Editing laptop for around £1000

penmanation

penmanation

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248
Name
chris
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi can anyone recomend a good editing laptop for around £1000. I am thinking macbook air. Will it be fast enough for using LR and photoshop? Thanks
 
It'll be fast enough to run it but you aren't going to get great performance. Check the benchmarks for the i5 8210y.
 
penmanation said:
What do you mean by great performance?
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What are you used to editing on?

For example the air passmark is just over 4000, an xps13 i3-10110U is nearly 6000, inspiron 7000 i7-9750H is 13,500 and a relatively cheap desktop cpu like ryzen 3600 is 20,000.

The 8210y is not a fast chip and Adobe products are cpu intensive.
 
twist said:
What are you used to editing on?

For example the air passmark is just over 4000, an xps13 i3-10110U is nearly 6000, inspiron 7000 i7-9750H is 13,500 and a relatively cheap desktop cpu like ryzen 3600 is 20,000.

The 8210y is not a fast chip and Adobe products are cpu intensive.
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Right now im using a dell i5000 i think.i think its the intel gold prosessor and lightroom and photoshop take an eternity to load.it was just a budget laptop i already had but now i want to upgrade.

That last part has lost me completly
 
He is talking about benchmark scores of the main processor. Probably referring to scores done by cpubenmark website.

It is useful to compare cpu models to get a sense of how powerful they are in relation to one another.

But that is not the be all and end all.

You can just google the cpu name and put after it cpubenchmark and a link to the test result should be in the list.

The website is here, https://www.cpubenchmark.net/

They also have tests for graphics cards, ram and hard drives and ssd drives.

Not many go to these lengths though and if I remember apple are very vague about what models exactly are in the computers.
 
Caerus said:
He is talking about benchmark scores of the main processor. Probably referring to scores done by cpubenmark website.

It is useful to compare cpu models to get a sense of how powerful they are in relation to one another.

But that is not the be all and end all.

You can just google the cpu name and put after it cpubenchmark and a link to the test result should be in the list.

The website is here, https://www.cpubenchmark.net/

They also have tests for graphics cards, ram and hard drives and ssd drives.

Not many go to these lengths though and if I remember apple are very vague about what models exactly are in the computers.
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Apple are vague on their website but their specs are very easy to find, and then its very easy to make comparisons against other chips.

For example...

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/...6-13-retina-display-true-tone-2019-specs.html
 
penmanation said:
Right now im using a dell i5000 i think.i think its the intel gold prosessor and lightroom and photoshop take an eternity to load.it was just a budget laptop i already had but now i want to upgrade.

That last part has lost me completly
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Right click on your windows logo, click system, what processor is listed?

Okay, so the last bit, a passmark of 4000 is very low (imo), its not a powerful cpu, its not made for demanding tasks, you want to use software for editing, that needs a powerful cpu to run well.
 
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twist said:
Right click on your windows logo, click system, what processor is listed?

Okay, so the last bit, a passmark of 4000 is very low (imo), its not a powerful cpu, its not made for demanding tasks, you want to use software for editing, that needs a powerful cpu to run well.
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Its the intel pentium gold 5405u. I know its not good for editing. I think i understand the last bit now.thank you.
 
penmanation said:
Its the intel pentium gold 5405u. I know its not good for editing. I think i understand the last bit now.thank you.
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Passmark on that is only 800 points lower than the £1000 Air, okay the storage will improve performance but fitting an SSD to your machine will give it a decent bump and performance wont be miles off. If I was spending £1000 Id want significant gains in performance, its a lot of money for a computer.
 
Is this going to be your only machine or just one to use while out and about?

I bought a second hand Air for £300 and it runs Lightroom and PS very nicely for occasional use - I use it for tethered shooting and occasional editing of rush images.

My current view is that Apple are still winning at laptops (their kit works very well for a smallish premium) and losing at desktops (their kit probably works fine but nobody can afford it and similarly priced desktops are *far* faster).
 
twist said:
Passmark on that is only 800 points lower than the £1000 Air, okay the storage will improve performance but fitting an SSD to your machine will give it a decent bump and performance wont be miles off. If I was spending £1000 Id want significant gains in performance, its a lot of money for a computer.
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So i would be better just fitting an SSD to my laptop i already have?
 
