Portable High End PC System

[Fruit2O]

I'm planning on spending my retirement traveling a lot to see my three
sons (Texas, Colorado and Massachusets) and spend months at a time at
each location. I'm looking for opinions on how to have a high end
system (large drives, Vista Ultimate, Photoshop enthusiast) available
at each location. It could be one system that is portable, a separate
system (identical) at each location where I could just take my drives
and peripherals with me and use caddy's, or a very high end portable
laptop or luggable (I can't think of any other options at this time).
Not sure if this is a unique problem or not - but I guess I want my
cake and eat it too. Using Photoshop is my main interest (digital
photography). Games are not my interest. Looking for suggestions as
none of my ideas seem really practical. Perhaps there's something on
the market that could handle what I need - but I'm not aware of it.
Suggestions???

 

[JAD]

um........... its called a ..laptop

 

[Rod Speed]

I'm planning on spending my retirement traveling a lot to
see my three sons (Texas, Colorado and Massachusets)
and spend months at a time at each location.

Dont forget who will be picking your nursing home.

I'm looking for opinions on how to have a high end system
(large drives, Vista Ultimate, Photoshop enthusiast) available
at each location. It could be one system that is portable, a separate
system (identical) at each location where I could just take my drives
and peripherals with me and use caddy's, or a very high end portable
laptop or luggable (I can't think of any other options at this time).

You dont say how you plan to travel, by plane etc or what.

If it isnt by plane, no real reason why you cant just
have everything except the monitor in a decent case.

Not sure if this is a unique problem or not

Nope, quite a few do that sort of thing with 'mobile homes' etc.

They mostly just use laptops, high end ones if they need decent horsepower.

- but I guess I want my cake and eat it too.

Yeah, I would too. PCs are such a fundamental part of my life that
I wouldnt dream of doing without them for more than a few hours.

Using Photoshop is my main interest (digital photography).
Games are not my interest. Looking for suggestions as
none of my ideas seem really practical.

The high end laptop is quite practical, tho they are
noticeably slower than the best of the desktop systems.

Even if you do plan to travel by plane. a bit of thought with a decent
case and say one of those aluminium cases that musos use with
padding for the PC case should be viable unless you cart so much
other stuff around that the excess baggage fee is a problem.

Perhaps there's something on the market that could
handle what I need - but I'm not aware of it. Suggestions???

I'd go the desktop case in a decent travelling case route myself,
mainly because a decent desktop system does perform noticeably
faster than even a high end laptop system and should cost a lot
less, even if you have to pay excess baggage charges.

 

[Fruit2O]

um........... its called a ..laptop

I didn't need a wise crack.

 

[Fruit2O]

Dont forget who will be picking your nursing home.


You dont say how you plan to travel, by plane etc or what.

Probably by auto (not a camper).

If it isnt by plane, no real reason why you cant just
have everything except the monitor in a decent case.

Yes, what about the monitor? Photoshop really demans the use of a high
end CRT.

Nope, quite a few do that sort of thing with 'mobile homes' etc.

They mostly just use laptops, high end ones if they need decent horsepower.

Can you point me in the right direction to find a really top end laptop
(perhaps with a port replicator/docking staion tha will accomodate a
high end graphics card?

Yeah, I would too. PCs are such a fundamental part of my life that
I wouldnt dream of doing without them for more than a few hours.

Same here!!!

The high end laptop is quite practical, tho they are
noticeably slower than the best of the desktop systems.

Even if you do plan to travel by plane. a bit of thought with a decent
case and say one of those aluminium cases that musos use with
padding for the PC case should be viable unless you cart so much
other stuff around that the excess baggage fee is a problem.


I'd go the desktop case in a decent travelling case route myself,
mainly because a decent desktop system does perform noticeably
faster than even a high end laptop system and should cost a lot
less, even if you have to pay excess baggage charges.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[JAD]

I didn't need a wise crack.

It wasn't, for all the things you mentioned, with an extra battery, you
should be able to do whatever challenges you. I thought that was pretty
obvious and considered it a trick question.

 

[paulmd]

I'm planning on spending my retirement traveling a lot to see my three
sons (Texas, Colorado and Massachusets) and spend months at a time at
each location. I'm looking for opinions on how to have a high end
system (large drives, Vista Ultimate, Photoshop enthusiast) available
at each location. It could be one system that is portable, a separate
system (identical) at each location where I could just take my drives
and peripherals with me and use caddy's, or a very high end portable
laptop or luggable (I can't think of any other options at this time).
Not sure if this is a unique problem or not - but I guess I want my
cake and eat it too. Using Photoshop is my main interest (digital
photography). Games are not my interest. Looking for suggestions as
none of my ideas seem really practical. Perhaps there's something on
the market that could handle what I need - but I'm not aware of it.
Suggestions???

