Buying a laptop need adive

15 years ago

I am looking to get a laptop in the near future. I take a lot of pictures and on my current computer whenever I try to load my pictures in photoshop it takes several minutes for the photos to load and then when I am editing each one it takes the computer forever to make each change. My current computer is a HP Pavilion a1700n.

So I am looking for a laptop. What should I be looking for in a laptop that would make it be fast with photo editing? I would like to spend less than $500. I was looking at BestBuys website and they have refurbished laptops. Should I avoid a refurbished laptop? Also what brands of laptops are the best and which are not?

Thank you for any help!

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Comments (6)

mike_kaiser_gw
15 years ago
Unless you need portability, a desktop is generally going to give you more bang for your buck. If you want speed then pick the fastest processor and as much memory as you can afford.

The Pavilion you mention is a fairly mainstream computer but in any case it shouldn't "several minutes" to open the average digital camera image (unless you have a high end DSL and are taking images at the highest resolution). The question is what's using the resources of your current computer.
grandms
15 years ago
I have the HP a1130n which may be an older model than yours, but I have no problem at all working with photos. I did upgrade my RAM to 3GB, and I use CCleaner to get rid of temporary files and clean cache before I run defrag about once a month. You might also want to check your startup to see what's running and using resources as mk suggested. I use the free version of WinPatrol to alert me whenever a new program wants to run in startup.

I also agree that if you want to stay within the amount you mentioned, you don't want a laptop because one in that price range will not have the "guts" for lots of photo editing.
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lalogue86
Original Author
15 years ago
When it is taking a long time to open pictures in photoshop it's not one picture. I usually drag about 20 pictures at a time to edit. I do have a dslr camera. Thanks for the advice about the processor and memory.
genes
15 years ago
I think if you were to do a serious "clean" in your computer, ie. eliminate non-required items in start up...a good virus, malware sweep, hard drive cleanup of temp files etc...a good defrag and add 2Gs of memory to the 1G it came with...If you are running a 32bit Operating system, than 3-3.5G's is all it will see or use...If you happen to have a 64bit OS then you should bump it up to the max of 4GBs...Once this is done and will cost a whole lot less than $500, you will have a very fast machine and shouldnt have any problems with any photo editing
mike_kaiser_gw
15 years ago
I usually drag about 20 pictures at a time to edit. I do have a dslr camera.

Well then, I don't think you're going to find a sub-$500 laptop that's going to fit the bill. Heck, I think you're going to have a hard time with a sub-$500 computer. I'd be thinking at least a Core i5, 4-8 GB of ram, and a big, fast hard drive.
owbist
15 years ago
It begs the question 'why do you need to open 20 photos at a time knowing this will consume resources'? You can only edit one at a time unless you are combining from various photos, even then 20 seems excessive.

Buying a laptop need adive

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