#5272575 - 12/29/10 11:47 AM
Got moAr gear, no Micro Focus Adjustment Neccesary!
|
GB
Sharesies!
Post Master Supreme
Registered: 03/22/04
Posts: 37351
Loc: Craigslist
|
Well, I've finally had it with my 4-year-old Dell Vostro 1500 Laptop.
I've come to dread and kind of hate editing photos because of it, and It's really doing more harm than good to my photos, without question.
It was a great laptop when I bought it, but let's face it, a laptop is never IDEAL for photo editing.
My current laptop features:- A 15.6'' Glossy Screen @ 1680x1050
- 160Gb 5400Rpm Hdd (
 ) - Intel Core2Duo Processor @ 1.6ghz
- 4Gb DDR2 RAM
- Gefore 8400GS "Mobile" Graphics Processing
The screen, while good, is just too much resolution to cram into 15.6'' for photo editing. I often miss small things, and starting hard at a 15'' monitor is mind numbing when editing 18MP images.
Lest we not forget that every time you move the laptop or tilt the screen the contrast and color changes, its nearly impossible to get repeatable results from a laptop display for me. Ive been editing an image, left the room, picked the laptop back up only to realize the image is INCREDIBLY bright because I mustve had the display tilted too far back 
And speaking of 18mp images. 160Gb? Yeah not cutting it despite two 160gb external drives I have. The processor is antiquated, and at this point the laptop has a problem where it won't boot after being shut off, and I've tried EVERYTHING to fix it, so it just STAYS on 24/7
So I decided a PC, specifically a DESKTOP, would be my next upgrade in my photography gear.
I'm waiting to hear back on HP's 23'' LED 1080p UltraSlim monitor. It's currently out of stock and if It's not coming in any time soon I will be going with the ASUS VH236H Black 23" 2ms display. It gets rave reviews and for the price you cant go wrong!
After spending the last two days hunting around for deals, and realizing once again JUST how much I HATE being poor... I finally pulled the trigger on an HP system I found on WOOT.com
Specs are as follows:
¡Operating System: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
¡Processor: AMD Phenom II 945 Quad-Core Processor
¡Processor Speed: 3.00GHz
¡Bus Speed: 4000MHz System Bus
¡Chipset: AMG 785G Chipset
¡Memory: 8GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM Memory (4x2048 MB for ultimate performance) (expandable up to 16GB)
¡Total Memory Slots: 4 DIMM (240-pin, DDR3) (occupied
¡Hard Drive: 1 Terabyte 7200rpm Serial ATA Hard Drive
¡Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 5450 Series Graphics with 512MB DDR3 dedicated graphics memory, DVI and HDMI capabilities and support for Blu-ray and Microsoft DirectX 11
¡Primary CD/DVD Drive: Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner with LightScribe Technology
¡Write Speeds: 16x DVD}R, 4x DVD}R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 5x DVD-RAM, 40x CD-R, 24x CD-RW
¡Networking: 10/100/1000Base-T network interface Wireless LAN 802.11 a/b/g/n
¡Sound Card: High Definition Audio with up to 7.1 surround sound capabilities
This SHOULD be a WORKHORSE, especially compared to what I've BEEN using 
Just the thought of editing pictures on 23'' of 1080p Glory and having the speed and memory to to zoom to 100% and out quickly, easily scroll through images, and being able to stack brushes and still have the memory and power to export the images makes me SO EXCITED.
Just the monitor is a HUGE improvement, never even mind the PC. 
Total cost to me? $565 shipped for monitor and PC.
This might be the most beneficial piece of gear I've purchased yet.
_________________________
Ay yo girl, when you gonna let me tap that?
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#5272845 - 12/29/10 01:20 PM
Re: Got moAr gear, no Micro Focus Adjustment Neccesary!
[Re: scootergeek]
|
BobBarker
BobBarker
Unregistered
|
Wacom tablet should be the top of list for your next purchase.
I'm starting to realize I want this particular item, as well.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#5277317 - 12/31/10 04:35 PM
Re: Got moAr gear, no Micro Focus Adjustment Neccesary!
[Re: ]
|
Nate047
Post Master Supreme
Registered: 03/03/03
Posts: 28558
Loc: La La Land, CA
|
Moron, should have gone Mac.
Nate
_________________________
natehasslerphoto.comFlickrFacebook"Nate047 > NateSTL" - TenTwelve "As long as I have a face, you'll always have a place to sit." - SlowBlackCar *insert picture of stock Fit here* 
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#5278664 - 01/01/11 09:29 PM
Re: Got moAr gear, no Micro Focus Adjustment Neccesary!
[Re: flyEX #1]
|
scootergeek
Post Master Supreme
Registered: 07/24/00
Posts: 46248
Loc: East of St. Louis
|
Apple seems to be the way to go for photography,
I use new iMacs at school and vista on a 4 yr. old pc at home and for PS work, I can see no functional difference. Vista sucks for lots of reasons, but PS5 works the same on either.
_________________________
Still pissy after all these years...
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#5278815 - 01/01/11 11:45 PM
Re: Got moAr gear, no Micro Focus Adjustment Neccesary!
[Re: scootergeek]
|
Billy Bibbit
Post Master Supreme
Registered: 03/22/02
Posts: 15835
Loc: Indiana
|
make sure you get a monitor calibrator! and i really really need to upgrade my PC. Its a tough balance of fixing my car or getting a new PC.. who wants to help?
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#5278896 - 01/02/11 01:12 AM
Re: Got moAr gear, no Micro Focus Adjustment Neccesary!
[Re: scootergeek]
|
jsmonet
Post Master Supreme
Registered: 11/13/99
Posts: 156206
Loc: So. Cali
|
Apple seems to be the way to go for photography,
I use new iMacs at school and vista on a 4 yr. old pc at home and for PS work, I can see no functional difference. Vista sucks for lots of reasons, but PS5 works the same on either.
put enough power (read: the same amount of power) in both OS's and you find the differences to be largely opinion-oriented. I like how my macbook runs, so I gave my wife my i7 920/12gb mem/wd black sys drive and moved my operation to a big mbp + ssd + 8gb/i7 + big external display.
I still run win7 in a virtual machine because I need to. I have no reason to bootcamp it, but there's nothing stopping me from hopping on what is, in reality, still my desktop machine to test things out. I just choose not to because I can start my 7vm in <20 sec from vmware launch to logged in and using.
_________________________
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
Moderator: jsmonet, x, 2000SiRacer, The Mad Paki
|
|
