Please check photographer's spec

[ilike2burnthing]

Hi, looking for some help on the specs as you might have guessed. Any help will be much appreciated and rewarded with smilies.

Laptop for digital photography student/semi-professional. Running Adobe's Master Collection CS5.5 and Microsoft Office 2010 Pro along side some website design, music, various IM software, heavy internet browsing, torrenting, watching videos/DVDs; all on W7 Ultimate x64 (and yes that is all legally and currently owned). It will not be used for gaming (unless I can get my hands on it...:shifty. Obviously going to be using external and removable hard drives, cameras, memory cards, printers, etc. There is a possibility of purchasing OS X Lion in the future and dual booting it to use some other editing software (or even just to annoy fellow digital photography students with MacBooks). The estimated budget is the £750 I have hit, but some more or less is acceptable.

Chassis & Display
Optimus II: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2670QM (2.20GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M - 2GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N130 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 6 Cell Lithium-ION Battery (48.84WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 90W Adaptor (GT 540M) / 120W Adaptor (GT 555M)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1.3 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £747.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/optimusII/

I was considering upping the RAM speed and the quality of the thermal paste is needed. Also, is the increased battery worth it? Finally, what benefit would there be to upgrading the wireless?

Thanks,
David

 

[Music Guy123]

I wouldn't bother upgrading the wireless unless you have incredibly fast internet or want extreme range. Definately upgrade the thermal paste, don't bother upgrading the RAM, there won'd be a difference. Make sure you get the silver warranty. Finally, an upgrade that I would recommend if you can afford it is the HDD, to a seagate momentus hybrid but it is your choice.

 

[ilike2burnthing]

Thanks very much. I've added the thermal paste and kept everything else the same (I didn't think the wireless or RAM would help, but it was worth the ask). I'll say to my partner about the warranty increase, but for £5 I'm sure she'll say yes. As for the HHD, I wish, but were I to really want the jump up in performance I'd go for a main SSD and a HDD for files.

Do you know if the increased battery (from 48.84 to 62.16) is worth the price?

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