Buyer's Guide 2024: Ultimate Systems

PCPhoto

Buyer's Guides

Computer Buyers Guide

Upgrade the core of your digital darkroom for a faster, smoother photography workflow

By Wes Pitts

Page 4 of 4

NEED FOR SPEED

The most common drive speeds are 5400 and 7200 rpm. Gigabyte for gigabyte, the slower drive is cheaper. But you may want to sacrifice size for speed. Drive speed is important for two reasons. Faster speeds mean quicker loading times for applications and large image files and less waiting when using the drives as scratch disks for Photoshop. And drive speed is essential if you want to work with digital video. You need a 7200 rpm drive to be sure to keep up with the video-importing process. Slower drives may drop frames if they get bogged down.

HP Pavilion HDX 20-inch Notebook
Though marketed as an entertainment PC, the 20-inch screen and high-performance specs make this laptop a good choice for photographers, too. Expand your RAM up to 4 GB and get up to 500 GB of internal storage. Another valuable option is a built-in LightScribe DVD burner, which can print images and text labels on discs. The HDX also offers the option to choose next-generation 802.11n WiFi.


	Base Configuration
	Processor:	2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
	Memory:	2 GB
	Video Card:	ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT (512 MB)
	Hard Drive:	240 GB, 5400 rpm
	Optical Drive:	CD/DVD Double Layer burner with LightScribe
	Ports:	1—FireWire; 4—USB 2.0; HDMI
	Networking:	10/100/1000 Ethernet; WiFi; Bluetooth
	List Price:	$2,999 (as configured)

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