Laptop recommendation <$1K?

I have had a Sony VAIO NW270F for the past 3 years and it has served me well but raw batch processing takes painfully long and really bogs down the processor. Also, intensive PP work like adding lens blur also takes long for the processor to apply. I think an upgrade is in order but I wonder how much better performance I can expect with a $1K budget.

My Vaio's specs are:

- Intel Core2 Duo 2.2GHz T6600 processor
- 4GB RAM
- Win 7 64-bit

What do you guys think? Slow processing speed is my only complaint. It lacks USB 2.0 but that's more of an inconvenience. I love my laptop otherwise. Unlike a Dell I had before this, I've had zero hardware or software failures and the 250GB hard drive is enough for my needs as I move all raw files to back-up after processing.

I can get an additional 4GB of RAM from Crucial for about $140 but I doubt that would help much since a lack of processing power seems to be the issue here.

First question everyone is going to ask you... Do you need a laptop, or would a desktop suffice?

Laptop; same as what I have now.

OK, since your last laptop had a Core2 Duo, basically anything new is going to be a significant improvement. Vaio's are good, I have one, but you do pay a little bit of a premium for the Sony name.

What size screen are you looking at, basically do you have another monitor you plug into?

16" or thereabout.

Check out the Dell Outlet when they have their 20-25% off coupon. You can get a great i7 very powerful computer. We buy a lot of laptops from the Dell outlet. The computers have all been great and they come with a 3 year warranty.

Lenovo y500

Intel i7-3630QM (desktop-class processor performance, up there with i7-2600 and i5-3570k)
8GB RAM
16GB SSD cache for 1TB HD
1920x1080p resolution
discrete video card

~$900

Should be on par with a lot of desktops for editing.

Thanks guys. I hadn't even considered Lenovo; always thought of them as geared towards business users. Very good to know otherwise. That's the brand I am leaning towards now.

Lenovo did buy the Thinkpad and desktop line from IBM a couple years back, but honestly there is not much different between a business and a home laptop other than business laptops are a bit more durable and less styled.

We have good luck with Lenovo at work. We were longtime IBM customers and have noticed almost no changes since Lenovo took over.

I just bought my first Lenovo laptop a w530 and I really like it for photo and design work when away from my desktop. I found this laptop to be excellent, fast and the wide gamut display to be very accurate for a laptop. It also has excellent battery life and is the lightest option ( under 6 pounds) for the amount of processing power it has. Build is also excellent.

If you want something smaller the Lenovo ThinkPad X230 might be worth a look it looks interesting but I have no personal experience with the x230.

I just bought a HP M7-1015dx on Woot for 600 bucks:

i7
8gb RAM
1TB HDD (5400)
1600 x 900 rez
17.3 in display
USB 3.0

Lot of machine for the money...