(ot) elimi-laptop...I'm down to only Toshiba??

I'm narrowing my list down and now it looks like Toshiba is about my only option....

My list of requirements are:

• 2GHz or faster
• 40GB hard drive or larger
• DVD writer
• 1600x1200 resolution
• 64MB video memory

I have other requirements but they are standard in most notebooks: Firewire, USB, etc...

Laptops eliminated:

• Sony doesn't offer 64MB video memory in any notebooks?
• Dell doesn't offer any DVD writers
• Gateway doesn't offer DVD writers either.

Won't PS take advantage of 64MB of video memory or is that only for 3D graphics?? If I lower my requirements to 32MB then Sony is a player as well.. Can anyone answer my video memory question?

64MB video memory won't help you in the 2-D world of photographs/Photoshop, so you can lower your requirements there. You don't mention system RAM - that WILL make a big difference - max it out to whatever the laptop will hold. I was wondering about the 1600x1200 item in your specs... does Toshiba have such a screen? I'd like that, too! I imagine it would be pretty big, though (?)

PaulS said:

I'm narrowing my list down and now it looks like Toshiba is about
my only option....

My list of requirements are:

• 2GHz or faster
• 40GB hard drive or larger
• DVD writer
• 1600x1200 resolution
• 64MB video memory

I have other requirements but they are standard in most notebooks:
Firewire, USB, etc...

Laptops eliminated:

• Sony doesn't offer 64MB video memory in any notebooks?
• Dell doesn't offer any DVD writers
• Gateway doesn't offer DVD writers either.

Won't PS take advantage of 64MB of video memory or is that only for
3D graphics?? If I lower my requirements to 32MB then Sony is a
player as well.. Can anyone answer my video memory question?

Click to expand...

I have a 1600x1200 screen on my two-year-old Dell. It's great.

It might take at least 32mb of video RAM to run 1600x1200 in trucolor, I'm not sure.

Nill
~~
http://www.toulme.net

Kai Griffin said:

64MB video memory won't help you in the 2-D world of
photographs/Photoshop, so you can lower your requirements there.
You don't mention system RAM - that WILL make a big difference -
max it out to whatever the laptop will hold. I was wondering about
the 1600x1200 item in your specs... does Toshiba have such a
screen? I'd like that, too! I imagine it would be pretty big,
though (?)

Click to expand...

I got the Dell 4150 Inspiron. I got it equiped with

2Ghz P4-m
40GB 5400
DVD-reader/24x CD-RW
1400-1050 (trust me on a 15" screen, this is high res enuf!)
32MB Video Memory
Integrated 802.11b card (very cool, antenna is around the screen)

I got out for right about $1600

I bought an PCMCIA firewire card for my 1D and lexar card reader. All is good, and man on man does it kick my old laptop's rear!! I love it.

PaulS said:

I'm narrowing my list down and now it looks like Toshiba is about
my only option....

My list of requirements are:

• 2GHz or faster
• 40GB hard drive or larger
• DVD writer
• 1600x1200 resolution
• 64MB video memory

I have other requirements but they are standard in most notebooks:
Firewire, USB, etc...

Laptops eliminated:

• Sony doesn't offer 64MB video memory in any notebooks?
• Dell doesn't offer any DVD writers
• Gateway doesn't offer DVD writers either.

Won't PS take advantage of 64MB of video memory or is that only for
3D graphics?? If I lower my requirements to 32MB then Sony is a
player as well.. Can anyone answer my video memory question?

Click to expand...

--
Ozy
http://www.carandmodel.com
1D, 70-200L IS, 16-35L, 24-70L, 28-135 IS, & 50 f1.4, 550EX

Yeah, RAM really isn't a big decision factor since I only need 1GB to start with and twice that isn't a problem for most of them.. Most of the manufactureres have a 1600x1200 screen 15 & 16".

Kai Griffin said:

PaulS said:

I'm narrowing my list down and now it looks like Toshiba is about
my only option....

My list of requirements are:

• 2GHz or faster
• 40GB hard drive or larger
• DVD writer
• 1600x1200 resolution
• 64MB video memory

I have other requirements but they are standard in most notebooks:
Firewire, USB, etc...

Laptops eliminated:

• Sony doesn't offer 64MB video memory in any notebooks?
• Dell doesn't offer any DVD writers
• Gateway doesn't offer DVD writers either.

Won't PS take advantage of 64MB of video memory or is that only for
3D graphics?? If I lower my requirements to 32MB then Sony is a
player as well.. Can anyone answer my video memory question?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

1600 x 1200 x 32 / 8 / 1024 / 1024 = 7.3MB

Now there is probably some more overhead than that, and might need to have blanking time in the memory as well, but I am sure 16MB would be just find for UXGA displays.

This is for 2-D support, which is all Photoshop uses. The extra memory is only used in 3-D mode when the graphics processor starts to uses its "Z-Buffer" for 3-D rendering.

--Bill

PaulS said:

I'm narrowing my list down and now it looks like Toshiba is about
my only option....

My list of requirements are:

• 2GHz or faster
• 40GB hard drive or larger
• DVD writer
• 1600x1200 resolution
• 64MB video memory

I have other requirements but they are standard in most notebooks:
Firewire, USB, etc...

Laptops eliminated:

• Sony doesn't offer 64MB video memory in any notebooks?
• Dell doesn't offer any DVD writers
• Gateway doesn't offer DVD writers either.

Won't PS take advantage of 64MB of video memory or is that only for
3D graphics?? If I lower my requirements to 32MB then Sony is a
player as well.. Can anyone answer my video memory question?

Click to expand...

After buying and returning a Dell due to the relatively porr build quality and some software glitches, then checking out a friends Toshiba (too heavy) I ended up going with an IBM T30.

There's no comparison out there for the how well this thing is built. I had slightly different requirements than you (I didn't care about the video memory, and weight was important) but it has everything you asked for except except maybe vid memory. I think the newest ones have more now, look into them if you're interested.

Some other cool stuff like hardware encryption chip, integrated 802.11, great keyboard, dual pointing tools, etc.

It met my needs and I'm extremely happy with it.

Good luck with your decision,
Keith

'Ozy' said:

2Ghz P4-m
40GB 5400
DVD-reader/24x CD-RW
1400-1050 (trust me on a 15" screen, this is high res enuf!)
32MB Video Memory
Integrated 802.11b card (very cool, antenna is around the screen)

I got out for right about $1600

I bought an PCMCIA firewire card for my 1D and lexar card reader.
All is good, and man on man does it kick my old laptop's rear!! I
love it.

PaulS said:

I'm narrowing my list down and now it looks like Toshiba is about
my only option....

My list of requirements are:

• 2GHz or faster
• 40GB hard drive or larger
• DVD writer
• 1600x1200 resolution
• 64MB video memory

I have other requirements but they are standard in most notebooks:
Firewire, USB, etc...

Laptops eliminated:

• Sony doesn't offer 64MB video memory in any notebooks?
• Dell doesn't offer any DVD writers
• Gateway doesn't offer DVD writers either.

Won't PS take advantage of 64MB of video memory or is that only for
3D graphics?? If I lower my requirements to 32MB then Sony is a
player as well.. Can anyone answer my video memory question?

Click to expand...

--
Ozy
http://www.carandmodel.com
1D, 70-200L IS, 16-35L, 24-70L, 28-135 IS, & 50 f1.4, 550EX

Click to expand...

Question to all the previous posters using a laptop. Are you happy to run Photoshop on a laptop screen. More specifically, is color correction reliable on a laptop screen ?

Luc

Keith said:

There's no comparison out there for the how well this thing is
built. I had slightly different requirements than you (I didn't
care about the video memory, and weight was important) but it has
everything you asked for except except maybe vid memory. I think
the newest ones have more now, look into them if you're interested.

Some other cool stuff like hardware encryption chip, integrated
802.11, great keyboard, dual pointing tools, etc.

It met my needs and I'm extremely happy with it.

Good luck with your decision,
Keith

'Ozy' said:

2Ghz P4-m
40GB 5400
DVD-reader/24x CD-RW
1400-1050 (trust me on a 15" screen, this is high res enuf!)
32MB Video Memory
Integrated 802.11b card (very cool, antenna is around the screen)

I got out for right about $1600

I bought an PCMCIA firewire card for my 1D and lexar card reader.
All is good, and man on man does it kick my old laptop's rear!! I
love it.

PaulS said:

I'm narrowing my list down and now it looks like Toshiba is about
my only option....

My list of requirements are:

• 2GHz or faster
• 40GB hard drive or larger
• DVD writer
• 1600x1200 resolution
• 64MB video memory

I have other requirements but they are standard in most notebooks:
Firewire, USB, etc...

Laptops eliminated:

• Sony doesn't offer 64MB video memory in any notebooks?
• Dell doesn't offer any DVD writers
• Gateway doesn't offer DVD writers either.

Won't PS take advantage of 64MB of video memory or is that only for
3D graphics?? If I lower my requirements to 32MB then Sony is a
player as well.. Can anyone answer my video memory question?

