Help with choosing a laptop to buy, please

In My Humble Opinion
1

OK, new job, I have to work on a laptop; I’m blogging about movies and I need to be able to do it from home and from work, and they don’t have a computer for me at the office. I’ve got a laptop that was lent to me by a friend, the bottom of his pile of 6 laptops. When he moved across the country I asked him where to ship it, he said don’t worry. It’s literally held together with giant rubber bands and has about 4K of ram. I think it’s from the 40s.

Anyway, with a little help from my new boss, I’ve got a grand to spend on a laptop.

I’m a pretty savvy software geek, but I’m retarded when it comes to hardware. So tell me what’s the best choice for me? For around a grand?

Work needs:
[ul]
[li]Graphics: photoshop, illustrator, etc.; if I can learn Flash my employment will be assured[/li][li]DVD burning; eventually, I’ll probably need to be an early adopter of bluray burning[/li][li]Internet: Downloading and uploading lots of movies; speed and bandwith essential considerations[/li][li]Lots of lugging around: droppability a plus, but not a deal breaker[/li][/ul]

Personal needs:
[ul]
I’d love to have LOTS of room for music and movies
[li]Good built in sound would be nice[/li][li]I HATE HATE HATE the fingerpad thingy. I’d need easy mouse or even drawing-pad adaptability[/li][li]Built in wireless would be nice[/li][li]Built in bluray would be nice[/li][li]Good DVD software essential: good sampling, you know, so it can play a scratched disc better than most laptops do[/li][/ul]

Non needs[ul]
[li]I don’t give crap about gaming, of any kind. Haven’t played a computer game since I lost the 80s to Centipede[/li][li]Looks are nice, but not a deal breaker[/li][/ul]

I’m a fan of Macs in some things, but I won’t have a huge software budget, and I think of Windows as more affordable on that count. Unless there’s a good reason to get a Mac and run Windows on it?

Anyway, any of you tech heads have any suggestions? Thanks a bunch in advance.

2

What makes you think that Windows software is cheaper than Macintosh?

AFAIK, all the Adobe graphics software is the same price, plus you get all kinds of free goodies with a Mac.

3

There’s MORE software available for Windows than for Mac. Once I’ve bought the basics, which are the same price for both, then for further purchases Mac availability is more limited than windows, right? Shareware, freeware, etc.? I have a LOT of shareware that I depend on.

4

Here is what you need for your laptop to be sufficient:

Dual CPU’s (any speed over 1.8 Ghz)
2GB of RAM
5400 RPM (rotations per minute, the number tells you how fast it is) Hard Drive

You can get a laptop like that for around $500.

Everything else is really up to how much you are willing to spend. You want the laptop to start up faster? Then go with a 7200 RPM hard drive. You want the computer working faster with lots of applications open at the same time? Buy 4 GB of RAM. You want your applications to run faster and smoother once they are open? Then buy a faster CPU.

Everything else is up to your preference. Browse Newegg.com and see what features you want to add, but make sure the laptop has more than the requirements I listed above.

For a $1000 I would get 4 GB of RAM, because RAM is cheap. Then a 7200 RPM HD. The size is up to you, depending on how many movies you want to keep on your computer. I have about 60 GB of movies/TV shows on my computer at home, that is about 20 movies and 4 TV series. But if you are going to be burning bluray movies then you’ll definitely need more space. One movie is around 10 GB. So do the math and buy what seems right for you.

You’ll have to figure out how big you want the screen. Since you want portability I would suggest 15.4 inches. Any laptop weighing over 5lbs. will be tough to move around, especially along with other items.

Don’t worry about the finger pad thingy. Just buy a USB mouse.

Most laptops come with wireless and DVD burners. Just check the specs to make sure.

I don’t know much about DVD burner quality or sound quality, so someone else will have to answer that.

5

There is a TON of shareware for the Mac.
What do you need?

