M4500 to replace a Latitude D620, help?

I'm hoping somebody can comment, didn't get any responses from the "what should I buy" forum. Thanks in advance for any helpful comments.

I have 3 questions.
1) Does anybody know if the Adobe software (if so, which) below would work ok on the Windows 7 Pro 64? (I know there's an XP mode but I'm not sure how this all works together.)

2) Which Dell-available display is best for what I do?

3) Any other comments about this configuration or running my software on it?

I'm looking at the config below, however it doesn't have RGBLED (supposedly coming on this model within a couple of months). I'm not if this one is TL (True Life), which the M6500 has/can have. I have a 4-year-old Latitude D620 with XP, 14.1 WXGA+, 2Gb RAM and an 80Gb HD at the moment and haven't seen these other display types so I have nothing to compare.

I use Photoshop CS4, Lightroom 2.7 (25000+ images), Adobe Audition 1.5 (older than the previous two), Office applications including Powerpoint or the Open Office equivalent at the same time, usually browsing and emailing at the same time, and sometimes ArcGIS 9.3.1 and/or Google Earth and GPS software. The ArcGIS is a year-long trial education edition, so I don't necessarily need to migrate that over, at least as long as the Latitude lasts.

Also, this system right now is discounted $600+ ($1997) and is within my budget, but it may not be if I wait for the RGBLED. In the last month or so they also changed the HD (used to have FFS). I want something from the SMB division since the support is not offshore.


Module Description
Precision Mobile M4500 Precision Mobile M4500
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, 64-bit, no media
Processor Intel® Core™ i7-740QM Quad Core 1.73GHz 6MB
Memory 4.0GB, DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM, 2 DIMMS

Graphics NVIDIA® Quadro FX 880M Graphics with 1GB dedicated memory
Storage 750GB 7200rpm Hard Drive

LCDs 15.6" Full HD (1920 x 1080) Wide View Anti-Glare LED Display with Premium Panel Guarantee
Bluetooth Dell Wireless® 375 Bluetooth Module

Primary Optical Device 8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio and Cyberlink Power DVD™,
Camera / Microphone Integrated webcam with microphone
Wireless LAN (802.11) Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6200 802.11a/b/g/n Half Mini Card

Productivity Software Microsoft® Office Starter 2010

Primary Battery 9-cell (90Wh) Lithium Ion Battery

 

1. check the requirements on the software manufacturers website for what versions and service packs run on what OS version, if they meet the requirements you won't have any problems, XP mode in Windows 7 doesn't support hardware acceleration so you might as well be using something else.
If you have an old software version that only supports up to XP, just use XP, dual boot, have a secondary hard drive in the modular bay with XP on one drive and W7 or whatever on the other, thats what I do except I also use Linux as well, so have 2 modular drives......just means pushing F12 at post and select boot from from modular drive, the performance from the modular drive bay is exactly the same as the main hard drive slot.

2.Probably the one you have selected, I have the 1600x900 and it's nothing special at all, and I'm not a photographers backside, if you can wait there is promise of RGBLED on the M4600, but, they promised the same thing on the M4500 and it's never eventuated, your other alternatives are buying the older [but still good] M4400 with the RGB screen, or the more expensive option of the apparently stunning HP elitebook 8540w IPS RGB screen.

3. Looks ok to me

 

CS4's suite is Windows 7 64 bit compatible (CS1-CS5 are all windows 7 64 bit compatible)
Light room 2.7 is Windows 7 32/64 bit certified.
Adobe Audition 1.5 should work properly but will disable aero if it's like Audition 1.0
Open office is definitely windows 7 64 bit compatible. Office 2003-2007-2010 are all Windows 7 64 bit compatible.
Google Earth for sure/most GPS software (unless incredibly old/obsolete) should be windows 7 64 bit compatible.
ArcGIS 9 and above is windows 7 64 bit certified.

If you have any other questions check this Microsoft website out. It has a pretty extensive library of compatible software.
Windows 7 Compatibility for : Drivers, Updates, Downloads

 

Buddy,

I have a M4500 and CS5 runs just fine. BUT, watch out since the M4600 is right around the corner.