Photoshop...

[STMahlberg]

Does anyone run Photoshop CS5 on a laptop? I'm interested in its performance if you do.

I know what the minimum requirements are for Photoshop; however, I am trying to figure out what would be the best laptop to purchase to run PS.

I am currently looking at a couple Toshibas that use the i7 processor with a dedicated video card. Any thought?

Thanks

[Fire$torm]

Any lappiw with a i7 quad will be more then enough. The limiting factors will be RAM and HDD. I would recommend ditching the HDD for a SSD if the lappie can only hold one drive. You could use a 2.5 USB case for the HDD and have it for external storage. For RAM if you can get a system configured with 8GB of DDR3 1600 with CAS 9 latency, you will be golden.

[STMahlberg]

Any lappiw with a i7 quad will be more then enough. The limiting factors will be RAM and HDD. I would recommend ditching the HDD for a SSD if the lappie can only hold one drive. You could use a 2.5 USB case for the HDD and have it for external storage. For RAM if you can get a system configured with 8GB of DDR3 1600 with CAS 9 latency, you will be golden.

Cool. Thank you. :)

[DrPop]

My wife runs PS CS3, Illustrator, and AutoCAD 2010 on her Core 2 Duo T9500 laptop and it's still fairly fast...with SSD, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA 8400M GS.
I'd say anything faster than that is gonna be peaches and cream for your photos, STM! ;)

[STMahlberg]

My wife runs PS CS3, Illustrator, and AutoCAD 2010 on her Core 2 Duo T9500 laptop and it's still fairly fast...with SSD, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA 8400M GS.
I'd say anything faster than that is gonna be peaches and cream for your photos, STM! ;)

This is what I am looking at currently. DELL XPS 17 (L702x) Notebook Intel Core i7 2630QM(2.00GHz) 17.3" 8GB Memory 1TB HDD BD Combo NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834200302) b-)

[Fire$torm]

This is what I am looking at currently. DELL XPS 17 (L702x) Notebook Intel Core i7 2630QM(2.00GHz) 17.3" 8GB Memory 1TB HDD BD Combo NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834200302) b-)

Note these reviews are for the (L701X) version.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/laptop/3256331/dell-xps-17-review/

http://www.trustedreviews.com/Dell-XPS-17--L701X-_Laptop_review

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-XPS-17-Notebook.42921.0.html

List of (LX702X) reviews

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-17-L702X.50162.0.html

Question: Have you compared any HP units at the same price point?

And a word of caution. Dell customer service is often sub par and a pain in the.....

Edit: Also be aware that Dell does NOT state the actual speed of the memory anywhere on its website or in any documentation that I could find. In the Setup Guide (http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsL702X/en/index.htm) they only list supported speed which is 1066 and 1333.

[Fire$torm]

Sorry but I just had to........ :P

From HP's website - HP ENVY 17 3D series (Link (http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=notebooks&series_name=ENVY173D_series))
Price (As configured below): $1,659.99

Components
* • Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
* • No Additional Office Software
* • 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2630QM (2.0 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.9 GHz
* • 1GB GDDR5 Radeon(TM) HD 6850M Graphics [HDMI]
* • 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
* • 750GB 7200RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
* • 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery (standard) - Up to 2.25 hours of battery life +++
* • 17.3" diagonal Full HD HP 3D Ultra BrightView Infinity LED Display (1920x1080)
* • Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
* • HP TrueVision HD Webcam
* • Intel 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R) with Wireless Display Support
* • Backlit Keyboard with numeric keypad
* • Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) Elements 9 & Adobe Premiere(R) Elements 9
* • HP 3D Active Shutter Glasses

Newegg has one (Out of stock but on reorder)

HP ENVY 17-2090NR Notebook (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834157846&Tpk=HP%20ENVY%2017%203D))

Price: $1,649.99

Components
Almost the same as above except as noted
* • 2x 750GB HDD (5400 RPM.... Yuck)
* • One 6-Cell battery and one 9-Cell battery

So rip out the HDDs and sell them on eBay and replace them with an OCZ Agility SSD (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227725) and a good 7200 RPM HDD. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007605%20600003340%20600030599&IsNodeId=1)

[STMahlberg]

Note these reviews are for the (L701X) version.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/laptop/3256331/dell-xps-17-review/

http://www.trustedreviews.com/Dell-XPS-17--L701X-_Laptop_review

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-XPS-17-Notebook.42921.0.html

List of (LX702X) reviews

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-17-L702X.50162.0.html

Question: Have you compared any HP units at the same price point?

And a word of caution. Dell customer service is often sub par and a pain in the.....

Edit: Also be aware that Dell does NOT state the actual speed of the memory anywhere on its website or in any documentation that I could find. In the Setup Guide (http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsL702X/en/index.htm) they only list supported speed which is 1066 and 1333.

I tend to avoid HP... I've had a couple of their printers which I will never buy again; my daughter has an HP that she has had trouble with from the day she got the thing. I have never been daring enough to buy one of their systems. I looked at a couple sites last week for refurbished units just out of curiosity and found that HP and Acer have the most refurbished units available. For me that is a red flag. On a side note... I have an Acer which I will never buy again either.

To top off HP, they announced that they are getting out of the PC business, so it doesn't seem like a good investment to buy one of their computers.

I have had several Dells over the years and loved every one of them. I've never dealt with customer support since I have never had anything go wrong with one.

[Fire$torm]

Roger.

My experience with Dell has me saying "Never Again".

[DrPop]

This is what I am looking at currently. DELL XPS 17 (L702x) Notebook Intel Core i7 2630QM(2.00GHz) 17.3" 8GB Memory 1TB HDD BD Combo NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834200302) b-)

That is way more than enough power to get one of these (http://www.dpreview.com/previews/sonyslta77/)and push around those nice, luscious 24MP captures in Photoshop! :D

[STMahlberg]

I finally made not only the decision but just placed the order for this Toshiba laptop.

Qosmio X770-ST4N04 Laptop (http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/pdet.to?poid=2000004604) Qosmio X770-ST4N04 Laptop. After looking at various systems online, I took one more look at this when I was at Fry's yesterday and choose the Toshiba over the Dell. I ordered it through Toshiba Direct and not only saved an extra $100 over the price at Fry's, this one has 2GB more RAM as well.

Now I'm just left with one more large purchase and that's the Canon PIXMA Pro9500 Mark II (http://usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/printers_multifunction/professional_photo_inkjet_printers/pixma_pro9500_mark_ii) printer. This thing is as big as a Subaru and dang near costs as much. ;)

[DrPop]

Dude, that is a killer lappie! :D And that printer - I'll be phoning up your new STM Photo LAB for some prints! ;)

[Fire$torm]

Yeah, what DP said.

Sorry STM for not posting sooner but I read it moments after you posted your decision and could have sworn I made a reply. Looks like I need more ginkgo in my diet.