Windows Laptop for LRc 45MP raw photos and sporadic 4K/8K video

[sssanti]

I am looking for windows laptop options to use for extended periods away from home without a monitor, that would also replace an old desktop when I am at home.

Most of the time, I edit 45MP photo raw files with LRc. Sometimes I use Photoshop. I would also like to start editing some 4K video and I would like to have the option of trying editing 8K including raw video files for special cases. So far, I have used Adobe Premier for video a few times. I m looking for a display that has reliable colors after calibration and a CPU/GPU that updates quickly when applying edits to photos.

I am considering 32GB memory and either i9 or i7 12th generation processors and 1-2 TB internal SDD. Two options I have found are:

• Dell XPS 15 with i9-12900HK, RTX 3050 Ti and 3456x2160 OLED touch display, 32 GB DDR5 RAM, 1TB SSD for $2550
• Similar Dell XPS 17, but I am worried about being too large for traveling.
• Axus 16" ProArt StudioBook with i7-12700HL, RTX 3080 Ti and 3840 x 2400 OLED HDR display for $2200

I would appreciate input about these options or other ideas. The XPS with 3.5 OLED display comes with faster CPU, the ProArt seems to have a better GPU and a better price, I am not sure what is better for my use.

 

[bmoag]

The 17 inch laptops with high end graphics are what they are because of power consumptions and built in, usually noisy, cooling. They are meant as desktop replacements that will be non-motile. Just check out their power bricks. I know people who lug these around, I think they are masochistic.

If planning to edit large video files you will also need to consider what type of external storage you want to lug with you. It will have to be at least SSD, you might consider nvme in an appropriate enclosure. 45mp raw files will challenge any machine of any ilk for complex renders and I/O.

There are oodles of 15 inch gaming and productivity laptops that will fit your needs apart from Dell, Acer and the usual suspects, probably at lower cost. I would look at ASUS, MSI and assemblers like iBuyPowerPC, among others, to see what is out there. There are a number of marketing terms used to indicate thinner, slightly lower power machines that are more portable. For video editing it would be worth paying more for a higher end nVidia dGPU, at least 3070 in class. High end Ryzen CPUs are less power hungry.

One random example of what's out there if you look: ASUS ROG Strix Scar 15 (2022) Gaming Laptop, 15.6” 240Hz IPS QHD Display, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, Intel Core i9 12900H, 32GB DDR5, 1TB SSD, Per-Key RGB Keyboard, Windows 11 Pro, G533ZW-XS96 - Newegg.com

If you can live on Apple island MacBook Pros are far more power efficient than Windows laptops and significantly less hefty.

 

[bakubo]

I am looking for windows laptop options to use for extended periods away from home without a monitor, that would also replace an old desktop when I am at home.

Please clarify:

1. Do you mean on the go, carrying the laptop in a backpack and moving to a new place every day? Using in airports, coffee shops, hotel rooms? Travel by plane?
2. Do you mean carrying the laptop in something like a small rolling travel bag, staying for multiple days or longer at the same place (hotel, furnished rental condo, vacation home)? Travel by car?

Depending on what you mean I would suggest different laptop sizes. If case #1 then small and light are probably going to be very important so you will likely be willing to compromise on a smaller display. If case #2 then a bigger, heavier, more powerful laptop (including larger power brick) may not be much of a problem in order to have a bigger display and more power and more comfortable to use.

 

[CAcreeks]

• Axus Asus 16" ProArt StudioBook with i7-12700HL, RTX 3080 Ti and 3840 x 2400 OLED HDR display for $2200

I would appreciate input about these options or other ideas. The XPS with 3.5 OLED display comes with faster CPU, the ProArt seems to have a better GPU and a better price, I am not sure what is better for my use.

Seems like you have a good handle on what you need. Thanks for mentioning the ProArt StudioBook, which was just reviewed here a couple days ago:

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-...lternative-for-content-creators.695193.0.html

I have no idea whether the XPS and Asus models you mentioned suffer from overheating, but notebookcheck reviews in the past have said that i7 is faster in some benchmarks than i9 because it generates less heat and takes longer to throttle. Same might be true of 3080 vs 3060.

Weird that the Asus website lacks Purchase button. B&H has the AMD 5900X + 3070 option for $1999 but it is out of stock.

