laptop or desktop

F

Fordsabroad

Messages
912
Name
Gordon
Edit My Images
Yes
My deskstop, whilst still working is old and quite slow, it has an intel I3 processor and 12MB of Ram. I am considering replacing it in the not to distant future (but it is not urgent) I have a 27" BenQ monitor so would not need to replace that. Could a good quality laptop replace it and could I then just plug the large monitor into it when I wanted to do editing. I Could then just use one external HD for all photographs as I am getting into a bit of a LR mess using my current desktop and a laptop, which I like to use in front of the TV in the evening.
I am totally useless with computers so cannot foresee what the problems would be, I am not totally sold on the idea, just exploring the possibility and would appreciate the thoughts of others more computer savvy than me.
Budget, whilst not unlimited is not the overriding factor, I'm thinking 1K - 1.5K less would be nice!
Laptop wise I was thinking around a 13 inch high quality screen 16G of ram and an I7 processor but am open to suggestions.
The computer is only used for LR and PS plus emails, web browsing etc. I do not do ang gaming or video processing

Your opinions would be appreciated.
 
based upon your intended use there is no reason why a small but powerful laptop hooked up to your external monitor wouldn't work.
 
Might be worth considering a USB keyboard as well so you can shove the lappy to one side rather than peering over the top of its screen to see the larger monitor.
 
Decent laptop is definitely a good solution if you don't need a desktop. Before I retired, my work computer was an HP Elitebook laptop running Windows 7. In the office, it was hooked up to a good monitor, a Bluetooth keyboard, wireless mouse or trackball. Also ran it in extended desktop mode, so email open on the laptop screen, documents, spreadsheets or images open on the main monitor.

At home, I'm happily using a desktop (27" iMac). In hindsighthough, getting a MacBook Pro and a monitor, keyboard, mouse setup, would have offered more flexibility. FWIW, most of what I used a laptop for, I now do with an iPad.
 
Last edited:
I did the whole laptop as a desktop thing for a while.
Had a monitor, keyboard and mouse plugged in to the closed laptop, such I stored vertically to the side of my desk.

Then I ended up building a custom desktop because I found my laptop simply didn't cut it performance wise with Lightroom and Photoshop.
 
Fordsabroad said:
Laptop wise I was thinking around a 13 inch high quality screen 16G of ram and an I7 processor but am open to suggestions.
Click to expand...

Too easy to damage a laptop. A dropped glass of wine or cup of tea, a fall on the floor etc. My approach would be a laptop for daily use with some ability to look at photos ... half your budget would be enough (famous last words) for a desktop dedicated to whatever serious use you got in mind.
 
Oliver Pohlmann said:
I did the whole laptop as a desktop thing for a while.
Had a monitor, keyboard and mouse plugged in to the closed laptop, such I stored vertically to the side of my desk.

Then I ended up building a custom desktop because I found my laptop simply didn't cut it performance wise with Lightroom and Photoshop.
Click to expand...
Not only that but it's easier to cool a desktop. Typically running any sort of medium load on the laptop and the fans will be going nuts. And as they're much smaller fans they'll be much louder.
 
What desktop i3 do you have?

I built a haswell i3 system last year and it was very fast, far faster than ‘most’ laptop i7’s.

Laptops use slower chips that throttle easily due to temperature.

I’d be tempted to look at why your current i3 is slow.
 
Thanks for all your replies. Brazo the desktop is an HP Pavillion elite, its probably about 6 years old (possibly more). Over the years it has obviously accumulated a whole bunch of rubbish however I am a computer numpty and not confident in deleting things I do not recognise. 2 of the 4 front USB inputs are broken but there are unused ones at the rear. It is running windows 7 which it keeps telling me is not a legal copy ( I bought it from Ebay after a crash a few years ago and it turned out to be a disk from a Dell machine) I am not desperate to replace it if it can be made serviceable again i just don't want to throw good money after bad. I suppose one option would be to save all pictures, music and documents to a back up HD and then buy a copy of windows 10 and reload it. I could then reload photoshop, printer drivers etc - exactly what i would need to do on new machine. Is this an option worth pursuing?
 
Brazo said:
What desktop i3 do you have?

I built a haswell i3 system last year and it was very fast, far faster than ‘most’ laptop i7’s.

Laptops use slower chips that throttle easily due to temperature.

I’d be tempted to look at why your current i3 is slow.
Click to expand...
Depends on the version of the i7. They do come in HQ versions which are the better quad core versions. I had a 4th Gen i7 HQ chip and it easily performed as well as my desktop i7 2nd Gen.
 
Yep that’s why I said most.

A lot of laptop chips including my own are 2 core 4 thread for an i5 and 2 core 4 thread plus 200mhz for an i7!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top