Luggables are no longer made, though a few desktops (very few) have
handles on the cases. I'd go with the high end laptop. Make sure you
get LOTS of RAM for photoshop. Laptops currently top out at around 2GB,
mostly. But call and ask if any will take 4gb.

Do some homework, compare prices of dell, ibm (lenovo), hp. Avoid sony,
and emachines (they suck). I've not seen enough of recent toshibas or
fujitsus to make a call either way.

Dell starts shipping with Vista on the 30th of this month. I lean
towards Dell because of the availability of the service manuals and
drivers online. Most vendors have drivers, but hp drops them from their
website from time to time. Pretty hit and miss, as the system ages. IBM
has all that, but their site is a bit harder to navigate.

 

[JAD]

Probably by auto (not a camper).


Yes, what about the monitor? Photoshop really demans the use of a high
end CRT.

not really all you need is a color profile for your LCD/CRT, and thats
only if your output is to go to a professional print shop that requires
panacharted colors. I use an older SHARP(1yr old) widescreen with a 2.0 cpu
and gig ram, laptop. illustrator_ photoshop_Indesign and the macromedia
suite all run perfectly. The tool pallettes do become cumbersome but you get
used to it. When I spent many hours on the road away from home, usually
located somewhere for a period of time, I found that you can 'rent' a CRT
and use the LT on that when the job called for a decent workspace.

Can you point me in the right direction to find a really top end laptop
(perhaps with a port replicator/docking staion tha will accomodate a
high end graphics card?

many are already equipped with ATI/nvidia graphics.

 

[Leythos]

I'm planning on spending my retirement traveling a lot to see my three
sons (Texas, Colorado and Massachusets) and spend months at a time at
each location. I'm looking for opinions on how to have a high end
system (large drives, Vista Ultimate, Photoshop enthusiast) available
at each location. It could be one system that is portable, a separate
system (identical) at each location where I could just take my drives
and peripherals with me and use caddy's, or a very high end portable
laptop or luggable (I can't think of any other options at this time).
Not sure if this is a unique problem or not - but I guess I want my
cake and eat it too. Using Photoshop is my main interest (digital
photography). Games are not my interest. Looking for suggestions as
none of my ideas seem really practical. Perhaps there's something on
the market that could handle what I need - but I'm not aware of it.
Suggestions???

I travel all over the country and use every thing you've mention and
have a laptop that does just fine.

For you, as my current config is not available:

1) Core 2 Duo, 2+ ghz
2) 2GB RAM
3) Dedicated video memory
4) Wireless and a standard PCMCIA slot, not just that new card slot
5) Verizon BroadBand wireless internet service
6) 17" Wide Screen LCD, bright
7) If you are stationary long enough, second small 19" LCD
8) Mouse (external, laptop touch pads will drive you nuts).
9) External USB drive (250GB, for backups)

Expect to pay about $2200 for the laptop.

 

[Fruit2O]

It wasn't, for all the things you mentioned, with an extra battery, you
should be able to do whatever challenges you. I thought that was pretty
obvious and considered it a trick question.

OK, I apologise. But my understanding of Photoshop is that I would
need a fast, powerful system to do the work I do justice. Also, it is
not advisable to use an LCD screen with Photoshop. A CRT is a must and
it has to be high end so it can be calibrated for color balance (with a
colorimeter or 'spyder.'

 

[Fruit2O]

not really all you need is a color profile for your LCD/CRT, and thats
only if your output is to go to a professional print shop that requires
panacharted colors. I use an older SHARP(1yr old) widescreen with a 2.0 cpu
and gig ram, laptop. illustrator_ photoshop_Indesign and the macromedia
suite all run perfectly. The tool pallettes do become cumbersome but you get
used to it. When I spent many hours on the road away from home, usually
located somewhere for a period of time, I found that you can 'rent' a CRT
and use the LT on that when the job called for a decent workspace.

I find that a monitor profile isn't good enough. Maybe I'm wrong. A
real good laptop would solve all my problems about portability. I use a
LaCie CRT monitor and alibrate it every week.

 

[Fruit2O]

Luggables are no longer made, though a few desktops (very few) have
handles on the cases. I'd go with the high end laptop. Make sure you
get LOTS of RAM for photoshop. Laptops currently top out at around 2GB,
mostly. But call and ask if any will take 4gb.

Do some homework, compare prices of dell, ibm (lenovo),

What is lenovo?

hp. Avoid sony,

and emachines (they suck). I've not seen enough of recent toshibas or
fujitsus to make a call either way.

Dell starts shipping with Vista on the 30th of this month. I lean
towards Dell because of the availability of the service manuals and
drivers online. Most vendors have drivers, but hp drops them from their
website from time to time. Pretty hit and miss, as the system ages. IBM
has all that, but their site is a bit harder to navigate.

What about the lack of depth of color on an LCD screen (using
Photoshop)?

