mac Desktop, looking at PC laptop. Bad? Good?

I have a newer iMac that does great for LR and PS. But I really need to be more mobile. It's but a big wrench in getting photo's done.
I was looking at the new MPB and while they are nice, I dislike that I can't upgrade anything after purchase, Ram wise. So I"m paying the apple mark up.
I was looking at build a laptop more to what I need through Sager. and it's quite a cost savings. Even with rebuying LR for a PC.

while it seems like a good idea to me, I'm also not the best at computers. I was going to just hook up my portable external drive to the laptop then when I do get home can i still plug it in to work on the files. since it would still be a LR or PS file. or will it not work since the drive is formatted different. would there be any other things that would screw me up later.

Howdy to folks in The Colony. I used to live in Plano and work for a company across from the JC Penny HQ.


Suggestion: sell the iMac and apply that towards a 15" rMBP. I got the maxed CPU, memory, and SSD....so there is no need to do an upgrade in the next 3 years I will own it. The large SSD gives me plenty of room for raw file collection on multiple week trips. The screen allows for me to do much of editing in the field. When I come home, the finished files are moved to my LR library on external drives, freeing up the SSD for the next trip.

Plan to treat yourself to a new Apple Thunderbolt Display when those are released next year.

Gaarryy wrote in post #15209403
I was looking at the new MPB and while they are nice, I dislike that I can't upgrade anything after purchase, Ram wise.

Only the Retina MBP are challenging to upgrade. The non-Retina MBPs can easily be upgraded with RAM or hard drive replacement. Even a second drive can be put in, although it takes about half an hour and a bit of patience to do so. You can even put in an SSD and a spinning HD and convert them into a fusion drive quite easily.

Tony-S wrote in post #15209810
Only the Retina MBP are challenging to upgrade. The non-Retina MBPs can easily be upgraded with RAM or hard drive replacement. Even a second drive can be put in, although it takes about half an hour and a bit of patience to do so. You can even put in an SSD and a spinning HD and convert them into a fusion drive quite easily.

Oh... didn't realize that... Good info.

-shout out to the ex plano-ite. i bike around the JC Penny all the time.. Yes I"m one of those nuts on a bicycle clogging up the road

Unless there's a compelling reason, I don't see the point in having 2 different operating systems.

No only different OSs between computers....but OSs that don't integrate with any tablets or phones you might have. The greater the variety in hardware, OSs, and apps.....the more the burden of integration and maintenance falls on you.

Also, you'd need to buy a new license for Photoshop for Windows (unless you're using a subscription)…

If you are still considering Sager: Only do so if buying from a reseller such as XoticPC. Sager has horrible customer service, and that's why I went with Alienware.

vsg28-- thanks for the info on sager.

what I"m really thinking now is just getting a refub. 15in quad i7 @2.3. then upping the ram and hard drive on my own through crucial. I've gone through them to update my iMac's in the past and friends MBP's. This will still bring me in cheaper than just buying a new MBP by a few hundred. like someone pointed out above to have different OS's system isnt' really the best. I forgot I'd have to rebuy PS and LR which really kills the price difference in getting a non mac.

Definitely upgrade components yourself if it is easy and within your capacity. Manufacturers always overprice every component.

I have no idea how easy it is to upgrade a macbook though, laptops such as Sager/Alienware actually encourage upgrading yourself by making the warranty non-voidable when upgrading components and having instruction videos on how to replace/upgrade a particular component.

I would recommend Corsair for Ram and Samsung 830 for the SSD.

No need repurchase LR, you can install it on multiple OSs at the same time. Your allowed two installs with the lisence as long as you own both computers and only use one at a time.
You can do the same thing with photoshop or any of the adobe suite if you get the creative cloud service.