Budget 51-70k Laptop for a Professional Photographer (Intensive Image Editing in LR and PS)

[dskochhar]

What's your Budget? -> Don't want to buy a real expensive laptop but I want something which would not be outdated and then seem slow in just a couple of months. Would like to buy something good. So the budget depends according to that and my below requirements.

What will be your primary usage for the notebook be? -> Intense Image Editing in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom 4. Ocassional Video Editing would also be done.

What size and weight considerations do you have? -> None other than a 15.6" screen or bigger but please note that I have been a Core i7 desktop user with 6gigs of DDR3 RAM. Things were pretty snappy on that system and I expect the same from my laptop.

Any brand that you prefer, or any brand that you detest? -> Anything other than a mac. I am a Windows user.

Any other considerations? -> I am a Freelance Professional Photographer and I would be using Photoshop and Lightroom extensively. I would like to have a good display (IPS would be awesome) because it is vital for me to calibrate the screen as per the print. I would also like a 120GB SSD on it so that the OS and other softwares I install on it are super snappy and a 1TB 7200RPM HDD to store the current important client data on it. I would do some casual gaming sometimes but my main preference is good performance as I would also be using it for Photographic Retouching which involves me having many layers open in Photoshop.

As per my needs and requirements I have the below laptop configured for myself at CyberPowerPC but I am unsure whether there are any cheaper options out there or whether there are any other brands which offer a better/similar solution. I want to make a wise and informed decision whenever I buy this laptop and I would like for it to be future proof. I am not the kind of a person who buys new things all the time. Please check the below link and let me know what you guys think about it and whether there are any other options available.

Configuration URL: (Just click OK when prompted. Some website bug) http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1EJC10

Product Name: Xplorer X7-5000 Gaming Notebook

Configuration in short:

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM Mobile Processor 2.40 GHz 6M Smart Cache, Max Turbo Freq. 3.40 GHz
Motherboard: Mobile Intel HM76 Express Chipset Mainboard
Memory: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-1600 SODIMM Memory (Corsair Vengeance Gaming)
Video Card: NVIDIA GT 650M 1GB PCIe Video
Hard Drive: 120 GB OCZ Agility 3 SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 525MB/s Read & 500MB/s Write (Single Drive)
Data Hard Drive: 750GB 7200RPM SATA300 Hard Drive
RAID: Non-RAID Storage
Optical Drive: 8X DVD±R/RW/4X + DL Super-Multi Drive (NB-374-DVDRW)
Sound: Built-in 3D Premium Surround Sound
Wireless 802.11B/G Network Card: Wireless 802.11 b/g/n WiFi Card
Speakers: Built-in Stereo Speakers System
Network: Built-in 10/100/1000 Mbps Network Card
Keyboard: Built-in Keyboard
Mouse: BUILT-IN TOUCHPAD
Battery: 6 cell smart Lithium-Ion battery pack 62.16Wh

Price: $1,190.00 ~ 65450.00 INR

I stay in USA so shipping wont be a problem.

P.S: In my opinion, I have selected the Core i7 3630QM Processor which I believe could handle the job fine when tagged along with an SSD and 8 gigs of RAM. Please suggest me if a Core i5 could do the same job for me as I don't have much knowledge about processors or current computer hardware. This change would drastically affect the budget and I could really prefer the laptop to cost as less as possible.

Thanks in advance,

Darvinder

 

[onlyravi]

Change RAM to Single 8GB chip of same speed. This will leave space for future expansions.
Memory: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-1600 SODIMM Memory (Corsair Vengeance Gaming)
Memory: 8GB (8GBx1) DDR3-1600 SODIMM Memory (Corsair Vengeance Gaming)

Also add a 1TB HDD instead of 750GB. Its worth paying those extra $24
Go for a higher end WiFi card like the Intel® Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300 a/b/g/n WiFi Card [Intel WiDi Ready]
You can connect 3 devices via WiFi at a time or have ur own wifi hotspot on the laptop to which other wifi devices can connect. Like your wifi direct ready cell phones/tablets.
Also it had built in WiDi. Though not very useful its good to have feature. If there is a good WiDi router in the market you can connect it to larger displays without cables.
The current WiDi routers have little lag.
I would have loved to upgrade to the Creative sound but its a external device so avoid.
Change primary HDD256 GB OCZ Agility 4 SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 420MB/s Read & 410MB/s Write
It is "little" slower than what you have selected but should not matter. with 256GB you can install your OS + your editing s/w on the SSD itself.

