Laptop for photo editing

heavymental
heavymental Posts: 2,094
edited October 2022 in The cake stop
I use Lightroom a fair amount and a young person has recently pointed out to me that the reason it's running so slow is because my laptop is crap! He's recommended one of these (link below) and I've now started reading up on GPUs and processors and got lost in options. Anyone got a better option than this given my budget of around £1k?

It'll mostly be used for photo editing and I need 1tb storage which brings down the options a bit.

<< Just realised this one ships from the US so not really an option >>

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-Display-i7-10750H-GeForce-Backlit/dp/B0BCW46KWY/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3302RTB5FYGVN&amp;keywords=laptop+16GB+RAM&amp;qid=1664207151&amp;qu=eyJxc2MiOiI3LjI3IiwicXNhIjoiNi4zOCIsInFzcCI6IjUuMDMifQ==&amp;refinements=p_36:-100000,p_n_feature_three_browse-bin:213559031,p_n_feature_seven_browse-bin:8322553031,p_n_feature_twenty-four_browse-bin:27399086031&amp;rnid=27399084031&amp;s=computers&amp;sprefix=laptop+16gb+ram,aps,61&amp;sr=1-3&amp;th=1

I found this but not sure it's really any better?

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptop-computers-2-in-1-pcs/vostro-7620/spd/vostro-16-7620-laptop/s3304vnb7620bts01_fpr

Then I saw this and at that point there were too many options and my head started hurting!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09GKLFKGP?tag=versus06e-21&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1

Comments

  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,724
    There are hundreds of options.

    Spend some time working out what you need exactly (RAM and Really good, colour-balanced screen for example) and what you don't (epic gaming features, portability, long battery etc) and buy the one that you think looks nicest.

    To a large extent, you can't miss these days.
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • me-109
    me-109 Posts: 1,915
    Is that 1TB onboard SSD or spinny-disc-harddrive? The former is costly, the latter pretty rare these days.
    Can you manage with external drives, as just using 256GB onboard SSD will open more opportunities as suppliers try to hit certain price points. A 2TB external drive can be found quite cheap with USB-C connections.
    14" screens appear cheaper than 15" screens although the gubbins might be the same. 15s tend to have space for a numerical keypad but 14s dont. There are not so many 17" around these days either. It's that balance between portability and usability. A lot of times they aren't ported anywhere and are tied to an external monitor, so think of how and where you use it.
  • heavymental
    heavymental Posts: 2,094
    Thanks both. The laptop generally sits on my desk connected to an external monitor which I use for editing. It will occasionally need to be transported to use elsewhere but not that often. I'm looking at SSD all the way although having more than one drive seems less common these days. My current laptop has one spinny drive and one SSD, both 1tb. I'll just have to export to an external drive more regularly I guess.
  • photonic69
    photonic69 Posts: 2,990
    Professionally speaking look for these specs:

    1)Processor i7 or i9
    2)500GB (minimum) SSD
    3) 16GB Ram min 32GB preferably
    4) 15" screen minimum. You'll find anything less too small for LR
    5) Separate discreet Graphics card. It speeds up LR no end.
    6) External hdd to back up to. USB C drives are still costly. Usb 3 are good enough. With the internal 500GB ssd you won't be running off the External one.
    6) Get a screen calibrator to set colours and brightness.

    I'd recommend a Dell XPS 15" Expensive but it will do what you need very well. Don't buy Sora when you need Ultegra ;)


    Sometimes. Maybe. Possibly.

  • pblakeney
    pblakeney Posts: 27,521
    edited October 2022
    photonic69 said:



    I'd recommend a Dell XPS 15" Expensive but it will do what you need very well. Don't buy Sora when you need Ultegra ;)

    In that analogy I prefer to get Dura-Ace to be more future proof. 😉
    Expensive though, and advancements have slowed down since my last purchase.
    The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
    I am not sure. You have no chance.
    Veronese68 wrote:
    PB is the most sensible person on here.
  • heavymental
    heavymental Posts: 2,094
    photonic69 said:

    Professionally speaking look for these specs:

    1)Processor i7 or i9
    2)500GB (minimum) SSD
    3) 16GB Ram min 32GB preferably
    4) 15" screen minimum. You'll find anything less too small for LR
    5) Separate discreet Graphics card. It speeds up LR no end.
    6) External hdd to back up to. USB C drives are still costly. Usb 3 are good enough. With the internal 500GB ssd you won't be running off the External one.
    6) Get a screen calibrator to set colours and brightness.

