SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

Sounds like you are describing a desktop!

Edia Loc: Central New Jersey

The limiting factor for laptops is the screen size and resolution. For photo editing, the larger the screen, the better it is. That said, the larger the screen, the heavier it is. I keep a Dell 13.3" insperon with a 7i processor and 8G of memory in my camera bag for when I am away from home. The laptop weighs a little over 3 lbs. The Dell has a 256G SSD. I do not put photos on this internal drive because it would fill up quickly. I use an external 256G memory stick for photos. The laptop cost about $700 and the external memory stick about $40 at Costco. For serious photo editing, I take the external drive and put it in my Desktop when I get home. I use a 24" HD monitor for that and store my photos on an external HD. I never erase my Raw data. When my memory stick or HD fill up, I just buy and other one. All PP software works as well on the laptop as on my Desktop.

sirlensalot Loc: Arizona

Maybe the Dell XPS series? Build to suit. Reviewed better than Apple Mac book Pro.

skywolf

The more RAM the better, no doubt. I have an HP 17" screen laptop with 8GB of RAM. 1T hard drive and a WD Passport external drive. I'm having a problem with it now, but not related to performance. I run PS CC and have no performance problems at all.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Have you used a machine with 16 or 32 gb ram and an internal SSD? Do you perform content aware, blur and other operations? Do you use layers? How large are your working files? Your machine may be working ok for your use, but I upgraded from a desktop computer 5 years ago with an i5 cpu, 8 gb ram and a 1 tb mechanical drive because it could not execute content aware operations on anything more than 2-3% of the image, and it was so slow when using layers - the more layers the worse it got. IN 2012 I was using a D200 and a D300, which had raw files of 8mb and 11mb respectively. My current computer with 32 gb ram, 1 tb ssd, 4 tb RAID 1+0 and i7 cpu overclocked to 5 ghz is considerably faster - anywhere from 4-8x faster, depending on what I am doing in PS CC, with D800 raw files which average about 45mb. PS opens in 3 secs, images similarly, and I wait never more than a second or two to complete an operation. Blur operations take about 3-4 secs at most. They used to take 30 secs or more.

I also thought my old computer was "ok" until I got CS6 with it's content aware feature, and I started getting out of memory errors, and realized that the speed was directly related to how much ram I had in the machine. Upgrading to 16 gb made a huge difference (much less paging to disk), putting an end to out of memory errors. When I finally decided to upgrade, it was a real eye opener - and I kicked myself for not doing it sooner. At the time I was working and I was spending way too much time behind the computer screen waiting for the little circle to stop spinning while waiting to complete an operation. It would take me a day or more to go through a big shoot - equine Hunter, Jumper Equitation competitions, where I would come back with 1500 images sometimes. Once I upgraded my "ok" machine, I could create a proof set in a couple of hours.

I'll bet that you wouldn't be so happy with your current machine's performance if you were to experience what is currently available. It would be comparable to stepping out of a Prius and into a 580 hp Porsche 911. The Prius is a fine car, but the Porsche is so much faster.

I've got a number of students with various configurations, from Apple to Windows machines - without a doubt those with machines that have 16 gb or more ram and i7 cpus and SSD system drives are far happier than the rest with less capable machines.

BIGRO Loc: NYC

Update, good day all, this is what I purchased based off of your valued input

80VRCTO1WW
Configuration Details
● Intel Core i7-7700HQ Processor (2.8Ghz 6MB)
● Windows 10 Home 64
● English
● Microsoft Office 365 (Trial)
● 16.0GB (8GBx2) PC4-2400 DDR4 SODIMM 2400MHz (2 DIMM)
● Black
● HM175
● NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5
● Backlit US English Keyboard
● Zoned RGB Backlit Keyboard
● 720P HD Camera with Array Microphone
● 15.6" UHD (3840 x 2160) LED Backlit IPS Glossy with integrated camera
● 1TB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm, 2.5", SATA3
● 256GB Solid State Drive M.2 PCIe
● 170W AC Adapter Black (3 Pin)
● 4 Cell Li-Polymer Cylinder Battery 60Wh
● 100/1000M Ethernet Card
● Lenovo AC Wireless (2x2), Bluetooth 4.1
● HDMI
● Black
● Metal
● PC-ABS

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Your SSD is too small, and using a 5400 rpm storage drive presents another bottleneck - otherwise it's ok. I would have opted for a minimum 512 SSD system drive and 7200 rpm data drive.

BIGRO Loc: NYC

I'm thinking I can swap out the hhd for a 512 ssd. I believe it's not to hard. Or do you think I should go with the 7200? It's definitely cheaper

papa Loc: Rio Dell, CA

nice specs for the price

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I would swap out the 256 for a 512, and the 5400 rpm drive for a 7200 rpm one. Better yet, get a 1TB SSD for storage, if you can swing the extra cost. Don't forget to buy a backup drive - preferably a WD Black or HGST Ultrastar - both have 5 yr warranties and generally outlast their warranty, unlike the consumer grade/consumer packaged back up drives you see everywhere for about $100.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

I bought these from Sager-Midern 25 years ago. I still have one stored somewhere. Best computer I had for years and years. Then I went over to the darkside but not because of hardware. Microsoft lost me to Apple.