 

[sssanti]

The 17 inch laptops with high end graphics are what they are because of power consumptions and built in, usually noisy, cooling. They are meant as desktop replacements that will be non-motile. Just check out their power bricks. I know people who lug these around, I think they are masochistic.

If planning to edit large video files you will also need to consider what type of external storage you want to lug with you. It will have to be at least SSD, you might consider nvme in an appropriate enclosure. 45mp raw files will challenge any machine of any ilk for complex renders and I/O.

There are oodles of 15 inch gaming and productivity laptops that will fit your needs apart from Dell, Acer and the usual suspects, probably at lower cost. I would look at ASUS, MSI and assemblers like iBuyPowerPC, among others, to see what is out there. There are a number of marketing terms used to indicate thinner, slightly lower power machines that are more portable. For video editing it would be worth paying more for a higher end nVidia dGPU, at least 3070 in class. High end Ryzen CPUs are less power hungry.

One random example of what's out there if you look: ASUS ROG Strix Scar 15 (2022) Gaming Laptop, 15.6” 240Hz IPS QHD Display, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, Intel Core i9 12900H, 32GB DDR5, 1TB SSD, Per-Key RGB Keyboard, Windows 11 Pro, G533ZW-XS96 - Newegg.com

If you can live on Apple island MacBook Pros are far more power efficient than Windows laptops and significantly less hefty.

Thank you for your reply. I prefer to look at windows options only. Since I will often use the laptop without an external monitor, I want to make sure that the display is color accurate and close to 4K resolution. I also prefer 3:2 or 16:10 aspect ratio for photos. This seems to limit my options. Do you think that I can find gaming or productivity laptops with good display choices?

Video editing is not that critical for me. As long as long as I can do it, I would not mind having to wait some for renderings.

 

[sssanti]

I am looking for windows laptop options to use for extended periods away from home without a monitor, that would also replace an old desktop when I am at home.

Please clarify:

1. Do you mean on the go, carrying the laptop in a backpack and moving to a new place every day? Using in airports, coffee shops, hotel rooms? Travel by plane?
2. Do you mean carrying the laptop in something like a small rolling travel bag, staying for multiple days or longer at the same place (hotel, furnished rental condo, vacation home)? Travel by car?

Depending on what you mean I would suggest different laptop sizes. If case #1 then small and light are probably going to be very important so you will likely be willing to compromise on a smaller display. If case #2 then a bigger, heavier, more powerful laptop (including larger power brick) may not be much of a problem in order to have a bigger display and more power and more comfortable to use.

In some cases I plan to be in the same place for several days or weeks, but not always and frequently traveling by plane. I will probably enjoy a 17" display, but plane travel with a large laptop in addition to camera, lenses, etc. could be a hassle. I am guessing a 15-16" screen could work, especially if it is 3:2 or 16:10.

 

[bakubo]

I am looking for windows laptop options to use for extended periods away from home without a monitor, that would also replace an old desktop when I am at home.

Please clarify:

1. Do you mean on the go, carrying the laptop in a backpack and moving to a new place every day? Using in airports, coffee shops, hotel rooms? Travel by plane?
2. Do you mean carrying the laptop in something like a small rolling travel bag, staying for multiple days or longer at the same place (hotel, furnished rental condo, vacation home)? Travel by car?

Depending on what you mean I would suggest different laptop sizes. If case #1 then small and light are probably going to be very important so you will likely be willing to compromise on a smaller display. If case #2 then a bigger, heavier, more powerful laptop (including larger power brick) may not be much of a problem in order to have a bigger display and more power and more comfortable to use.

In some cases I plan to be in the same place for several days or weeks, but not always and frequently traveling by plane. I will probably enjoy a 17" display, but plane travel with a large laptop in addition to camera, lenses, etc. could be a hassle. I am guessing a 15-16" screen could work, especially if it is 3:2 or 16:10.

Yes, in that case I think you are correct.

I do both types of travel for many years. Over the years I have owned multiple 17.3", 15.6", 14.1", and 13.3" laptops -- I currently have one of each of those size laptop PCs. The big 17.3" ones are good for road trips where I am traveling by car and the laptop and other stuff is in an easy rolling travel bag for staying at hotels. Also, good for extended stays at the same place. Nice to have the bigger display. But, not good for plane travel, carrying in a backpack, and so on.

