powerful mobile workstation for Photoshop, large files 300 MB min/ 1+ gb max

[anavidfan]

Hello, its that time of my life again where I need a new machine.

Short background:
Heavy Photoshop use, work in many layers , digital photography and use of real paint and drawings etc.

Have owned Alienware MX17 top of the line , SLI , max RAM of the time, and Extreme Intel processor of the time....

Dell XPS bought at same time, same specs, both had top of the line SLI Nvidia graphics, etc

Dell is still running, Alienware crapped out over a year ago. One of the graphics cards unresponsive, whole thing blue screened and never booted up again

Ive been looking at the now owned by Dell , Alienware 18 base, dual sli etc. Also the Malibal NINE series , and the Eurocom and LEnovo. Most important to me are customer service and after purchase care.

I bought my Alienware 6 months before Dell took over and the customer service and technical support was awful. My optical drive died, and they wanted me to do all the repair or send it. I tried, but did not want to damage the case so I sent it, it was returned without an optical drive and damged LCD montitor. Sent it in again , optical drive dead....... After months of going back and forth, ended up exchanging it and spending a 1000.00 more.

I love Dells CS. In home, great warranty, etc. NO HASSLES

Ive not really seen too many things on Malibals or Eurocom CS and repair experiences..... I also hear that Adobe recomends HP mobile workstations, but the graphics choices are very limited.

Thank you for any advice and I hope I did not ramble and gave you enough information. I want a strong case, simple design, like that of my old Alienware MX17, simple not a lot of loud graphics or colours, aluminum or strong alloys are needed as I travel.

Oh, another important feature I need is a good cooling system in the case, It gets real hot , I mean HOT, no air conditioning, I do shut down my machines when not in use, and do have a fan/ cooler for the laptop, but....

Oh, one more thing, I DO NOT WANT WINDOWS 8,

 

[velo3100]

I have read good things with the hp workstations range. I am not familiar with any other brand that makes workstations except lenovo.

 

[anavidfan]

Thank you, for your reply, I have heard good things from those too. But you all know how its like, ask everyone that one knows personally, and you are most likely going to get a different opinion from each

I got a quote for the Alienware and it came to almost 7,000. I configured the same and actually with more features and a Xeon processor from Eurocom and it was 2,000 less. The Malibal quote also came to less than 7,000. I found another company called Origin, and the same set up or real close with the Xeon processor, dual 800 series Nvidias, 32gb of ram and 3 hard drives came to about 5000.

I want the best that I can afford that will last me for the next 5 years, at least, that will be rugged, strong, and has good after care.

I just want to make sure that after I decide, that I dont run into people telling me , oh those Machines are the worst, and find all sorts of bad reviews after I buy it.