Yet another "what laptop should I buy?" question...

June 26, 2010 2:20 PM

So it's time for a new laptop - if my most-intensive task is going to be Lightroom 3, perhaps with some iTunes or Chrome/Pandora at the same time. Do I *need* (or even want) an i5? an i3? Is the difference noticeable? 4GB RAM? More? Degree of difficulty: I haven't bought a new computer in 4 years, so I'm a little out of touch with what's "current"

I'm currently running an old Dell which handled Lightroom 2....slowly. It's time to upgrade to Lightroom 3, which Adobe says "requires" a Pentium 4 processor and 1 gig of RAM. I'm guessing there's a significant delta between "required" and "recommended". I'm looking for a laptop that can handle the multitasking above, and has at least 500GB of storage. Any recommendations on either specific models, or at least specs I should be looking at, would be much appreciated. I'm trying to stay in the sub-$700 range (cash is tight, so the farther "sub" the better), but don't want to be hosed in 6 months.

posted by um_maverick to Technology (7 answers total)

I would go with a Core i5 750. The i5 750 is more aligned to the i7 than the other i5s and will be able to take advantage of future applications. 4GB of ram is fine unless you get a 64-bit OS (I would) at which point you can increase it to more. But if you're not envisioning going past that 4GB limit then stick to that.
posted by msbutah at 3:02 PM on June 26, 2010

I run Lightroom on 4GB of RAM and a 2.2 ghz Core 2 Duo. It's slow. I would get as much processor power as you can afford; don't sweat the RAM, as you can always upgrade later if you find it a problem, but personally I wouldn't go under 4GB.
posted by sinfony at 3:07 PM on June 26, 2010

In the future, you're going to want to consider using external storage, and an SSD inside the laptop.
posted by notsnot at 3:17 PM on June 26, 2010

Seconding the SSD recommendation. They're not cheap, and tend to run small, but man are they fast. My laptop has one and I'm very glad I ponied up for it.
posted by axiom at 3:21 PM on June 26, 2010

Something to consider is that the 4GB will make a difference in how Windows 7 runs. It's not a night and day difference, mind you, but it is noticeable.
posted by oddman at 5:29 PM on June 26, 2010

I would say instead of spending too much on i5/i7, make sure the graphics card has >512MB Video Memory. 4GB Ram should be good with say an i5.
Probably a lot of harddrive space and an external harddrive for backup. You can never have enough backups..
posted by bbyboi at 7:20 PM on June 26, 2010

AFAIK, LR & PS still suck processor speed, and depend more on cards for openGL stuff, not their core functionality. If I were making this choice now, I would read up on what LR needs. I've linked to him before.. but Lloyd Chambers Macperformanceguide has very focused articles on LR speed comparisons using SSDs, various intel processors, & RAM configs. I know, you're not Mac, but I believe that LRs needs will translate.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 1:51 PM on June 27, 2010