JonathanRyan said:
Is this going to be your only machine or just one to use while out and about?

I bought a second hand Air for £300 and it runs Lightroom and PS very nicely for occasional use - I use it for tethered shooting and occasional editing of rush images.

My current view is that Apple are still winning at laptops (their kit works very well for a smallish premium) and losing at desktops (their kit probably works fine but nobody can afford it and similarly priced desktops are *far* faster).
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It will be my main machine. I will most likley get a desktop in the future but not right away
 
penmanation said:
So i would be better just fitting an SSD to my laptop i already have?
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Not necessarily, but the gain isnt worth the spend imo. An SSD, more ram if possible, will add up (depending on your RAM speed, amount etc) so a few factors.

If its main purpose is an editing laptop and youre editing lots of RAWs then I personally wouldnt touch an Air, if you are doing 90% emails/web/office stuff and want a high end nice looking laptop that will process the odd RAW, then fair enough.
 
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penmanation said:
It will be my main machine. I will most likley get a desktop in the future but not right away
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Then I don't know enough to help you :)

Listen to @twist though - he helped spec my current desktop. CPU passmark is 32320. Opening a D800 raw from Lightroom to PS is *instant* as opposed to many seconds on a decent spec iMac.
 
JonathanRyan said:
Then I don't know enough to help you :)

Listen to @twist though - he helped spec my current desktop. CPU passmark is 32320. Opening a D800 raw from Lightroom to PS is *instant* as opposed to many seconds on a decent spec iMac.
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That thing is a beast!
 
twist said:
Not necessarily, but the gain isnt worth the spend imo. An SSD, more ram if possible, will add up (depending on your RAM speed, amount etc) so a few factors.

If its main purpose is an editing laptop and youre editing lots of RAWs then I personally wouldnt touch an Air, if you are doing 90% emails/web/office stuff and want a high end nice looking laptop that will process the odd RAW, then fair enough.
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What is the minimum passmark you would recomend?
 
penmanation said:
What is the minimum passmark you would recomend?
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Again, thats difficult without looking at all the parts in the machine (RAM, GPU, Type of storage), my old imac 27 2013 was around 7500 passmark on SSD and that was acceptable, not what I would call fast. Id say buy the fastest you can within your budget, Im guessing you can get anything between 8000 and 14000 for that budget, depending on rest of spec. PC laptops will lose value faster than macs, BUT, for £1000 youre getting much better hardware which will provide the performance you need for longer without replacing.

Keep an eye on dell outlet for the XPS range. They dont have any cheap ones at the moment but they do come up and usually at around 1/2 - 2/3 the price of new with full warranty.
 
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This for example has a passmark of 12390, it would destroy the Air. The rest of the spec is also pretty amazing. Fast CPU, lots of RAM, big very fast drive, decent GPU and bigger 15.6" 4K display with thunderbolt and displayport / hdmi so you can hook it up to an external display.

https://mcscom.co.uk/product/dell-x...hd-touchscreen-win-10-pro-1yr-rtb-wty-mln025/

£900

CPU
Intel Core i7 8750H 2.20GHz
Memory
16Gb
Hard Drive
512Gb SSD M.2 SATA
Video Brand
nVidia
Video
4Gb GeForce GTX 1050 Ti with Max-Q Design, Intel UHD 630
Screen Size
15.6"
Screen Resolution
4K UHD 3840 x 2160
Touch Screen
Yes
Ext Video
1x Thunderbolt™ 3 Native DisplayPort 1.2 video output, HDMI


Review: Based on original RRP of £1850!

https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/dell/1407577/dell-xps-15-9570-review-2018
 
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The air in comparison is 4000 passmark vs 12400
Old 8gb DDR3 RAM - vs DDR5 16GB
1.5GB video card vs 4GB
13.3" 2k vs 15.6" 4k display
128GB ssd drive vs 512GB M2 sata
No external display ports vs loads
 
penmanation said:
What is the minimum passmark you would recomend?
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If I were spending 1k I would want a minimum of a 6 core laptop cpu. This will offer half decent performance now and be far more future proof than than a 2 core cpu Apple will give you for the same price. Twists recommendation above gives a 6 core cpu.
 
