Looking. To get a laptop

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donaldjledet

Senior Member
Using l.r.4 so I'm trying to see what kind of ram and video in a p.c.
To do everything in l.r.4 and later to l.r.5 ?
Har drive space and so on.
Thanks


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Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
donaldjledet said:
Using l.r.4 so I'm trying to see what kind of ram and video in a p.c.
To do everything in l.r.4 and later to l.r.5 ?
Har drive space and so on.
Thanks
Click to expand...
You will reach a point of diminishing returns, but there's really no such thing as "too much RAM" or "too much hard drive space". Get as much of both as you can, but know that RAM is cheap and easy to install, so it's secondary to hard drive space right off the bat. I mean if you can get lots of both, so much the better. But again, RAM is easy and cheap to upgrade.

I'd suggest you focus primarily on your processor (CPU). Save pennies on that and you'll curse no end in the long term. I'd be looking for something with an Intel i3 or i5, personally with an i7 being ideal if a bit pricey. Personally, I really like Lenovo notebooks. Their Thinkpad and Ideapad lines are some nice machines.
 
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Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
With many laptops you are limited in the number of slots for RAM. Many times to upgrade you have to throw away the memory that is installed and put in bigger sticks. So when you are looking see what the MAX RAM is and what it takes to put that amount in. I just got a new desktop and it came with 8GB of RAM but it only used two of the four slots. I was able to buy 2 8GB sticks and add them in for a total of 24GB.
 
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donaldjledet

Senior Member
So if I get one with the i5 it should be good enough?
Just looking for p.p. photos and print for personal use.
Cause I'm on the road all the time,so know desk top for my truck.
Thanks


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Moab Man

Senior Member
You asked about hard drive space. I would suggest trying to get a computer with a USB 3.0 port - it will be blue. Then get an external hard drive that is USB 3.0 (which will also work with standard USB 2.0 but at the speeds you're currently use to. I do this because photo files are getting HUGER (officially a word now, huger) and will eat up hard drive space. The fuller the drive... eventually it will slow things down as the computer gets congested with stuff.

In 6 months time I have nearly half a terabyte of pictures. Granted, I'm always dumping and saving everything off my SD cards into a dated folder and deleting nothing.
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mr2_serious

Senior Member
When you find a laptop, do research on the processor. We buy i5s for work and they are duo(2) processors while at home I have a quad core i5. You should get the best you can afford, you never know you may grow out of LR and get into Photoshop

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piperbarb

Senior Member
I agree with what everyone has been saying. Get as fast a processor as you can afford. an i7 is ideal. My work laptop is an i5, which works okay, but the i7 is better. Also, don't get less than 8 GB RAM, and be sure that you can upgrade to more RAM later. RAM is relatively cheap, so going from 8 to 16 is not going to break the bank. I have 8GB each in both my laptops, and plan on upping the RAM in each to 16GB. USB 3.0 ports are a must.

As for storage, get at least a 1TB hard drive. SSD drives are still rather pricey, although having one can make even an older computer seem like new. When the price of SSDs gets more reasonable, I will probably upgrade. Also, if you want quick boot time, a hybrid drive is a good choice. I recently replaced the 500 GB drive in my MacBook Pro to a 1 TB drive. I took the 500 GB drive and put it in an external case, so it hasn't gone to waste. My Dell XPS 17 (L702X) (has the i7 processor), which has 2 drive bays (plus a DVD/BluRay optical drive), has the 750 hybrid drive as the main hard drive, and I added an extra 500 GB drive that I had hanging around. I have a thing about having enough storage space. Call me OCD about storage space. :)

Getting a laptop that is upgradable, even if it is only replacing hard drives and adding memory, is a good idea because it can extend the life of the computer. That way, it can grow with you. Storage space and memory are really not expensive. Although I love Macs, my one objection to the retina MacBook Pros is that they are not upgradable, otherwise they are a nice machine, although rather pricey.

Now that I have added my opinion, I hope you don't feel overwhelmed. We haven't even gotten into operating systems. That is another can of worms better left for another post. :)
 
Whiskeyman

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
piperbarb said:
As for storage, get at least a 1TB hard drive. SSD drives are still rather pricey, although having one can make even an older computer seem like new. When the price of SSDs gets more reasonable, I will probably upgrade. Also, if you want quick boot time, a hybrid drive is a good choice. I recently replaced the 500 GB drive in my MacBook Pro to a 1 TB drive. I took the 500 GB drive and put it in an external case, so it hasn't gone to waste. My Dell XPS 17 (L702X) (has the i7 processor), which has 2 drive bays (plus a DVD/BluRay optical drive), has the 750 hybrid drive as the main hard drive, and I added an extra 500 GB drive that I had hanging around. I have a thing about having enough storage space. Call me OCD about storage space. :)

Getting a laptop that is upgradable, even if it is only replacing hard drives and adding memory, is a good idea because it can extend the life of the computer. That way, it can grow with you. Storage space and memory are really not expensive. Although I love Macs, my one objection to the retina MacBook Pros is that they are not upgradable, otherwise they are a nice machine, although rather pricey. :)
Click to expand...

You can get a small SSD to install your OS on, which will make logging in/turning on very speedy. Barb has spelled it all out very well; in fact, her advice parallels my plans to upgrade my primary photo processing machine almost exactly. A general rule is to first upgrade your RAM to the highest recommended for your machine; when you do, buy quality RAM, not the cheapest you can find. And buy from reputable dealers that offer full return policies.

Although they are getting somewhat harder to find, the MacBook Pros w/o Retina are still around, and are sometimes found at discounts. Try the Apple Store onlline to see what they have that may fit your budget. I use a 13-inch MacBook Pro for portability, and plan to purchase a 27-inch Apple to use at home. I've used this configuration before and it is mind-boggling in both sight and speed.
 
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donaldjledet

Senior Member
Well as of today I put off the laptop upgrade for now cause I just purchased the vanguard tracker 3 tri pod. Nikkor 85mm 1.8G
So I just for now added a 1tb hard drive external.

Thanks for the replies.
 
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