the dell outlet, as you can find a few bargains in there

that aside, id probably go for a dell too

[nichomach]

The 9400 would be a good option, bulky but very functional. That said, if the primary purpose is photo viewing/editing, GET THE WUXGA SCREEN OPTION. Much better quality and significantly better for fine detail.

[dave87]

Dell will be fine - I've had no bad experiences with them.

Depending on the amount the council grant is for - go for a smaller faster hard disk over a larger slower one, and then get an external jobbie for archiving the photos when you've tweaked them.

I would echo what Nichomach said about the screen though - especially if you are doing photoshop work on it. That and a decent external mouse/tablet - much easier to use in photoshop than a trackpad.

If you are going to be backing up the photos to CD/DVD you might be worth getting a DVD-RW instead of the standard CD-RW/DVD drive. Otherwise it seems pretty good for what you need. The only thing to remember is that the graphics memory is borrowed from the RAM - so take that into account when setting how much it uses

Dave

[djhworld]

You could just get one of the Acer laptops from Tescos.

Excellent value, brilliant basic laptops.

[user1453]

is this a desktop replacement, ie large, heavy powerful but a battery drainer

or

a mobile laptop, light and long on the betteries?

[davidstone28]

Dell laptop screens are pretty poor. If you really must, then get one of their glossy coated ones. In fact, all laptop screens a pretty poor compared to high end desktop LCDs/CRTs.

Of laptops, the Sony Vaios probably have the best screens for photographic work.

www.notebookreview.com is where its at...

[user1453]

on a side note, if you get a glossy screen, plan on having no less than 50% brightness, otherwise you can see yourself like a mirror.

I personally like the glossy screen on my 640m but others have disliked it.

[htid]

Thanks for all your help. Its not a desktop replacement. The club just take digital photos now, so when they meet up in the place they rent, they want a laptop to show each other their photos. In fact ive just thought, i think they will be connecting it to a projector, so it doesnt really matter about the screen but id have to ask him really. I mean they may not even want to edit the photos, or store them on the laptop (if they have a memory card reader they may just put their card into that and do it that way) in which case a gig of ram is overkill for purely viewing pictures...ill just have to ask him exactly what they want but thanks again

[user1453]

if it's for purely viewing pictures (plugged into the main) get the cheapest laptop you can find that will run xp

inspiron 1300

this would be fine for viewing photos but bad for storing lots / editing photos