Need New Laptop

I'm in need of replacing my Sony Vaio but am totally confused as to what to buy. I use a laptop for all of my computing needs so I need something fast without breaking the bank. I'm looking to spend $1,000 - $1,200 and am looking for another PC. I was just issued a new MacBook Pro for work and love it but I don't want to re-purchase all of my software plus my images are all stored on external hard drives formated for a PC.

So the big question I have concerns the processors. Is Intel better than AMD? What about Dual Core versus Core i7? Also, any recommendations on brand? I really like my Sony and wouldn't mind another one but they are pricier than others I've seen.

Any advice as to what specs I need for heavy photo usage. In all seriousness pretty much anything I buy will be faster than what I have now but I'd like the fastest I can afford.

I bought a Sony Vaio several months ago from Best Buy. One of their factory custom builds. 500 gb hd, 4gb ram, i5 CPU, 13" screen, 4 lbs, $1050. So far very satisfied. This replaced older Vaio which was still good but too slow after camera upgrade. You may also find a similar model elsewhere.

AMD provides poor battery life compared to i5/i7.

I would go with i5 and get more RAM and if possible a 7200 rpm HDD.

AMD provides poor battery life compared to i5/i7.

I would go with i5 and get more RAM and if possible a 7200 rpm HDD.

Thanks, any reason for an i5 over the i7. I'm thinking of doing a custom order direct from Sony.

no reason only cost.

Save a little on the i5 and get more RAM.

I'm in need of replacing my Sony Vaio but am totally confused as to what to buy. I use a laptop for all of my computing needs so I need something fast without breaking the bank. I'm looking to spend $1,000 - $1,200 and am looking for another PC. I was just issued a new MacBook Pro for work and love it but I don't want to re-purchase all of my software plus my images are all stored on external hard drives formated for a PC.

 

So the big question I have concerns the processors. Is Intel better than AMD? What about Dual Core versus Core i7? Also, any recommendations on brand? I really like my Sony and wouldn't mind another one but they are pricier than others I've seen.

 

Any advice as to what specs I need for heavy photo usage. In all seriousness pretty much anything I buy will be faster than what I have now but I'd like the fastest I can afford.

Andy,

I just ordered an HP with an Intel Core i7 processor and a few other bells and whistles. Do a Yahoo search of "dv7-4070us" and use the LogicBUY.com/hp-dv7-select-deal link. You can save up to $370.00 on an i7 and configure the laptop how you want it. Just make sure you configure it so it will qualify for the discount coupons offered. The Intel website indicates that an i7 processor is best suited for photo editing. This offer expires 9/13/2010, but they keep extending it. Check it out and good luck. Shipping is free also.

Bob

Go i5 or i7 and fill it with ram running Windows 7 64 bit.

Rock solid and I have yet to have a virus or bug attack my win 7 system :-)

Get one with a USB3 port, you can edit raw HDV from a eternal USB3 drive no probs.

On my $1200 AUD ASUS i5 here, I can edit raw Canon 7D mov files in realtime even.

However with any PC you need to take time to fine tune it and decrap all the rubbish software they put on them.

Go i5 or i7 and fill it with ram running Windows 7 64 bit.

Rock solid and I have yet to have a virus or bug attack my win 7 system :-)

 

Get one with a USB3 port, you can edit raw HDV from a eternal USB3 drive no probs.

On my $1200 AUD ASUS i5 here, I can edit raw Canon 7D mov files in realtime even.

 

However with any PC you need to take time to fine tune it and decrap all the rubbish software they put on them.

All good points in this post. My minimum requirements for a new Windows laptop are:

- i5 or i7

- 4gb DDR3 Ram

- 320gb HD. I don't believe you need huge hard drives in a laptop; it's better to have several USB HD's to offload your photos/videos to. For that matter, I would rather have a 128gb SSD in the notebook since that makes your laptop FLY and then just carry a 500gb USB drive.

- USB3 for fast reads, but not many notebooks have it yet.

- If you are a video guy then get an external blu-ray burner, it's not necessary to have it in your notebook; just makes it more expensive and if you have multiple PC's the external is the way to go.

- HDMI out - almost all of them have this now.

The HP mentioned above is a good choice, but I prefer the new 14" HP Envy series - $1050 with i5 processor. The "feel" of this notebook is very mac-like. Best touchpad on a Win7 notebook I've seen.

Oh, and the previous poster mentioned you need to spend some time De-Crapifying your PC -- There is an excellent program which is actually called "PC Decrapifier". Free download.

http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

Also check out the Asus notebooks, they have a very nice feature set. I particularly like the Bamboo series, around $1100 with an i5.

If you need an ultralight notebook for traveling, check out the Toshiba Portege r700 series; 3.2 pounds, i5, 4gb ram, DVD burner - $1299. http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/portege/R700/R700-S1321 It's missing usb 3.0, but it has everything else. Super light and Toshiba is well known to be one of the most reliable brands out there - they have a 3 year limited warranty, most laptops are just 1 year.

As you already know, Sony Vaio's are also great machines, but a little pricier. I think I like their keyboards the best. If you could swing it, their Vaio "Z" series is just fantastic, but that ups the ante to about $1700 for an i5 box.

Thanks for the replies. Here's what I'm looking at from Sony -

Intel® Core™ i7-740QM processor (1.73GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz

Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit

Black

500GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm)

8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1333

CD/DVD player/burner

16.4" VAIO Display (1600x900)

NVIDIA® GeForce® 330M GPU (1GB VRAM)

This comes in at $1504 US.

I kind of like the F series which comes with i7 otherwise I'd go with i5.

Thanks for the replies. Here's what I'm looking at from Sony -

 

Intel® Core™ i7-740QM processor (1.73GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz

Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit

Black

500GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm)

8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1333

CD/DVD player/burner

16.4" VAIO Display (1600x900)

NVIDIA® GeForce® 330M GPU (1GB VRAM)

 

This comes in at $1504 US.

 

I kind of like the F series which comes with i7 otherwise I'd go with i5.

Looks like a nice notebook. Here's some benchmarks on the F series from Laptop mag - http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/so...mode=benchmarks Probably the only "rap" on it would be battery life.

Looks like a nice notebook. Here's some benchmarks on the F series from Laptop mag - http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/so...mode=benchmarks Probably the only "rap" on it would be battery life.

Thanks for the info. I ended up ordering a closeout F series from Sony similar to the one above. The difference is 6gb of RAM, i7-720 and the Blu-Ray player. I saved a few hundred this way and it will still be loads faster than what I'm used to. I'll be interested to see how it does against my MacBook Pro.