    I'd recommend a Dell XPS 15" Expensive but it will do what you need very well. Don't buy Sora when you need Ultegra ;)

    Hmm yeh I dunno if I can stretch to 2k. This one is achievable though... https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptop-computers-2-in-1-pcs/vostro-7620/spd/vostro-16-7620-laptop/s3304vnb7620bts01_fpr
  • photonic69
    photonic69 Posts: 2,990
    heavymental said:

    photonic69 said:

    Professionally speaking look for these specs:

    1)Processor i7 or i9
    2)500GB (minimum) SSD
    3) 16GB Ram min 32GB preferably
    4) 15" screen minimum. You'll find anything less too small for LR
    5) Separate discreet Graphics card. It speeds up LR no end.
    6) External hdd to back up to. USB C drives are still costly. Usb 3 are good enough. With the internal 500GB ssd you won't be running off the External one.
    6) Get a screen calibrator to set colours and brightness.

    I'd recommend a Dell XPS 15" Expensive but it will do what you need very well. Don't buy Sora when you need Ultegra ;)

    Hmm yeh I dunno if I can stretch to 2k. This one is achievable though... https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptop-computers-2-in-1-pcs/vostro-7620/spd/vostro-16-7620-laptop/s3304vnb7620bts01_fpr
    Yeah, looks fine. Screen seems adequate but as you say you do use an external monitor so that will work well and at a good price point. I've got an XPS with the spec I mentioned. It's a few years old now and I use it to batch process 100's of images at a time through LR. It's pretty quick but gives the fans a good work-out keeping it cool

    I must say that Dell extended warranty is worth it. We've got 4 Dells at home. My son's keys started to come loose on his keyboard. They sent out an engineer next day and replaced the whole lot.


    Sometimes. Maybe. Possibly.

  • heavymental
    heavymental Posts: 2,094
    photonic69 said:

    heavymental said:

    photonic69 said:

    Professionally speaking look for these specs:

    1)Processor i7 or i9
    2)500GB (minimum) SSD
    3) 16GB Ram min 32GB preferably
    4) 15" screen minimum. You'll find anything less too small for LR
    5) Separate discreet Graphics card. It speeds up LR no end.
    6) External hdd to back up to. USB C drives are still costly. Usb 3 are good enough. With the internal 500GB ssd you won't be running off the External one.
    6) Get a screen calibrator to set colours and brightness.

    I'd recommend a Dell XPS 15" Expensive but it will do what you need very well. Don't buy Sora when you need Ultegra ;)

    Hmm yeh I dunno if I can stretch to 2k. This one is achievable though... https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptop-computers-2-in-1-pcs/vostro-7620/spd/vostro-16-7620-laptop/s3304vnb7620bts01_fpr
    Yeah, looks fine. Screen seems adequate but as you say you do use an external monitor so that will work well and at a good price point. I've got an XPS with the spec I mentioned. It's a few years old now and I use it to batch process 100's of images at a time through LR. It's pretty quick but gives the fans a good work-out keeping it cool

    I must say that Dell extended warranty is worth it. We've got 4 Dells at home. My son's keys started to come loose on his keyboard. They sent out an engineer next day and replaced the whole lot.

    That's worth knowing. I'm hoping it'll keep me going for a few years. They do seem decent on support generally.

    My last laptop I bought knowing very little about the value of a GPU for photo editing. There are questions online about how hot the Vostro runs but it'll be on my desk most of the time. Just have to turn the radio up!

    My current laptop just has shared graphics (?) so something with dedicated graphics is going to be way better I guess. It currently takes me way longer than it should to get through processing a set of images.
  • drhaggis
    drhaggis Posts: 1,150
    I can't believe there are so many people here recommending Intel. Their latest generation is crap on mobile. Gets too hot, and ends up throttling so much sustained performance is no better than last gen... while being hotter and lasting less.

    For sustained multithreaded load, your best bet is something with AMD Ryzen (6000 currently, I believe) in the windows world. If you can live with Macs, their M1/M2 cpu's are monstruous and super efficient. I believe both PS and LR CC are now native on ARM. Note it is likely (but not certain!) new macs will be announced this October.
  • photonic69
    photonic69 Posts: 2,990
    drhaggis said:

    I can't believe there are so many people here recommending Intel. Their latest generation is censored on mobile. Gets too hot, and ends up throttling so much sustained performance is no better than last gen... while being hotter and lasting less.