6

IMHO if you’re serious about having tons of space, don’t spend your cash on a huge internal hard drive. Get an external drive. Or better yet, get a regular 3.5" HDD and an enclosure. When you fill up the first drive, just take it out of the enclosure and put it away for safe keeping.

If you’ve got an enclosure, then you have unlimited drive space.

7

Specs:
CPU Dual Core 2GHz or faster
4 GB RAM
250GB HDD or bigger

  • DVD burning is standard these days. Blueray burning- still very expensive

Internet: Downloading and uploading lots of movies; speed and bandwith essential considerations

  • nothing to do with the PC - internet connection depended

Lots of lugging around: droppability a plus, but not a deal breaker

  • Panasonic Though Books, but expensive

Personal needs:

I’d love to have LOTS of room for music and movies

  • get an external USB HDD, ample space and easy expanable

Good built in sound would be nice

  • It’s a laptop with tiny speakers, but you can plug in speakers

HATE HATE HATE the fingerpad thingy. I’d need easy mouse or even drawing-pad adaptability

  • just buy an external USB Mouse and disable the PAD

Built in wireless would be nice

  • standard, 99.99% of the laptops have it

Built in bluray would be nice

  • expensive

Good DVD software essential: good sampling, you know, so it can play a scratched disc better than most laptops do
-Laptop drives are limited in space, so not much difference or actual choice in that matter, since they don’t clarify, what kind of drive they are using until you have it.

Software, you will have to buy it for PC or MAC and they cost the same. You might find some cheaper versions for the PC like XARA. Which will do some of what Photoshop does and also will let you do Flash and Gif animations for a fraction of the price.

8

Yeah, well if you wanted to go that route, you could use the GIMP on the Mac, which is free (that which costs nothing).

9

definately get a laptop that has Windows 7 and a sticker on it that says “designed for Windows 7.” avoid ones where the sticker says “compatible with Windows 7.” The latter should work but hasn’t gone through the same vetting and design process as the former.

10

And is available for windows as well.

11

My .02 cents worth. You want everything, and you want it on a budget.

From the sounds of it, you don’t need 1 computer, you need two.

My suggestion a dirt cheap laptop for mobility, a decent desktop for storage capacity and other capabilities, and a subscription to Logmein Pro and or dropbox for moving large files.

Drive storage is cheaper on desktops and scalable.

Remoting to the home unit means high bandwidth downloading/file transfers will be via home high speed internet accounts which generally run hotter than most mobile solutions or are at least not so bandwidth limited.

For alot of what you want, a laptop is a poor choice. You might be able to cover your list with decent performance for closer to $2K.

Laptop Blu-ray burners alone you are looking at $250-$400 just for the drive.

12

Best brick & mortar deals I typically see (lately) are on the Staples laptops after rebate. You can get very nice notebooks for less than 1,000. I’d drop the blue-ray requirement as it’s not mission critical for much of anything, and you’re usually pushing past $ 1,000 for the blue-ray models.

For $ 1,000 you could get yourself a netbook and a notebook.

RE branding I’ve grown more fond of HP vs Toshiba over time as I think their build quality stands up better. Re Internet stores Lenovo has tremendous build quality and is reasonably priced. Newegg and Tigerdirect have good net deals on notebooks.

13

Everyone is talking about buying on-line. I can appreciate the cost savings, but have to say this. Never, ever buy a laptop on which you have not typed. A laptop with a frustrating keyboard, or with keys in the “wrong” place will drive you nuts. Shop around, open Notepad and type. If the store model is on-line, browse web sites and make sure the cursor keys are in the “right” place, as well as the page up and page down ones. I once had a laptop that had no function keys and it drove me batty.

Seems like overkill. Just resist the temptation to get one with a “nice big screen”. Get a smaller screen, and you’ll be able to haul it around, then get a nice big screen to leave at home, and plug that sucker into the laptop when you get there. Microcenter has a $129 20" Samsung on sale right now - that and an external keyboard and mouse, and you’ll never notice you’re on a laptop (assuming enough RAM). That’s going to be a lot cheaper than getting any combination of two computers and you’ll gain the productivity of a dual screen system, which should prove very useful for your job. Just make sure the graphics in it can drive a second screen properly (another point for buying in a store). Get a large external hard disk, and get in the habit of moving stuff off the laptop hard drive as soon as you get home.

