laptop decsion need help !!!

Hi All,
After months and months of research (6 months to be exact)

So here it goes:

I need some in choosing a Laptop for my Digital Photography business,And I was wondering if you could please help me ????
I basically have my choices down to (2) machines and here they are with their configurations:

HP ZD8000:

Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Professional

Intel(R) Pentium(R)4 processor 540 w/HT Technology (3.2 GHZ)

17.0" WSXGA+ BrightView Wide Viewing (1680x1050)

1.0GB DDR2 SDRAM, 400MHz (2x512MB)

60 GB 72000 RPM Hard Drive


8X DVD +/- RW/R & CD-RW Combo Drive

256MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) X600 (PCI EXPRESS)

54g(TM) Integ. Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN & Bluetooth

DELL INSPIRON 9200:

Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional

Intel® Pentium® M 755 Processor (2GHz/400MHz FSB)

17" UltraSharp™ Wide Screen XGA+ Display

128MB ATI's™ Mobility Radeon™ 9700

1GB DDR SDRAM at 333MHz 2 Dimm

8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer write capability

80GB Hard Drive

Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g,

Dell™ TrueMobile™ 300 Bluetooth Internal Card

Which machine is going to gives me better performance when working in Photoshop converting my RAW files to TIFFS & JPEGS and then doing image correction and manipulation ???

I do not play games at all

Both machines cost within $200 of one another

The machine is generally never unplugged from the A/C

MAIN USE: Alot of digital photography,basic office apps,burning CD's/DVD's and the web

Performance is the most important factor That's what I am looking for because I am upgrading from another laptop

It is a Dell Inspiron 8200
P4-M 1.8 with 768 megs of ram PC2100
64 meg ATI Raedon 9000
60 gig 7200 Hitachi drive (main drive-O/S)
60 gig 5400 rpm ibm (modular bay-DATA STORAGE)
orinoco gold b/g client card
15" uxga screen (1600x1200 resolution)
24x CDRW/DVD combo drive
on board Firewire
PCMCIA USB 2.0 card
I just have to be sure it will be a noticeable difference ????

Any Suggestions would be greatly appreciated..........Thanks in advance.........Shkj

 

Neither. I'd get one of these:

http://www.sagernotebook.com/pages/notebooks/product.cfm?ProductType=4750

When 64-bit WinXP comes out next year, if Adobe has the good sense to do a 64-bit port of Photoshop you'll be very glad to have an Athlon 64 CPU. Meanwhile, it should still be a bit better than your other two Intel-based choices.

 

Hi Brianstretch,
I already have an AMD64 ready machine that is a desktop that I built about 3 months ago !!!

That's why I did not go with the Sager 4750.....si my question still stands ??????....thanks.......shkj

 

How sure you are you would want a *notebook* with the *P4* CPU? Dothan is better.

 

Why is the Dothan Better ???

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by shkj2

 

I would go with the HP. its is just more powerful over all. The CPU and ram are both faster on the HP. The hard drives I think will be the same. I think you will be happier with the HP brightview screen because of the increased contrast. I don't think the video cards matter for what you want to do but if you want to know the HP's card is much better. The Dell card is very nice just not as nice. From what I know I would think between the 2 models the HP has the faster CPU and RAM which will help over all performance the most. If you did decide you cared about battery life then maybe I'd reconsider but it won't be a huge difference.

Compaq R3000T (CTO)
P4 Desktop 3.0GHz w/HT
2 X 1024MB RAM
Radeon 9600 128MB
60GB 7,200RPM HD
AquaMark3: 24,257, 3DMark03: 3,115

 

How is the reliability on the HP ???
Some have said that is just plain horrible while other have said that Dell has the best ???
Generally the notebook is on 24/7 as like with my current Dell and I have had zero problems !!!

Heat is also a small concern,I don't want a blast furnace either but I really don't want something that is under powered either !!!!!!!
thanks.........shkj

 

i can vouch for HP i have a Zx5000 that has been Flawless, i recommand HP. On the other hand i wouldnt go with Dell people say there build Quality is horrible. There tech support also doesnt help much, i scraped my 3 year old Demension 8200 Desktop and built a nice AMD powered solution. Hence why i didnt choose Dell for my laptop needs.