First time laptop purchase to run LR5

[crockny]

I want to be able to download my photos out in the field and cull them on my laptop before I go home and transfer them to my PC.

I need to be able to see them at 100% and don't want to have to wait a long time for them to render. I also want to be able to stream videos.

If I buy a Dell, I'm confused about which are the important aspects to achieve my goal. I'm told the more RAM the better so I'm thinking 16GB. I'm told an SSD will speed things up considerably. Then I read that the cache size is important. And one person told me the i7 processor will not speed things up for me in LR5 and I should save my money and get the i5 (money is an issue but I want to get something I'll be happy with). But reading about the difference between the processors has left me somewhat confused about the truth of what that person told me about LR5 speed. I am not a gamer and the i7's with those other specs seem to be geared toward gamers.

Any clarity you could give me would be greatly appreciated!

Also if you have suggestions about other laptop brands I'd be happy to hear about them.

S

 

[theWeissGuy]

My laptop (Lenovo X230) with i5 has 8GB RAM, SSD, Windows 7 64bit. No problems with LR5.7 or earlier versions. Almost as fast as my more powerful desktop.

 

[Nogo]

The one thing that is most important in my opinion is the monitor. If you are going to do any type of processing on a laptop the monitor needs to be an IPS.

What you are using it for you probably don't need a great monitor, but if you ever calibrate the display, having an IPS display is almost a must.

 

[crockny]

I'm thinking I should just spend the bucks and get something that will be powerful, up to date, lightweight and hopefully last a long time ... instead of trying to economize and getting something I may not be happy with in the long run.

 

[Gene_mtl]

There are typically three levels to Computer hardware/technology: Today's Bleeding edge, Yesterday's Bleeding Edge and Last week's Bleeding edge aka obsolete tech.

If you buy Last Week's tech, you will need t do it all over again next year. If you have unlimited funds, you go for the best of Today's tech. But if like most of us where funds are not unlimited, your best bet is to buy the best and most affordable of Yesterday's Tech and hope you'll get a few more years before you need to go through the whole thing again. <Grin>

 

[Rose Weir]

Well I sure do like those labels : Today's, Yesterday's and Last week's!!!
I did the 'Today's' 3 years ago for a desktop and its like gamer specs and software is just catching up <GRIN> BUT that didn't work out when replacing a laptop. I discovered after the purchase the ram was not upgradeable although questioning that pre purchase the response was to the positive. It has 8 ram but some of it comes from the video on this Win8.1 laptop. The saving grace is that Win8.1 is rather snappy as an operating system.

Good to see your name Gene

 

[Gene_mtl]

Nice to see you too, Rose. I know a number of people who have moved to Laptops and even mobile devices. This old dinosaur will stick with good ol'full size desktops <Grin> My current rig is at least 5 years old. So expect I'll be upgrading this Fall. Looking to upgrade motherboard/CPU/Ram and a new VID card with a decent GPU as both Lightroom and Photoshop will be utilizing the Vid GPU to improve processing. Probably end up with an i7 6 core CPU with min 16 GB RAM Want 32 but may wait) Still investigating motherboards - want a good number of eSATA and USB 3.0 Ports.

 

[Constantinos]

I'm thinking I should just spend the bucks and get something that will be powerful, up to date, lightweight and hopefully last a long time ... instead of trying to economize and getting something I may not be happy with in the long run.

In this case, I would recommend getting an i7 processor with 8 if not 16GB of RAM. An SSD would speed things up, however will cost more and provide less capacity. An ideal setup in my opinion which would last long, as you say, would be a quad core i7, 16GB Ram, IPS monitor and an SSD. If you don't do videos the standard graphics of such a system has you covered.

 

[crockny]

In this case, I would recommend getting an i7 processor with 8 if not 16GB of RAM. An SSD would speed things up, however will cost more and provide less capacity. An ideal setup in my opinion which would last long, as you say, would be a quad core i7, 16GB Ram, IPS monitor and an SSD. If you don't do videos the standard graphics of such a system has you covered.

Well I didn't mean to imply that money isn't an issue! I'm confused between RAM and SSD capacity. I won't actually be storing much on the laptop except my programs and some photos temporarily so I'm not sure I need more than the 256 (or whatever it is) SSD ... ? Speed is important to me ...

 

[Constantinos]

Well I didn't mean to imply that money isn't an issue! I'm confused between RAM and SSD capacity. I won't actually be storing much on the laptop except my programs and some photos temporarily so I'm not sure I need more than the 256 (or whatever it is) SSD ... ? Speed is important to me ...

If you have to choose between increased RAM or SSD, choose the max RAM you can afford with an i7 quad core processor. A 256GB SSD is more than sufficient for all your apps/software and some photos as you point out.

 

[Modesto Vega]

I have now taken 2 laptops in the field and agree with Nogo, the display is the most important feature. After culling and editing my photos with the 1st laptop I took on the field, I arrived home to find a nasty surprise: I had to do it all again because the photos looked too different when viewed on my calibrated display.

After that the amount of memory and an solid state HDD are my 2 priorities. SSDs have no moving parts, therefore if you laptop takes a small knock or ingests some dust/sand, the SSD should not fail as easily as a convetional HDD.

 

[crockny]

Thanks everyone for all the input. I know that laptop displays are notoriously bad for color work. I will not be using my display for that unless I'm at a workshop and I'll consider that just practice! My photoshop work in general will be done on my PC with my NEC monitor profiled with a ColorMunki (by the way I just profiled my first paper with the CM for my Epson printer and I'm very pleased with the difference!). Mostly I'll be using LR to cull photos before I get home.

 

[Modesto Vega]

Thanks everyone for all the input. I know that laptop displays are notoriously bad for color work. I will not be using my display for that unless I'm at a workshop and I'll consider that just practice! My photoshop work in general will be done on my PC with my NEC monitor profiled with a ColorMunki (by the way I just profiled my first paper with the CM for my Epson printer and I'm very pleased with the difference!). Mostly I'll be using LR to cull photos before I get home.

I don't know how you go about culling your photographs, but I wouldn't try without a decent display. The display of my Mac Book is reasonably close to my external display which is calibrated with iDisplay Pro from the same maker as the Colour Munki. The display of my old HP laptop is not good enough for culling photos.