    For sustained multithreaded load, your best bet is something with AMD Ryzen (6000 currently, I believe) in the windows world. If you can live with Macs, their M1/M2 cpu's are monstruous and super efficient. I believe both PS and LR CC are now native on ARM. Note it is likely (but not certain!) new macs will be announced this October.

    Pointless reply - he doesn't have the budget for a Mac. Anyway, macs are the spawn of Beelzebub and shoud be smashed when seen. Overpriced tat (yes, we've had many many many macs at work)


    Sometimes. Maybe. Possibly.

  • PMark
    PMark Posts: 160
    That AMD laptop seems good value for money. Whatever you get, you need min of:

    AMD Ryzen 7 5xxx series
    Intel i7 12xxx (needs to be P or H version, not U)
    Nvidia graphics (work better in Adobe than AMD or intel graphics cards).

    A Mac laptop would be better and a lot quieter (something like MacBook Pro 14inch), but is about twice the price. So If you have the budget for one, I would test one out in a Apple store, otherwise anything with above specs will be fine).
  • drhaggis
    drhaggis Posts: 1,150
    photonic69 said:

    drhaggis said:

    I can't believe there are so many people here recommending Intel. Their latest generation is censored on mobile. Gets too hot, and ends up throttling so much sustained performance is no better than last gen... while being hotter and lasting less.

    For sustained multithreaded load, your best bet is something with AMD Ryzen (6000 currently, I believe) in the windows world. If you can live with Macs, their M1/M2 cpu's are monstruous and super efficient. I believe both PS and LR CC are now native on ARM. Note it is likely (but not certain!) new macs will be announced this October.

    Pointless reply - he doesn't have the budget for a Mac. Anyway, macs are the spawn of Beelzebub and shoud be smashed when seen. Overpriced tat (yes, we've had many many many macs at work)
    Read my response again. I'm stating current intel CPU's suck for laptops, because they get too hot too fast and, for sustained loads, will perform no better than last gen. This will happen on any frame without adequate cooling, which means pretty much anything that's not a workstation or a gaming laptop. Current AMD offerings, on top of being more common on budget alternatives, will perform very well without burning your lap, and with a better battery life.

    On the opposite end of the market, there is a reason why UK HPC centres are all opting for AMD CPU's at the moment.

    Also, an M1 MBA is £999, which is within the OP's budget, unlike some other suggestions in this very thread.
  • heavymental
    heavymental Posts: 2,094
    Thanks all, I went for the Dell in the end 🤔 which I'm now slightly worried will run too hot (as also mentioned in some reviews) but I'll have to wait and see. I never tend to use on my lap so hopefully it'll be less of a problem.

    https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptop-computers-2-in-1-pcs/vostro-7620/spd/vostro-16-7620-laptop/s3304vnb7620bts01_fpr
  • photonic69
    photonic69 Posts: 2,990
    heavymental said:

    Thanks all, I went for the Dell in the end 🤔 which I'm now slightly worried will run too hot (as also mentioned in some reviews) but I'll have to wait and see. I never tend to use on my lap so hopefully it'll be less of a problem.

    https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptop-computers-2-in-1-pcs/vostro-7620/spd/vostro-16-7620-laptop/s3304vnb7620bts01_fpr

    Nice machine. Great discount on the RRP! It'll be fine. Unless you are processing lots video on Adobe premier etc but then you'd want a bespoke rig for that. Enjoy it.


    Sometimes. Maybe. Possibly.

  • heavymental
    heavymental Posts: 2,094
    photonic69 said:

    heavymental said:

    Thanks all, I went for the Dell in the end 🤔 which I'm now slightly worried will run too hot (as also mentioned in some reviews) but I'll have to wait and see. I never tend to use on my lap so hopefully it'll be less of a problem.

    https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptop-computers-2-in-1-pcs/vostro-7620/spd/vostro-16-7620-laptop/s3304vnb7620bts01_fpr

    Nice machine. Great discount on the RRP! It'll be fine. Unless you are processing lots video on Adobe premier etc but then you'd want a bespoke rig for that. Enjoy it.
    Yeh I can't resist a crossed out price and a much smaller number next to it 😆 Not sure why the original price was so high but yeh hopefully a decent spec 👌

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