Non gaming laptop advice...?

[BigTwinky]

*accidently put this in a thread about newegg...ooops*

Turning to you good folks for some advice on laptops.

I'm not looking for a gaming specific laptop, I have my desktop for that. What I'm looking for is a laptop for travel / on the road. I shoot music concerts and my editor has asked me for a quicker turnaround time (ie right after the show) and the only way to do that is to bring a laptop and transfer right after the show.

So I'm in the market for something...but not sure where. Last laptop i bought was 5-6 years ago for my ex-wife, it was a Dell. Did the job fine, but i'm wondering if there is better and what is available in terms of possibilities with a laptop.

- I need decent hard drive space, nothing major, as its more for in the field editing, not storage
- I need high RAM, as running photoshop, lightroom and so on can be intense at times. 4 is a must, 8 would be nice.
- It needs to be somewhat small. I thinking max 15inches. I'm already lugging 2 bodies, 3-4 lenses to a show, dont want to add to the weight (and chance of it being stolen)
- Good screen resolution, colours and such is also important.

I currently have an EEE PC netbook thingy which was fine for travel, but i need something that works better in the field.

Any advice? Or should I just hit up Dell...

Thanks!

[Donziboy2]

ram is really cheap......

Take a look at what newegg has, they have a huge inventory...

[Skud]

I heard maintenance-wise (requiring the least in three years, on average) Acer and Toshiba were highest rated. That's about all I have for you.

[Dead...Again]

I use a Sony VAIO for work. It is a pretty good system. I have had it for ~2 years now and haven't had any issues with it.

[Duke{CLR}]

Here is a 15" machine that will have the power you need for under a grand. Even if you don't want to go with this company you can configure many components and see whats out there. The good thing about these basic gaming laptops is that they are build to handle the higher end parts and will easily allow you to make the most of the parts you do want to by.

http://www.malibal.com/boutique/pc/c...?idProduct=285

Here is another great site that has a plethora of power laptops at many price ranges.

http://www.powernotebooks.com/

I have been looking at Dell and Aileware and when you upgrade the support length and add North American phone support you waill be dropping much more coin then you need.

[Dead...Again]

Hey, Duke, I think he said he wanted a NON gaming laptop

[Skud]

Hey, Duke, I think he said he wanted a NON gaming laptop

Lol. Duke's got money to burn though: even his non-gaming laptops are gaming laptops!

[Savage_Hobo]

Hey,

I picked up one of these for work. It's a great machine, small, light, and very quick. It's a Thinkpad T420s (http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/...t-series/t420s). I really like their matte screens especially in extreme lighting environments. Battery life isn't great, but with an i5 (or optional i7) with 8GB of RAM it's awesome.

But make sure you get the 3 year warranty. Mine arrived with a dead pixel () but support was great and they shipped me a new unit straight from the factory.

[Duke{CLR}]

If you guys saw my response to his other post I was mentioning that theses are the base models, the one linked wont play games worth a crap. These guys sell to many people who need power for other reasons. Photo editing is one of theses professions that can use a bit of power and some of the mobile platforms are better then most. There is a difference between a $500.00 laptop and a %1100.00 one. Just like like there are differences in what lenses of similar costs will do.

[BigTwinky]

You are totally dead on Duke... image editing takes a fair amount of juice. Not as much as gaming (or at least, not in the same places) and often, a standard level laptop isn't enough. The last thing you want is to merge the layers of your 8 GB image and have to wait 30 minutes to do so.

[Karson]

A 13" MacBook Pro is an outstanding laptop if portability and power are desired.

[Devilguns]

My 2 cents, I have been Toshiba. My wife and I both have them an they have been solid. I take mine back and forth to work every day and travel with it. It's seen it fair share of drops and knocks. It's going on three years old and the extended battery is still holding up, 5 to 6 hours.

[ChrisWW11]

HP Envy series has a good balance between power and value. I would wait a few weeks because they are releasing new models on December 7. Here's the article form engadget.
HP redesigns its Envy laptops, announces the Envy 15, 17 and 17 3D (video) -- Engadget

The baseline macs could also be considered but the 15" is quite pricey.
MacBook Pro - Shop Apple Laptop Notebook Computers - Apple Store (U.S.)

[BigTwinky]

Thanks for the tips!

I'm not ready to go down the MAC route, I'm running everything PC. Not sure on mixing a MAC laptop with a PC desktop. Plus, the whole having to buy 2 versions of software gets to be a pain.