Help! Need OTC Laptop for Photo Editing

I don't play games and have a 4K monitor.

I'M PC illiterate so what should I be looking for?

Naturalist wrote in post #18891588
I don't play games and have a 4K monitor.

I'M PC illiterate so what should I be looking for?

Elaborate what you mean by "OTC"? Over-the-counter????

Suggest something by Dell or Lenovo with an Intel i5 CPU and solid state / SSD disk.

Be sure the laptop has an video output for which your 4K monitor has corresponding a video input!
And see what video card resolution at which the laptop will be max'd out.

Thanks all. Yes, OTC = Over The Counter as I have never built a computer before so I was wondering what set-up to get for a laptop purchase.

Since you plan on using an External 4K Monitor for your editing on your laptop, it would be very nice to find a laptop that has an option docking unit. The monitor connects 'permanently' to the dock, and you only need to easily dock/undock the laptop to connect/disconnect it to the big monitor. External harddrives similarly could be attached to the dock, affording more photo storage, but when the laptop is portable it is unburdened by a big harddrive.

Yes, I will look into that!

Am I correct in assuming a video card is faster/more powerful the higher the number goes up??

Though I do not play games on the computer, would a gaming computer be ideal since they are built to handle higher graphics, memory, etc.??

SSD drive is definitely what I will be looking into as well.

Thank you.

You might not play games but gaming laptops are optimized for performance, graphics, and storage and it will come in really handy when processing pics and especially videos. Check out something like Digital Storm's Avon 17. It's an awesome machine and supports 4k without issues. This machine beats out many desktops in performance.

Thank you JJ.

Naturalist wrote in post #18892174
Thank you JJ.

Added a link to their page. Got one of these are work for video editing and was really impressed with it's all around performance

Naturalist wrote in post #18892168
Yes, I will look into that!

Am I correct in assuming a video card is faster/more powerful the higher the number goes up??

Though I do not play games on the computer, would a gaming computer be ideal since they are built to handle higher graphics, memory, etc.??

SSD drive is definitely what I will be looking into as well.

Thank you.

Games make use of advanced video features (sme examples, software that fills in a 'surface of a rock' or software that can simulate the 3D rotation of a cube in space) to simulate reality. A photo RAW conversion or JPG editor does not often need such advanced graphics, but that is changing... The makers of your software should be consulted, to set your own expectations.

"Photoshop currently doesn't take advantage of more than one graphics processor. Using two graphics cards does not enhance Photoshop's performance. Yet Adobe does also state
Features that won't work without a GPU

If your graphics processor is unsupported or its driver is defective, the following Photoshop features won't work:

3D
Oil Paint
Render – Flame, Picture Frame, and Tree
Scrubby Zoom
Birds Eye View
Flick Panning
Smooth Brush Resizing


Features that require a GPU for acceleration

Artboards
Camera Raw (more information)
Image Size – Preserve Details
Select Focus
Blur Gallery - Field Blur, Iris Blur, Tilt-Shift, Path Blur, Spin Blur (OpenCL accelerated)
Smart Sharpen (Noise Reduction – OpenCL accelerated)
Perspective Warp
Select and Mask (OpenCL accelerated)"

So it does more with GPU than it used to. So 'it depends' upon which version of software, and which GPU card you select. Consult the manufacturer of your software.

Do you have a price level in mind?

What John said... budget?

Budget - max $2200 as I expected a nice system would cost at least $1700.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon