What is your computer specifications?

[KhoKing]

I am currently using Pentium 4 Mobile CPU 1.7Ghz with 256MB rame Sony notebook computer that is nearly 3 years old. Hardly can use for image processing... 

I am thinking of getting a new notebook for myself. Look at Dell website and found the AMD 64X2 series to be quite cheap (less than US$800), so am tempting to get one myself.

What is your computer specifications for image editing? Would Apple do a better job?

Main functions:
1. Online
2. Image editing for 10MP RAW and Jpeg files
3. Work use - Microsoft Office software (words, excels, powerpoint, frontpage)
4. Fortran programming work
5. Travelling with it, so must be able to hold 3 hours or more battery life

Any recommendations or comments? 

Thanks 

[tcom]

256MB of RAM is not even enough for winXP.

For the internet, every computer does the job, no need for a specially fast computer

For image editing and office software, you will definitely need more RAM, at least 1GB.

I am not fluent in Fortran, but more than a texteditor such vi or ultraedit and a compiler is not needed, every computer will do the job.

If you want more the 3 hours, the CPU should not be much faster than the one you already have.

A Pentium 4 mobile 1.7GHz processor is maybe not the newest generation CPU, but it should be fast enough for what your are doing. The cheapest solution would be to check if you could add or replace the RAM in your actual notebook to 1GB and the notebook will be fast enough for most of your tasks.

On the other hand, any actual dual core notebook will do the job, but over 2GHz, the 3 hours will be difficult to reach.

I am also interested in a MacBook which will probably do the job. My main problem is that I have a full licence of Photoshop CS2 for windows, and a cross update of the license to a Mac is really expensive.

Hope it helps.

[faber]

No reccomendations, everytime someone reccommends something on internet forums, a riot explode

My opinion, only my opinion is that you have a classical computer use and every single OS on this planet can fully assolve at your needs.
Personally I do prefer windows for many reasons, but it's a personal choice. I also use Mac on my home computer, mainly because I needed a good design because the computer it's exposed and not in a dedicated room. I'm happy with Mac, but I do prefer several times Windows, the OS on my portable (work) computer.

For image editing, Adobe tells that since year 2000 there is no difference between mac and windows, in vista you'll have the color management inside the OS (as in Mac) so it's up to you. Currently Mac is on Intel, nothing better nothing worser than all other PCs.
I use photoediting sw on both my systems, I prefer to use these sw that permits to seamlessly interchange data between both systems (lightroom, iView, Photoshop...)

I would suggest to have something around 1GB RAM, whatever OS you'll choose, and a fast HD not less than 5400rpm, possibly 7200.
Battery life is primarily affected by the use. if you continuosly have wifi connected, screen at full light and disk working... well you can't ask more than a couple of hours I think.

Ciao!

[wtay0001]

Mine is a Dell Dimension 2.66GHz with 1G RAM...I got it Free...not becos I preferred Dell.

For imaging editting, the memory plays a vital role, followed by hardisk and then CPU then the display card. That;s how I prioritize it.

Since all photos are in 2D, even a low end display card will work.

If you open multiple huge files or application in one go, hardisk performance becomes important as swapping will bound to happen....Windows will still use certain amount of cache through hardisk even though you have a huge RAM. Thus retrieving file speed will become evident and start to gate others performance.

If I have cost contraints, I prefer to add more memory than improving the CPU. The performance bottleneck tends to isolate to memory.

[tcom]

Unless you want to play the latest game, every notebook should manage your given tasks quite easily, if it has enough memory, I would say at least 1GB.

[KhoKing]

Dominique,

It has been a long time since I last played C&C and Unreal and FF...

Bought a PS3 recently...and Wii seems more interesting!

I will leave the computer to do only a computer job...

[Spot Focus]

I have a BenQ mobile intel p4 2.8 GHz with 512 ram  it runs Silkypix ok but is very slow to upload & limited to 1gig cards with its internal card reader
My desktop is a built up AMD64 939 3200+ SLI 6600GT PCIE with 1gig ram

[starkillerz]

I have a desktop Pentium IV 2.8 Ghz with 512 mb RAM and a 100G + 250G Sata HDD and a huge 19 inch CRT monitor!

IT is hard to recommand something, but for the processor I used to really like the Athlon but now, especially for Laptop they produce more heat and are using more power. I would go toward Intel.

I also agree with the other, for your uses the importance goes:
RAM, HD, Ease of use! (if you don't like the keyboard, mouse or screen you will hate your new laptop),CPU, Graphic cards

I would suggest some dual core CPU (not necessarily the fastest, it will still let you post to the forum while photoshop complete a long and demanding filtering task for example ), at least 1 gig of RAM, a big hard drive (but you can always find an external one easily nowadays) but make sure the hard drive is at least 5400 RPM because it is the slowest link in the computer. For the video card no need for the top quality game card but make sure you get something decent so that your display of image is of quality and I think photo processing software sometimes use the video capability of the card to speed up things. I feel that the 17 inch screen laptops with a almost fullsize keyboard and key pad are really nice to use ergenomically ... but they might be heavier to carry and you would need to check the  battery life. Also, the fullsize keyboard is very useful for programming or typing in word.