Click to expand...

--
Ozy
http://www.carandmodel.com
1D, 70-200L IS, 16-35L, 24-70L, 28-135 IS, & 50 f1.4, 550EX

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Passionate about digital photography

PaulS said:

I'm narrowing my list down and now it looks like Toshiba is about
my only option....

Click to expand...

I'm guessing you want a PC? I went looking for a PC laptop, but ended up buying a year old Powerbook G4. It's fast enough, and holds a ton of RAM, and I can burn CDs with it, so it has everything I "need". Since I bought used, it was cheaper than the high end PCs I was looking at, and it's thin and light enough to make me very happy when hauling it around. I'm NOT a Mac person, and I'm keeping the desktop PC, but the Titanium G4 laptop is a great little computer. Good enough that I don't mind having to deal with two different operating systems, at any rate. Fortunately, about all I do with the laptop is download from the camera, and burn to CD. I don't even "need" PS7 on it. But that said, it works wonderfully on the Mac. I find myself actually using it for some light editing work in the field.
Bill R.

I prefer to use a CRT for photo editing. The color on my laptop's screen is excellent, but the brightness and contrast vary markedly with vertical viewing angle.

Nill
~~
http://www.toulme.net

LucShan said:

Question to all the previous posters using a laptop. Are you happy
to run Photoshop on a laptop screen. More specifically, is color
correction reliable on a laptop screen ?

Click to expand...

1 gig RAM would be lovely; I'm stuck around 380 or something!

I should really browse the latest gear available out there these days - I didn't know 1600x1200 screens were so widespread. After I bought the laptop I'm using now (IBM X20) a couple of years ago, I just tuned right out of latest developments - I didn't want to know about what I'd missed out on by not waiting an extra day Kind of the same as not caring in the least about what Canon will announce (or not announce) at PMA, I guess!

PaulS said:

Kai Griffin said:

PaulS said:

I'm narrowing my list down and now it looks like Toshiba is about
my only option....

My list of requirements are:

• 2GHz or faster
• 40GB hard drive or larger
• DVD writer
• 1600x1200 resolution
• 64MB video memory

I have other requirements but they are standard in most notebooks:
Firewire, USB, etc...

Laptops eliminated:

• Sony doesn't offer 64MB video memory in any notebooks?
• Dell doesn't offer any DVD writers
• Gateway doesn't offer DVD writers either.

Won't PS take advantage of 64MB of video memory or is that only for
3D graphics?? If I lower my requirements to 32MB then Sony is a
player as well.. Can anyone answer my video memory question?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

No, I don't really use it for editing that much. Mainly just checking the image quality and culling bad shots.

I also prefer a CRT for better brightness and contrast as well as more forgiving viewing angle. It's not that you couldn't do the work on a laptop screen, but for me it's not something that I need to do very often.

-Keith

LucShan said:

Luc

Keith said:

There's no comparison out there for the how well this thing is
built. I had slightly different requirements than you (I didn't
care about the video memory, and weight was important) but it has
everything you asked for except except maybe vid memory. I think
the newest ones have more now, look into them if you're interested.

Some other cool stuff like hardware encryption chip, integrated
802.11, great keyboard, dual pointing tools, etc.

It met my needs and I'm extremely happy with it.

Good luck with your decision,
Keith

'Ozy' said:

2Ghz P4-m
40GB 5400
DVD-reader/24x CD-RW
1400-1050 (trust me on a 15" screen, this is high res enuf!)
32MB Video Memory
Integrated 802.11b card (very cool, antenna is around the screen)

I got out for right about $1600

I bought an PCMCIA firewire card for my 1D and lexar card reader.
All is good, and man on man does it kick my old laptop's rear!! I
love it.

PaulS said:

I'm narrowing my list down and now it looks like Toshiba is about
my only option....

My list of requirements are:

• 2GHz or faster
• 40GB hard drive or larger
• DVD writer
• 1600x1200 resolution
• 64MB video memory

I have other requirements but they are standard in most notebooks:
Firewire, USB, etc...

Laptops eliminated:

• Sony doesn't offer 64MB video memory in any notebooks?
• Dell doesn't offer any DVD writers
• Gateway doesn't offer DVD writers either.

Won't PS take advantage of 64MB of video memory or is that only for
3D graphics?? If I lower my requirements to 32MB then Sony is a
player as well.. Can anyone answer my video memory question?

Click to expand...

--
Ozy
http://www.carandmodel.com
1D, 70-200L IS, 16-35L, 24-70L, 28-135 IS, & 50 f1.4, 550EX

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Passionate about digital photography

Click to expand...