Another Help me pick a Laptop Thread

Looking into replacing my 5 year old laptop.
I need it to shoot tethered using Capture One, run LT and PS.
Not looking for a mac.
A friend recommended this one: http://www.microsoftst​ore.com …aptop/productID​.288730000
Is it overkill for my purposes? I'm kind of hung up on the price tag as well.
I've been thinking of getting this one at Sams: http://www.bestbuy.com …ell%20inspirion​&cp=1&lp=1

Is the pricier one much better over this?

Are you going to do most of your editing on a much more powerful desktop or is this going to be an all purpose computer? I'd be frustrated using either of these as my main machine for using LR5 or PS CS6 (processor is too slow to ensure no lagginess when using brushes, content aware healing, etc.). Either would probably be fine for LR4 or CS5.

The first one looks great. The second is almost as fast but lacks and SSD, which you could add. It's a workstation replacement really, just add a screen and that's all you need.

Another option in my post here, a Lenovo.

Bob_A wrote in post #17015242
Are you going to do most of your editing on a much more powerful desktop or is this going to be an all purpose computer? I'd be frustrated using either of these as my main machine for using LR5 or PS CS6 (processor is too slow to ensure no lagginess when using brushes, content aware healing, etc.). Either would probably be fine for LR4 or CS5.

Thanks, Bob. I have a desktop that is my main work computer, but the spec's on the laptop are actually better than my 3 year old machine. It works well enough, I'm still using CS5. Huge files can take some time to save though .

tim wrote in post #17015248
The first one looks great. The second is almost as fast but lacks and SSD, which you could add. It's a workstation replacement really, just add a screen and that's all you need.

Thanks, Tim. I actually partly read that thread and went to the Lenovo website per your recommendation. I need to browse some more on there, I'm not stuck on Dell.

budget?

I'd like to stay under $1500.

Lenovo X1 Carbon - 14.0" WQHD Intel Core i5-4300U 4GB Intel HD Graphics 128GB SSD
PN: 20A7002YUS

or

ThinkPad Yoga PN: 20CD00B0US 12.5" FHD LED Multitouch Intel Core i7-4500U 8GB Intel HD Graphics 256GB SSD

Thanks for the recommendations! Do you think 4GB Ram is enough? I'm really quite computer spec's illiterate and just went by numbers that my friend recommended . My desktop has 8gb.

On the Lenovo website I did the little find laptop tool and this is one that came up:
(I only changed the RAM, tad more than what I'd like to spend, overkill?)

4GB is enough for shooting tethered, just. If you want to do any processing at all you want 8GB. Ideally you'd want an SSD in it, not a spinning disk, that will make it feel a LOT faster. They're not expensive.

Bilderknipser wrote in post #17017960
Thanks for the recommendations! Do you think 4GB Ram is enough? I'm really quite computer spec's illiterate and just went by numbers that my friend recommended . My desktop has 8gb.

On the Lenovo website I did the little find laptop tool and this is one that came up:
(I only changed the RAM, tad more than what I'd like to spend, overkill?)

The W540 is a very nice workstation (I have the W520) and will cover all your needs for a long time. The XPS 15 is a much lighter laptop (I have the M3800 at work which is the business version of the XPS 15). The advantages to the larger W540 are multiple HD's, optional colormeter built in etc.

Both can replace your desktop from a pure power perspective and both would be overkill if you are just looking for something cheap/light to tethered shooting IMO

The w540 is awesome. But as noted maybe overkill. It is heavy also. That's why I record the x1 carbon.

Thanks for all the help everyone!!

I went into an electronics store yesterday, they had a good selection of Lenovo laptops and a few Dells. The sales guy tried to talk me into a Lenovo Y50 @1499. I thought it was overkill, so decided to just go with the second Dell I posted. I might upgrade to a SSD eventually. Now I just need to familiarize myself with Windows 8 .