Need laptop for Digital Photography?

I'm a professional photographer that is converting from film to digital and need a laptop for when I go on trips to download images from my camera. The main use will be downloading and editing images that are obviously bad. Final editing will be down at home. Someday I may install photoshop and connect to my home monitor if the laptop is a lot faster. I won't be doing any video or 3D images and my games will problably be limited to solitaire. I'm thinking of the Dell 8600 but when I tried calling them for advice it was a joke all they would recomend was the most expensive and could not tell me why I needed it.
I will be doing some word processing also.
My options are:

Pentium M processor 1.5 or 1.6 GHz 15.4 UXGA
Windows XP Home or Professional
512MB DDR SDRAM 1 Dimm?
32 MB DDR NVIDIA GEFORCE FX Go5200 AGP 4X Graphics or
64 MB DDR NVIIA GeFORCE FX Go5200 AGP 4X Graphics or
128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY RADEON 9600 PROTURBO
40GB or 60GB Hard Drive
4X or 8X CD/DVD burner

 

Sounds like you could get by with any bottom of the line laptop for what you need. Probably even a used one. I think even the old PIII laptops can run Adobe photoshop pretty well.

The 8600 is certainly overkill.

 

If you want Dell, you might want something a little bit more mobile. For your needs, I might consider the 600m as and option as well. It has a nice processor, you could get a decent 64 MB video card, and it would be lighter than the 8600.

You would be fine with a 1.5 ghz processor. To save money, I would suggest getting 256 MB of RAM, then purchasing another 256 from Crucial.com or anyone other than Dell. They rip you off on memory.

The 8600 is a great laptop, so you won't go wrong there, I just think the 600m would be a better fit.

 

Hi Bill,
If you want a new notebook look at this IBM from newegg.com
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=34-146-021&depa=0

I bought this one for the same reason as you although I'm not a pro. I use a Canon 10D & D60 along with the IBM R40 notebook. Like you I just do use the notebook to download images and maybe a fast edit or two as anything where color is critical gets put up on a calibrated monitor. The reasons I picked the IBM is because of it's high reliability and build quality. In fact if you read the PCmag article on service and reliability http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1187349,00.asp
you will see that IBM, Toshiba and Apple are the top three. Dell use to rate high as well until 2002, then they went way downhill. Any way check out the IBM I linked to, other great features are 1394 port, over 6 hours of battery life 1400x1050 res. display and 60GB hard drive. I don't think you will find a more reliable and rugged notebook with these feature at this low price.

Another option if your looking at used units would be to get a pre 2002 Dell like an 800Mhz pentium III, those older Dells are pretty well built and you could probably pick one up for under $400 and then upgrade the memory and hard drive.

Good luck
Jack