M4500 vs E6510: on the fence

I am trying to decide between the M4500 and the E6510.

I am a photographer and will be using this computer for photoshop work in the field and hooked up to a 26in monitor at home.

I want something that will last a few years, so I am considering the M4500 as future proofing, because you can get a faster video card and CPU with it.

Is the M4500 worth the extra bucks? Or is it just overkill for what I am going to be using it for?

 

I'm not really sure, but I believe the main difference would be the graphic cards. E6510 has pretty entry-level dedicated graphic card options. I guess the choice would depend on how much graphic power you would like to have as a photographer...

Pricewise, Latitudes have some good coupons from time to time (like 30%) whereas I could not really find any for Precisions. So the gap can get even bigger when latitude coupons are available.

 

Don't need to double post...

 

I would suspect that it is overkill. What hardware are you using at the moment and do you see performance problems? One disadvantage of the extra CPU and GPU power is that those components leak more power during light usage / idle so you will get a noticeable reduction in battery time.

John

 

I am not able to use photoshop usefully on my current laptop (inspiron 1525) due to it's lack of a capable graphics card.

Photoshop CS5 requires a hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics card, 16-bit color, and 256MB of VRAM. It also needs graphics support for Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0.

It really crawls on the 1525... to the point of being unusable.

It is not unusual for me do be dealing with files that are 1gb for a single photo once all layers are applied.

 

I cant see you regretting a M4500 purchase personally.I'm not sure about the E6510 with your software, an FX quadro is a must for what I use , either way, the M4500 is considerably more powerful graphically no matter which API your software is using, therefore will perform better, for longer.

 

I'd have to agree with this statement. Also, for some of us, there is no such thing as overkill with regards to a computer

 

Yeah... you are right. I have never said to myself " I wish I bought a computer with less power"

I will get the M4500

 

I've got the E6510 and it works quite well with Photoshop. I've got 4 GB of RAM and the i7-620M. There is OpenGL support with the Nvidia integrated graphics card.

I think the main thing you'd sacrifice with the M4500 is battery life and money. It's up to you.

 

I have an E6510 with i5-540M and Nvidia graphics. Photopshop runs just fine on it.