# Laptop Advice



## DevC (Sep 22, 2014)

I'm conisdering buying a laptop to better accompany me on travels/ photo editing on the road. As i'm aware most laptops with enough ram (4gb+) and a dedicated GPU should be more than sufficient, and that a good screen on the laptop is important.

The key although is i'm looking for a good laptop to accompany me in my camera bag that is small and rugged enough to handle being outdoors all day/ going travelling and being handleable at all times. Since computer tech moves so fast, i cannot justify spending alot of money on a laptop. I want to keep my upper budget to 1000 dollars. The lower the more sensible it seems.  Further i have a hard time justifying costs of a MB/MBP.  They seem pretty overpriced for what you get. The retina display seems to be what could sell it to me although.

Any specific advice I should go for? Last time i had a laptop, my biggest key worry was the overheating when running applications such as lightroom for importing (lets assume i'll be using 24mp files, i have an external hard drive which i could carry around), aswell as photoshop.


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## SnappingShark (Sep 22, 2014)

Look at a Dell inspiron 5000 - not too highly priced for an i7, 8gb, HD screen 14" laptop.


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## waday (Sep 22, 2014)

BrightByNature said:


> Look at a Dell inspiron 5000 - not too highly priced for an i7, 8gb, HD screen 14" laptop.



Regarding specs, I agree. 

Regarding brand, I disagree. This is completely personal opinion based on past experience, but I avoid Dell like the plague. I've had one too many of their computers fail me. Like the hard drive not working when receiving the computer brand new. Or the screen that failed within 1 week. Or the graphics card that failed within 2 months. Or the trackpad not working. These were all separate computers, not the same one.

Granted, these things happened to me 10-14 years ago. Their quality control may have gotten better?


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## sscarmack (Sep 22, 2014)

^^^There you have it


Edit...someone else posted before me...

I say the dell


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## waday (Sep 22, 2014)

sscarmack said:


> Edit...someone else posted before me...



Sorry..


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## sscarmack (Sep 22, 2014)

waday said:


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Busy morning at work....Its getting in the way of my TPF hahahha


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## waday (Sep 22, 2014)

sscarmack said:


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Haha.. same here.. I should probably start working...


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## waday (Sep 22, 2014)

waday said:


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Disagree? Whomp. Lunch time?


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## sscarmack (Sep 22, 2014)

waday said:


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You should not start working! haha...Its definitely lunch time, and if its not lunch (time zone), then its snack time haha


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## waday (Sep 22, 2014)

sscarmack said:


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It's 12 o'clock somewhere.

Sorry for polluting the thread..


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## DevC (Sep 22, 2014)

Thank you for the tips (lunch time here aswell!)

I've had a toshiba before and that really turned me away from toshibas...it just overheated and shut off so fast! Dell seems to be a huge name, so i'm not sure i wouldn't trust em...i just don't know too much about them. Will look on newegg reviews for more info.

How are the lenovos?


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## sscarmack (Sep 22, 2014)

ALIENWARE!!!


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## waday (Sep 22, 2014)

DevC said:


> Thank you for the tips (lunch time here aswell!)
> 
> I've had a toshiba before and that really turned me away from toshibas...it just overheated and shut off so fast! Dell seems to be a huge name, so i'm not sure i wouldn't trust em...i just don't know too much about them. Will look on newegg reviews for more info.
> 
> How are the lenovos?



Don't let me sway you from Dell. I could have literally just hit the lotto with bad Dells.

Test them out and see what you think. My wife has had a good run with HP (I had an HP just before I switched to Apple). I've had a good run with Apple.


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## rexbobcat (Sep 22, 2014)

I have a custom built Sager. It was really expensive, but then it also replaced my desktop so...


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## DevC (Sep 22, 2014)

sscarmack said:


> ALIENWARE!!!


Aren't those extremely expensive and used for gaming or something? 


rexbobcat said:


> I have a custom built Sager. It was really expensive, but then it also replaced my desktop so...



Got it from newegg or something?



waday said:


> I'll definetly play around with it, but my key worry I believe will be QC down the road. Overheating will be a concern,especially with moving around. I'd also have to see the screen to see if the monitor is good.
> 
> Retina display on macs are a real turn on...they are just so friggin expensive and get outdated so fast...faster than camera bodies!


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## waday (Sep 22, 2014)

DevC said:


> waday said:
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> > I'll definetly play around with it, but my key worry I believe will be QC down the road. Overheating will be a concern,especially with moving around. I'd also have to see the screen to see if the monitor is good.
> ...



What did I say? 

They only get outdated if you continue following rumors and news. Otherwise, turn a blind eye and you'll never realize it (until you realize it and buy a new computer).


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## robbins.photo (Sep 22, 2014)

DevC said:


> Thank you for the tips (lunch time here aswell!)
> 
> I've had a toshiba before and that really turned me away from toshibas...it just overheated and shut off so fast! Dell seems to be a huge name, so i'm not sure i wouldn't trust em...i just don't know too much about them. Will look on newegg reviews for more info.
> 
> How are the lenovos?



Ok, in general try to get a true intel processor.  The AMD processors for laptops, at least the older models, generally had more problems with heat buildup particularly if you combined them with a higher end graphics card that also built up heat it would snowball quick - so avoid the HP DV series if at all possible.

I've had a Dell Studio 1749 for quite a while now, never had any issues.  I've also owned both HP's and Lenovo's, they all seem to be pretty reliable.  I do not, however, recommend dell desktops all that often.


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