My Inspiron laptop which I use for editing is about 15 months old now it has a passmark of about 8800 and adequate.
(I have debated upgrading but nothing in a reasonable price range worth it.)
I personally would look for something with Nvme main drive and SSD for bulk storage.
mine runs a I7-8565u with 16gb ram 512gb Nvme and 2tb ssd
 
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Ganton Gunner said:
My Inspiron laptop which I use for editing is about 15 months old now it has a passmark of about 8800 and adequate.
(I have debated upgrading but nothing in a reasonable price range worth it.)
I personally would look for something with NVME main drive and SSD for bulk storage.
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XPS 15 achieves a read speed of 2,292 MB/s and write of 1,009 MB/s. Really fast, not as fast as something like a sabrent rocket but that's more than fast enough.
 
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The key thing for an editing laptop is the screen, and the MacBook Air has a good screen.

I used to have a 12” MacBook, supposedly only good enough to browse the internet and watch YouTube. Rather than listen to the internet warriors I bought on to try and in actual usage (mostly LR and a little PS) it was indistinguishable from my maxed out iMac, except for bulk actions such as import/export, generating smart previews (which I eventually switched off and noticed no difference). It was even surprisingly capable at 4K video editing (although wouldn’t want to do lots on it).

Yes, they’re not as powerful nor benchmark as quick as others but if all you want to do is edit photos and a bit of video editing then a 2016 12” MacBook is powerful enough if you have patience during bulk exports, so a modern Air will be more than enough.
 
JonathanRyan said:
Blimey. The little bit I know about laptops suggests that would be a very good machine for sub 1K. And when you run out of space, I get decent transfer rates over USB-C to a SanDisk Extreme. And by "decent" I mean write speeds > 450 MB/s ;)
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I wouldnt say its that hot for 1k, processor isnt great, benches a little over 8000. Only 1080p screen.

My money would still be with the XPS 15 9570, its a much better machine for under 1k.
 
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I use a MacBook 15" 2015 with dedicated graphics, it sports an i7 processor which although old is still powerful enough - and for your money this is still a workhorse with a built in SD card reader and USB ports.
 
twist said:
The air in comparison is 4000 passmark vs 12400
Old 8gb DDR3 RAM - vs DDR5 16GB
1.5GB video card vs 4GB
13.3" 2k vs 15.6" 4k display
128GB ssd drive vs 512GB M2 sata
No external display ports vs loads
Click to expand...

DDR5 is not out yet
 
twist said:
:facepalm:

Youre right, I was confusing my DDR with GDDR. Its DDR4 ram and GPU uses DDR5.
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That is a point though. The day DDR5 lands every DDR4 machine with look as dated as DDR3 looked lol.

I would 100% wait for DDR5 ram if spending 1000+ in 2020
 
Caerus said:
That is a point though. The day DDR5 lands every DDR4 machine with look as dated as DDR3 looked lol.

I would 100% wait for DDR5 ram if spending 1000+ in 2020
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The current macbook air still uses ddr3 and thats £1000. To get a ddr5 laptop combined with a fast processor and 4k screen will be nearer the 2k mark.
 
twist said:
The current macbook air still uses ddr3 and thats £1000. To get a ddr5 laptop combined with a fast processor and 4k screen will be nearer the 2k mark.
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Yea Apple are a joke. I bought a used X1 Carbon for £199 and it has 2K touch screen, ddr4 and m.2 ssd. A keyboard at least as good and its thin and light
 
Caerus said:
Yea Apple are a joke. I bought a used X1 Carbon for £199 and it has 2K touch screen, ddr4 and m.2 ssd. A keyboard at least as good and its thin and light
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The X1 carbons are nice, so cheap as a refurb/used.
 
twist said:
I wouldnt say its that hot for 1k, processor isnt great, benches a little over 8000. Only 1080p screen.

My money would still be with the XPS 15 9570, its a much better machine for under 1k.
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It’s a gaming machine the money is in the gpu which is of less benefit to photo editing.
 
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