 

[dskochhar]

Change RAM to Single 8GB chip of same speed. This will leave space for future expansions.
Memory: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-1600 SODIMM Memory (Corsair Vengeance Gaming)
Memory: 8GB (8GBx1) DDR3-1600 SODIMM Memory (Corsair Vengeance Gaming)

Also add a 1TB HDD instead of 750GB. Its worth paying those extra $24
Go for a higher end WiFi card like the Intel® Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300 a/b/g/n WiFi Card [Intel WiDi Ready]
You can connect 3 devices via WiFi at a time or have ur own wifi hotspot on the laptop to which other wifi devices can connect. Like your wifi direct ready cell phones/tablets.
Also it had built in WiDi. Though not very useful its good to have feature. If there is a good WiDi router in the market you can connect it to larger displays without cables.
The current WiDi routers have little lag.
I would have loved to upgrade to the Creative sound but its a external device so avoid.
Change primary HDD256 GB OCZ Agility 4 SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 420MB/s Read & 410MB/s Write
It is "little" slower than what you have selected but should not matter. with 256GB you can install your OS + your editing s/w on the SSD itself.

Thanks for the recommendations. They make sense. Have made the necessary changes.

The 750GB is a 7200 RPM whereas the 1TB is 5200 RPM. I don't want this factor bottle-necking the whole laptop performance and hence I went for the 750GB model. For extra data and backup I plan on saving files on external HDDs or on Blue Ray Discs. I am in two minds at the moment.

What about the price factor? I think it is pretty decent considering the specifications I have got. Please let me know if there are any better options.

 

[TechHead]

For ultimate speed on a laptop, get a 256/512GB SSD. Nothing else comes close.

 

[dskochhar]

For ultimate speed on a laptop, get a 256/512GB SSD. Nothing else comes close.

Thanks mate. For the 1TB data HDD running at 5200 RPM, when the softwares read files from this drive wouldn't it slow down the process a little bit? This is the reason I'm opting for a 7200 RPM HDD. Please correct me if you think it won't make much difference.

Also I had a query regarding the SSD shelf life. How long are we basically talking until those drives finally start to slow down?

 

[JuGGa]

7200 vs 5400 come in play when you do ultra disk intensive work, i.e., frequent read-write tasks, therefore I suggest 750GB 7200rpm against 1TB 5400rpm. For ultra speed you always have SSD, plus ext HDD for brimming data.

I also +1 8 *2GB RAM config. Recently I was opening a 13k*18k image for editing and my laptop was taking full ~1-2mins for opening it, laptop being hanged for the time being with RAM usage 100% (4gb :|)

Don't compromise as far as CPU is concerned. i5 will feel fine atm, but since you're addicted to PC swiftness plus future proofness will easily make i5 feel sluggish, thus i7 it is.

PS: Don't you feel 17"3 would be too heavy ? And the display is TN for sure.

 

[cranky]

Agility 3 is based on Sandforce chipset which has a few issues.

I have two 60GB Agility 3 disks and though one is flawless the other one exhibits random freezes for about 15 seconds every few times it is used.

Have you thought about a Mac? There is a reason that most pro shooters use a Mac - the OS stays out of the way and though it may not be as 'quick' as a similarly configured Windows system (or be more expensive for the same kind of power), the small footprint and excellent built-in imaging utilities score quite well. The Mac is also an excellent laptop.

I have on my lap a Core i7 Windows 7 'gaming' machine retrofitted with a 256GB Vertex4 and it should be the bee's knees. Except it's not. The touchpad is buggy, the speakers are crappy and the screen is low-contrast piece of garbage. There are all sorts of lights everywhere (three power lights, and Num/Cap lock miles away from the keys) and it is extremely heavy and ungainly.

My office-given Mac smoked it as a complete machine - and this is coming from one who hates the Mac and would never buy one because it's overpriced. It felt good to open and close, the shape was such that it fit the hand beautifully even without a sleeve, it would resume from sleep in ten seconds (Win7 takes about two minutes to be usable after cold sleep and thirty seconds from warm sleep), the speakers were tolerable and the screen, though not calibrated or IPS, was pretty usable. And it gave me six hours of battery life, this useless POS gives me about 3).

Don't compare desktops with laptops, the parameters for usage are completely different.

 

[dskochhar]

7200 vs 5400 come in play when you do ultra disk intensive work, i.e., frequent read-write tasks, therefore I suggest 750GB 7200rpm against 1TB 5400rpm. For ultra speed you always have SSD, plus ext HDD for brimming data.


I also +1 8 *2GB RAM config. Recently I was opening a 13k*18k image for editing and my laptop was taking full ~1-2mins for opening it, laptop being hanged for the time being with RAM usage 100% (4gb )


Don't compromise as far as CPU is concerned. i5 will feel fine atm, but since you're addicted to PC swiftness plus future proofness will easily make i5 feel sluggish, thus i7 it is.


PS: Don't you feel 17"3 would be too heavy ? And the display is TN for sure.

Yes I am starting to think that I would go for a 15.6 inch screen

Agility 3 is based on Sandforce chipset which has a few issues.


I have two 60GB Agility 3 disks and though one is flawless the other one exhibits random freezes for about 15 seconds every few times it is used.


Have you thought about a Mac? There is a reason that most pro shooters use a Mac - the OS stays out of the way and though it may not be as 'quick' as a similarly configured Windows system (or be more expensive for the same kind of power), the small footprint and excellent built-in imaging utilities score quite well. The Mac is also an excellent laptop.


I have on my lap a Core i7 Windows 7 'gaming' machine retrofitted with a 256GB Vertex4 and it should be the bee's knees. Except it's not. The touchpad is buggy, the speakers are crappy and the screen is low-contrast piece of garbage. There are all sorts of lights everywhere (three power lights, and Num/Cap lock miles away from the keys) and it is extremely heavy and ungainly.


My office-given Mac smoked it as a complete machine - and this is coming from one who hates the Mac and would never buy one because it's overpriced. It felt good to open and close, the shape was such that it fit the hand beautifully even without a sleeve, it would resume from sleep in ten seconds (Win7 takes about two minutes to be usable after cold sleep and thirty seconds from warm sleep), the speakers were tolerable and the screen, though not calibrated or IPS, was pretty usable. And it gave me six hours of battery life, this useless POS gives me about 3).


Don't compare desktops with laptops, the parameters for usage are completely different.

Yes, this is the reason why I am so skeptical about going for it. About a mac, I honestly don't know. I know they are overpriced and that is reason enough for me to not go for it. I have never been a laptop user because I never needed the portability. Now I do and am worried that I might end up having the same experience as you.

I am also kind of getting drawn towards building a kick ass PC rig instead especially because I'd get the IPS screen option, etc.

I would love to know what all of you guys think about this.

 

[JuGGa]

Have a look over this> Vaio SVS151290X.

i7-3632QM
1080p (most chances its IPS)
640M LE
750GB (7200rpm)
8GB RAM

@1199$

You can add a 256GB SSD (m4/V4) at 199$ (m4) at the expense of ODD.

 

[randomuser111]

S15 is not recommended because of the orangegate issue. Its fine for normal users but not for photo editors

In your budget you can look at Envy 15 radiance IPS, Lenovo x230 12.5 inch w IPS, the HP DV6 with full HD is also great.

If you can increase budget slightly you can get professional grade 80-95% Adobe RGB gamut screen laptops like HP elitebook DC, Lenovo W series, Dell precision M series etc.

If you are okay with 13 inch size you can get Vaio Z as well with a 1080p 90% Adobe RGB screen and 256 or 512gb SSD.

If you get the cyberpower machine then opt for the 100% NTSC color gamut screen w spyder calibration

 

[dskochhar]

Have a look over this> Vaio SVS151290X.

i7-3632QM
1080p (most chances its IPS)
640M LE
750GB (7200rpm)
8GB RAM

@1199$

You can add a 256GB SSD (m4/V4) at 199$ (m4) at the expense of ODD.

Thanks for the recommendation mate but after shelling in $1200.00 adding an SSD again would be an overkill for me.

- - - Updated - - -

S15 is not recommended because of the orangegate issue. Its fine for normal users but not for photo editors

In your budget you can look at Envy 15 radiance IPS, Lenovo x230 12.5 inch w IPS, the HP DV6 with full HD is also great.

If you can increase budget slightly you can get professional grade 80-95% Adobe RGB gamut screen laptops like HP elitebook DC, Lenovo W series, Dell precision M series etc.

If you are okay with 13 inch size you can get Vaio Z as well with a 1080p 90% Adobe RGB screen and 256 or 512gb SSD.

If you get the cyberpower machine then opt for the 100% NTSC color gamut screen w spyder calibration

They do seem to be interesting but I could pack a 3rd Gen Core i7 with a 256GB SSD and 8 gigs of RAM in the below config at around $811.00. The price difference is so much that I feel that I won't get a better deal than this. I will enquire whether I can get the 100% NTSC color gamut screen w spyder calibration with the CyberpowerPC one.

Please advise whether it is really worth it in putting the extra money into the elitebooks and other expensive products out there.

 

[ronnie_gogs]

I have been a mac user for over a year now after moving from windows and I can say that as a portable laptop mac book pro is one of best laptops ever. For desktops I would still prefer a windows system but for laptop I would not go for anything other than a mac. Being a windows user the transition was quite simple and took barely a few days. I can now easily switch between either system without any problems.

Now from the point of photo editing, (I am not a professional by any means) points which I like
1. The OS and interface is so smooth that it is a pleasure to work with a mac.
2. The touch pad is very responsive
3. Battery life is great
4. Screen is really good (If you get one with a retina display then its out of the world)

I guess you use lightroom for editing. I used iPhoto and now I started using Aperture and Lightroom on the mac and it works really well. It can handle RAW file processing without problems.

Issues
I am mostly interested in video processing and frankly a laptop would be always lacking in terms of processing power for videos. A 15 min long video in 1080p took 4 hours to be encoded and finished. Thats the reason I am building a rig that can handle video editing without me waiting for hours