Time to upgrade/update hardware?

Home · Register · Search · Software · Hosting · Software · Join Upload & Sell

FM Actions & Plugins support
Workflow Guidelines

FM Forums \| Post-processing & Printing \| Join Upload & Sell
end

Isca
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #1 · Time to upgrade/update hardware?

I'm not really sure what the solution is here. I use Nik filters sat inside CS6 on a laptop that is 4gig of RAM and a P360 dual core processor ( think that is all the necessary techie stuff!!!). I process mostly on a PC that does the job ok but as it's a pc and I spend my working life in my home office then I'm less inclined to process photos there nowadays so I'm finding that photos are getting taken but not processed.

I'm hoping the answer might be in front of the tv with the family at night watching the drivel on tv that everybody else watches (I'm there anyway watching it or reading or whatever).

Now here's the challenge. I downloaded Air Play to turn iPad into a cheapie tablet but the lag is horrendous and my fingers are too big to control it well. I was surprised at how nice the display was though compared to my laptop. Now I'm thinking that I might need a new laptop? Or a Wacom tablet?

Any thoughts on laptops, displays, tablets, anything else? I use Nik pretty much exclusively, CS6 gets used for cropping mostly and occasionally a few actions that I've written but I'm using it as I'm hooked into the Adobe user/upgrade path although my next upgrade will probably be CS 29!!! I'm also committed to Windows.

Feb 16, 2013 at 07:51 PM

Alan321
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #2 · Time to upgrade/update hardware?

Which display impressed you - the TV ? or the iPad ?

Beware of impressive tv displays - they've usually got too much contrast and colour and while they look "good" for a while they are rarely accurate for photo work. Then again, maybe your laptop screen isn't either - has it been calibrated and profiled ?

Most new laptops will run rings around your old one thanks to more RAM, faster cpu, quad core cpu, bigger and faster drive(s) (perhaps SSD but even HDDs are faster than those from a few years ago), HDMI output, USB 3 output, etc. Probably runs cooler too.

Try to find one with 132 pixels per inch instead of the more common 110 or 100. It will be noticeably less pixelated but not as nice as the 264 ppi retina screen on the ipad.

I doubt that sitting in front of the tv is ideal for editing photos because of the distractions including the moving colour tv picture above/behind your laptop screen, but I understand why you might want to get away from the office area. Maybe you'll find it better to use a different room or wait until the tv is off.

- Alan

Feb 17, 2013 at 05:13 AM

Isca
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #3 · Time to upgrade/update hardware?

Thanks for the input Alan, you're right, it's not ideal but it's better than the alternative!! I hadn't realized that the iPad was double a good notebook screen in resolution, very interesting, I really am torn.

Feb 17, 2013 at 07:47 PM

OntheRez
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #4 · Time to upgrade/update hardware?

Isca,
It is an unfortunately truism in computing that the "best time to upgrade" was 24 hours after you bought your latest computer.

Note the heavy sarcasm here. What you're probably seeing on the iPad is the "retina" display. Apple has a line of laptops with the same display capacity. Quite impressive. A well equipped one is not cheap, but rather dazzling to use. I assume a Windows company will introduce a similar display at some point, but I'm not aware of one at the moment. And yeah, you seriously need RAM.

Robert

Feb 21, 2013 at 09:52 PM

end
FM Forums \| Post-processing & Printing \| Join Upload & Sell end