I use a laptop for graphics and video editing with no problems. I have a USB port with all my external devices plugged in, including hard drives, a jog/shuttle knob and a drawing tablet. I plug in one USB, a second monitor and the power, and I’m rolling.

My main problem with HP is the amount of crap they pre-load on their machines, necessitating a crapectomy before use.

As for graphics software, the Mac market is lacking in middle-of-the-road software like Paint Shop Pro. It’s Photoshop at more than $600 or not much else. The Mac market really doesn’t seem to support good, solid sub-$100 programs commercially.

As others have said, external mice or drawing pads are easy and cheap. Since Wacom’s patents have expired, battery-free drawing pads are available, and plug in via USB. Sadly, there is no cheap alternative yet for the Cintiq.

When you get it, before you get it on-line, make a second account with limited privileges for browsing the web. The vast majority of spyware comes from web browsing via an account with administrative privileges.

14

This I did not know. Thanks for the tip, gaffa.

15

Untrue.

16

I looked at that list, and stand by my conclusion. Once you filter out open source programs that are available on every platform like the Gimp you’re left with limited versions of higher end programs like Photoshop Elements and photo touchup programs like PhotoMagic 1.2.4. Pixelmator 1.4 looks to be the most powerful of that lot, but not by much. What’s the Mac equal of Paint Shop Pro? Which of these programs are equal to it at the same price?

Photoshop is the 800 lb gorilla in the Mac market, and has had the effect 800 lb gorillas usually have.

17

I’ve got a question for you.
What does Paintshop Pro do that the GIMP doesn’t do?
Is there a specific feature you need?

I see this a lot - there are lots of applications of Windows, but many are crap, and most simply duplicate the features of all the other ones.

So if you are saying “There’s not a lot of graphics software on OS X, because Paint Shop Pro isn’t available,” then maybe you are right, but I’m saying that there is a LOT of graphic software for OS X.

Here are two more another lists:
http://osx.hyperjeff.net/Apps/apps?f=paint
http://osx.hyperjeff.net/Apps/apps?f=drawing

18

I just finished shopping around and bought this Sony Vaio laptopon Saturday.

It’s got:
Blu-Ray drive (and DVD±RW and DL burning)
4GBs of RAM (expandable to 8GBs)
320GB Hard Drive
HDMI output (unfortunately only 720, not 1080)
2.2 Ghz Dual Core Processor
Windows 7 Home Premium
Built-in Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n)
It does not come with back-up discs which shocked me as being rather cheap. So that’s the first thing I did.

It also has a really nice keyboard where the keys are spaced out so as not to feel cramped. I typed almost 4000 words on it yesterday for the first day of NaNoWriMo and loved it. It’s what really sold me on the computer. That and the price of $700 (Amazon had it for $100 morethan Best Buy, so even with Taxes vs free shipping, Best Buy was a better deal).

This is my first Sony (I’ve had Toshiba, and still have a Gateway which is going to be a hand-me-down to my laptopless partner and an Asus EEE). I haven’t played with it long enough to fully recommend it, but it’s worth checking out.

19

That’s true for Windows XP, but if you go the Windows route today you should definitely buy Win 7, where there’s a sensible UAC system that is less annoying than in Vista, but still should take care of that.

20

I’ve never owned an Apple machine of any stripe, but many (most) of my friends have them and I’m pretty familiar with their capabilities compared with Windows/Linux. For your needs, I’d have to recommend an Apple laptop. The price premium between PC and Mac is much much smaller with laptops than with desktops and, to a person, every graphics and web person I know raves about their Apple laptop.

Get an external USB drive for storage, a solid state drive for the laptop itself if it’s not too crazy expensive (for both improved performance and slightly better drop resistance), and forget about Blu-ray burning for now.