How are these specs for a normal photo-editing-only laptop?

[Headshotzx]

As per title, for Lightroom 2 / Photoshop usage, MSN, and surfing.

Dell Studio 15 Laptop - Customised

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26GHz, 3MB Cache, 1066 MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista(R) Home Premium 32 bit SP1 Edition (English)
Microsoft(R) Works 9.0 (Does Not Include Microsoft(R) Office 2003/2007 Software)
1 Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
15.4 " Widescreen WUXGA CCFL (1920x1200) TFT Display w/ TrueLife(TM) w/o Camera
Mike Ming Bunch O Surfers
4GB ( 2 X 2048MB ) Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
320GB (5400 RPM) SATA Hard Drive
Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Combination Drive with dual layer write capabilities
256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450
Integrated Stereo Sound
Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100 (802.11a/g/n) Half Mini-card
Dell(TM) Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module
Silver Palmrest with Fingerprint Reader

S$1820.

Your comments? My current Dec '05 built computer is serving me quite well, with these specs:

AMD X2 3800+ 2ghz Dual Core
4x512mb DDR1 ram
Nvidia 7800gt 256mb video card
Win XP

It's still serving me well, and while it is slow, a reformat every year will keep it going fast for a few months.

Cheers,
Zexun

 

[forward]

Change your HD to 7200 rpm and use the 5400 rpm
as an external drive.

 

[night86mare]

i have to use a laptop out of necessity - not very good idea to ship desktops to and fro everytime i fly

why not stick to a desktop? desktop >>>>> laptop in terms of everything; for the latter you sacrifice a lot for that mobility. when i'm finally done with this i'll probably get a desktop and if required a netbook for surfing outdoors. much more portable, it's not as if you need the horsepower for surfing the net - unless you seem to enjoy processing photos on a mountain top or something.

that said, the specs are more than enough. i used to have a celeron 1.3 ghz laptop with 512ram and i wanted to cry everytime i opened photoshop but it worked fine.

 

[Headshotzx]

Change your HD to 7200 rpm and use the 5400 rpm
as an external drive.

May I know why? I'm a tech noob so please explain as simply as you can ^^

i have to use a laptop out of necessity - not very good idea to ship desktops to and fro everytime i fly

why not stick to a desktop? desktop >>>>> laptop in terms of everything; for the latter you sacrifice a lot for that mobility. when i'm finally done with this i'll probably get a desktop and if required a netbook for surfing outdoors. much more portable, it's not as if you need the horsepower for surfing the net - unless you seem to enjoy processing photos on a mountain top or something.

that said, the specs are more than enough. i used to have a celeron 1.3 ghz laptop with 512ram and i wanted to cry everytime i opened photoshop but it worked fine.

I'm thinking that with the amount of on-location photos that I do (mainly events and portraits)-- a LR2 enabled computer to sort the photos out while I shoot portraits (or straight-away after I shoot the entire event) would be good. I managed to sync Canon's EOS Utility tethered shooting with LR2's auto-important and settings application, so when I shoot a frame, an edited version (standard editing settings) of the photo appears on the screen 5 seconds later. It would be good for me if I have this ability everywhere I go.

However, d'you guys think that it might be a little too overkill just for PS/LR2? If so, what are the best bang-for-buck (ie wallet friendly) laptop I should get?

Cheers,
Zexun

 

[night86mare]

However, d'you guys think that it might be a little too overkill just for PS/LR2? If so, what are the best bang-for-buck (ie wallet friendly) laptop I should get?

Cheers,
Zexun

if this is the only computer you are going to have,

get the best you are willing to spend on, so that you won't have to upgrade quickly.

 

[Headshotzx]

I see.. I get what you mean. Nah it definitely won't be the only comp I'll have-- I'm using a desktop now (as you can tell) but I would want my photo-editing and presentation to be mobile.

 

[yamcake]

it looks okay to me..

but really external hdd is something to look at too..
320gb really runs out quickly if u have alot of RAWs or videos..

have been access photos in LR from ext hdd, so far a little laggish only, but still acceptable to me...

weight may be an issue too?

 

[Headshotzx]

Perhaps a 15" laptop might be a little too big to be lugging around. Or perhaps the screen might come in handy when I'm shooting tethered.

What I understand is that PS and LR2 run faster with more ram. So would I need a nvidia/ati video-card, then? What would the processor speed have to do with the speed?