 

[Fruit2O]

I travel all over the country and use every thing you've mention and
have a laptop that does just fine.

For you, as my current config is not available:

1) Core 2 Duo, 2+ ghz
2) 2GB RAM
3) Dedicated video memory
4) Wireless and a standard PCMCIA slot, not just that new card slot
5) Verizon BroadBand wireless internet service
6) 17" Wide Screen LCD, bright
7) If you are stationary long enough, second small 19" LCD
8) Mouse (external, laptop touch pads will drive you nuts).
9) External USB drive (250GB, for backups)

Expect to pay about $2200 for the laptop.

Thanks for the feedback and config. Are there any laptops that will
hold 4GB RAM? I understand that Vista is a memory hog.

 

[OSbandito]

I'm planning on spending my retirement traveling a lot to see my three
sons (Texas, Colorado and Massachusets) and spend months at a time at
each location. I'm looking for opinions on how to have a high end
system (large drives, Vista Ultimate, Photoshop enthusiast) available
at each location. It could be one system that is portable, a separate
system (identical) at each location where I could just take my drives
and peripherals with me and use caddy's, or a very high end portable
laptop or luggable (I can't think of any other options at this time).
Not sure if this is a unique problem or not - but I guess I want my
cake and eat it too. Using Photoshop is my main interest (digital
photography). Games are not my interest. Looking for suggestions as
none of my ideas seem really practical. Perhaps there's something on
the market that could handle what I need - but I'm not aware of it.
Suggestions???

Fruit, This is from a non-MS user but, from what I know of XP and
Vista, you'd get a much bigger bang for your buck by sticking with XP,
especially for multiple systems. If I understand correctly, you'd be
spending a sh!* load for RAM and big-cache graphics if you go with
Vista, for no greater speed. Also, like any new product, the OS is
unproven in the public arena. I'll leave it to worthy cohorts to
recommend hardware.

 

[OSbandito]

:

Avoid sony,
and emachines (they suck). I've not seen enough of recent toshibas or
fujitsus to make a call either way.

paulmd, I'd avoid Toshiba because of the poor quality of their customer
service. I have a high opinion of Fujitsu, though. They're innovative on
HD development and have had some nice free ddownloadable utilities for
diagnosing HD problems. As for IBM/Lenovo, the quality of IBM's laptop
harddrives has not been great. One installed in my kid's Latitude had a
bearing go bad after light use.

 

[JAD]

I find that a monitor profile isn't good enough. Maybe I'm wrong. A
real good laptop would solve all my problems about portability. I use a
LaCie CRT monitor and alibrate it every week.

There are situations where it is necessary. I don't know your output format
so I can't say one way or the other. If its just a 'feeling' well...
that's hard to argue

 

[Leythos]

Thanks for the feedback and config. Are there any laptops that will
hold 4GB RAM? I understand that Vista is a memory hog.

Forget Vista, wait until it's been released for AT LEAST 6 MONTHS or
more. All of your apps will run on XP for a long time, stick with it and
it's stable.

As for 4GB, try the www.circuitcity.com website, and then select the
requirements and read the specs.

As for laptops, I've purchased the following brands:

1) Toshiba, high end units, and I'm using one now, and love it. The
cheaper units I would not own/have if you paid me.

2) HP, again, their higher end units - like the Core 2 Duo with dual 1XX
GB drives, the 17" screen, 256MB dedicated memory - only catch is they
have an Express slot and no PCMCIA slot.

3) Levono T60 units, I use their for field service reps - hardy units,
good response, I consider them throw-away units if they break and
require much to fix.

4) Sony - nope, never again.

5) Dell - nope, not again.

6) No-Name units from self build/custom shops - yes, more expensive, but
you get exactly what you want.

 

[OSbandito]

Forget Vista, wait until it's been released for AT LEAST 6 MONTHS or
more. All of your apps will run on XP for a long time, stick with it and it's stable.

As for 4GB, try the www.circuitcity.com website, and then select the
requirements and read the specs.

<...>


L--This is just a personal note but I would rather catch crabs from a
drowning leper than deal with Circuit City. I applied for work there
years ago and walked out of the office when I read the rights-waivers
they were requiring applicants to sign.

 

[paulmd]

What is lenovo?

Lenovo now owns IBM notebooks and support.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenovo

hp. Avoid sony,

What about the lack of depth of color on an LCD screen (using
Photoshop)?

Fixed, at least in the high end. But make sure to inquire before you
buy.

 

[Rod Speed]

OK, I apologise. But my understanding of Photoshop is that I would
need a fast, powerful system to do the work I do justice. Also, it is
not advisable to use an LCD screen with Photoshop. A CRT is a must
and it has to be high end so it can be calibrated for color balance
(with a colorimeter or 'spyder.'

Thats a significant portability problem unless you can afford
to have one of those monitors at each place you plan to use it.