Thread: New laptop suggestions please

Going from what you said about the image files, any brand should suffice but try and go for a laptop that has a nvidia graphics card that has "cuda cores". ie "GTX- ####" etc,
CS5 will use your graphics card (the cuda cores) and things will become very fast. You will need to download a support file to update your CS5 so it works with the graphics card you have. Just google cuda cores CS5 and you should be right.

Hi,
I went for a Lenovo on advice from my son who services lap tops, he says they are a solid unit, well built and have quality components.
I've had this one nearly 3 years with no problems.

cheers

My 2c:

I work on desktops & laptops a fair bit for work & muck around with them in my spare time.

IMO Dell is best. Now I know everybody has a "Dell horror story", but in truth they work well for us, partly because the machines run well, but mostly because of their great customer service & prompt on site repair, which is an essential in business. My most recent on has had 1 issue in the last 18 months that was sorted the next day. We have at least 8 Dells at work that have had no issues in the last 2 years. (and BTW, I track mine all over the place & to & from work every day)

So simply for contingencies sake get a business Dell & a onsite support plan for the expected life of the machine.

I bought the equivalent spec model in the H53SV range a few weeks ago. Saw it in HN for ~$1800 picked it up at MSY for a bit under $1200. No complaints about it.

Don't know much about CUDA but the NVIDA spec page for the GT540M says it supports CUDA - "96 CUDA cores". GeForce GT 540M

I'd love to say Mac, as they are robust, fast and reliable....

But here at work I'm stuck with Lenovo - which whilst lack lustre do work consistently.

I think your choice is fine, presume that it has 2 drives I would take one out and put an SSD in for the boot drive.
I would then run a 64 bit version of Windows and take up some of your RAM and run a RAM Drive for the files you are processing.
Should be more than adequate.

We are forced to buy Dell.

This will be my new machine.
DELL XPS17
PROCESSOR 2nd generation Intel® CoreT i7-2860QM processor 2.50 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.60 GHz
MEMORY 8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
HARD DRIVE 1.0TB 500GB 7.2k HDD x 2
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M 3GB graphics with Optimus
HD DISPLAY 17.3" FHD (1080p) with 2.0MP HD Webcam
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Tray Load Blu-ray® Triple Writer (reads and writes CDs, DVDs, BDs)
BATTERY OPTIONS 90 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

It was either the above or an M4600 workstation laptop. The M4600 would probably last longer, but we have also been forced over to leasing rather than purchase, so it just needs to last the lease. The M4600 was also a lot worse value for money.

The machine will be used for modelling, simulation and image processing (as well as the usual).

Re the Dell comments. I think they're quite good machines for the price and we use their Vostro laptops for our techs, and desktops and servers for our customers.

But there is better buying out there if you compare the Dell specs to others, hence me looking at the Asus. I've used an Asus M51V for 3 years now with no problems at all. My two boys got an N53S each for xmas and they're awesome machines.