I would forget linux because for photo editing it is not great (except gimp, but ... not that easy to master).  I don't know much about mac, so I won't say anything except that you can now have both windows and MacOS on the same HD. So it is MS windows. Windows XP is stable, I would wait a little before moving to Vista. The first versions are always a little bit buggy.

As for the brand, the Acer my girlfriend bought last year was nice and well priced, she is very satisfied with it. I liked the finish of the exterior and the screen way better than the dell that we looked at. They also come with a 1 year worlwide warranty (dell is only a warranty in the country you bought it), if you travel to other countries this can be useful.

But first, like tcom said, why don't you have a look at the price and possibility to upgrade your ram to 1G? Because this is probably your main trouble. And also defrag your hard drive and make sure you don't have tons of programs running in the background (look at the bottom right, how many programs? more than 5? start to check if you can close some).

Hope this helps.

[dayalan86]

I am using a Pentium dual core 3.0 GHz, 1GB RAM and a 256MB graphics card with 160GB hard drive with 20GB of Hard Drive space given as scratch disk for Adobe Photoshop and another 10GB to Windows.

I mainly use this pc for C++ programming (MS Visual Studio), surfing and ocassional gaming.

The other pc I have is a Pentium 4 2.34Ghz with 256MB RAM and 64MB graphics card and 240GB of hard disk space.
On this pc I have allocated 20GB to Adobe Photoshop and another 20GB for Windows. However, having physical RAM of 256MB and running Windows XP SP2 platform is just not enough. I think minimum RAM should be at least 512MB for XP SP2.
That said, I can run Adobe Photoshop CS2 and edit 6MP pictures but can't do batch processing else the pc will lock up for like 20 minutes.

I think your setup is good enough, just try to change the RAM and I think you should see a significant increase in speed. Also do try to get extra storage space like some here had suggested.
Dual core pc are useful for multitasking but future programs will be written to maximize the usage of the dual core and it would be wise to go for a dual core instead of a single core processor if you are getting a new pc now.

[starkillerz]

I did not think about it. But as dayalan86 said, having 2 hard drive and setting the second hard drive as your scratch disk for photoshop will probably give you better (significantly!?) performance as well.

[Alien_Zero]

Currently I have:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ @ 3800+
2GB Kingston DDR400 RAM
MSI K8N SLI Platenum Mobo
XFX 7800 GT VGA
2 x Maxtore 120 GB HD
19" Sony 420GS CRT

But there is a high possiblity I upgrade within the next 4 months!

 

[Alien_Zero]

I am currently using Pentium 4 Mobile CPU 1.7Ghz with 256MB rame Sony notebook computer that is nearly 3 years old. Hardly can use for image processing... 

I am thinking of getting a new notebook for myself. Look at Dell website and found the AMD 64X2 series to be quite cheap (less than US$800), so am tempting to get one myself.

What is your computer specifications for image editing? Would Apple do a better job?

Main functions:
1. Online
2. Image editing for 10MP RAW and Jpeg files
3. Work use - Microsoft Office software (words, excels, powerpoint, frontpage)
4. Fortran programming work
5. Travelling with it, so must be able to hold 3 hours or more battery life

Any recommendations or comments? 

Thanks 

How much do you want to pay for a new laptop?
I think you should take a look at HP DV9000Z for 900$ it comes with 17" LCD

[sooming]

Hi King,

I'm using Apple MacBook 2.0Ghz Core Duo with 2Gb RAM and 160Gb SATA Harddisk. Works like a charm! Very fast and stable. My main workflow involves the use of Aperture and Photoshop CS3 (beta) for retouching and printing.

Soo Ming

[Tom Brown]

I use a dual core AMD64 CPU with 4GB RAM running 64 bit Linux.

I've been playing with Hugin to stitch together panoramas and, from what I can tell, I could use 64GB RAM with another few dozen cores.

[Alvin]

You guys can have a laugh at my laptop spec.
IBM Thinkpad T22, PIII 800 MHz, 512 MB Ram, 20 GB HDD.
I use that with Picasa for my minor photo post processing.

My desktop is a AMD Athlon XP 3000+ with 512 MB Ram, 100 GB HDD.  I've got it plugged into my TV which has a VGA in but can do only 1024x768.  I was hoping to use it for some video editing, but the machine keeps freezing up.  I'm suspecting it's my video card (ATI All In Wonder 9700), but can't put a finger on it.