For several years I settled on a good 15.6" ultrabook laptop that at home was connected to one or two external displays. For times away from home I would just unplug the external displays and take the laptop. The 15.6" display was an okay, but not great, size for photo work with Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Topaz, etc.. One must make compromises though.

Recently I bought this 16.2" laptop and am using it the same way (almost exactly the same size in all dimensions and weight as my older 15.6" ultrabook laptop):

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/66907890

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/66905834

 

[sssanti]

• Axus Asus 16" ProArt StudioBook with i7-12700HL, RTX 3080 Ti and 3840 x 2400 OLED HDR display for $2200

I would appreciate input about these options or other ideas. The XPS with 3.5 OLED display comes with faster CPU, the ProArt seems to have a better GPU and a better price, I am not sure what is better for my use.

Seems like you have a good handle on what you need. Thanks for mentioning the ProArt StudioBook, which was just reviewed here a couple days ago:

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-...lternative-for-content-creators.695193.0.html

I have no idea whether the XPS and Asus models you mentioned suffer from overheating, but notebookcheck reviews in the past have said that i7 is faster in some benchmarks than i9 because it generates less heat and takes longer to throttle. Same might be true of 3080 vs 3060.

Weird that the Asus website lacks Purchase button. B&H has the AMD 5900X + 3070 option for $1999 but it is out of stock.

Thank you for the link to the review. It is hard to get a feeling for how any of these laptops will perform for what my particular use.

 

[bakubo]

After you make a decision please come back and let us know what you will get.

 

[AwkwardSwine]

Amazon has the Asus 16 with an i7 cpu / 32gb / 3060gpu / 1TB storage for $2099.

This is the option I would go for. The i9 cpu's just load up on more cores that is somewhat faster at rendering video, but has very little utility otherwise. The i7 options may be faster for everything else, and save some money and battery.

It looks like a great system!

 

[PupOnTech]

why windows only?

 

[Austinian]

why windows only?

Most of the visitors to this forum are looking for Windows PC info, but Linux discussions are also welcome here. MacOS questions belong in Mac Talk. We get fewer long arguments that way.

 

[sssanti]

why windows only?

I am used to windows and I know how to do what I need. With an Apple, I would need to invest time to be at the same level.

 

[sssanti]

Amazon has the Asus 16 with an i7 cpu / 32gb / 3060gpu / 1TB storage for $2099.

This is the option I would go for. The i9 cpu's just load up on more cores that is somewhat faster at rendering video, but has very little utility otherwise. The i7 options may be faster for everything else, and save some money and battery.

It looks like a great system!

Thank you for telling me. I am debating between the Asus 16 that I can also get with 2TB and RTX 3080 Ti for $2200 and the Dell XPS 15. The Dell seems to be a little smaller and lighter, but at a higher price unless I get it open box.

The Asus' display may have a slightly larger display 16" compared to 15.6. Do you think the Asus is a reliable machine?

 

[Austinian]

Amazon has the Asus 16 with an i7 cpu / 32gb / 3060gpu / 1TB storage for $2099.

This is the option I would go for. The i9 cpu's just load up on more cores that is somewhat faster at rendering video, but has very little utility otherwise. The i7 options may be faster for everything else, and save some money and battery.

It looks like a great system!

Thank you for telling me. I am debating between the Asus 16 that I can also get with 2TB and RTX 3080 Ti for $2200 and the Dell XPS 15. The Dell seems to be a little smaller and lighter, but at a higher price unless I get it open box.

The Asus' display may have a slightly larger display 16" compared to 15.6. Do you think the Asus is a reliable machine?

I haven't owned a recent Asus, but I've had three of their laptops in the past. I had no failures with any of them. My one concern with all three is that they were difficult to upgrade, requiring fairly major disassembly.

That was years ago, they may have improved in that respect. If you ever plan to upgrade memory, storage, etc. I'd suggest you check your proposed model's support page and see if you can find a service manual that describes the upgrade procedures.

Upgradeability was a major reason I've been buying Dells in recent years; I've upgraded memory and/or storage on each of the last three laptops; it was easy and the service manual was very good.

On my XPS 15 9570 I bought the cheapest version and saved significant money by using third-party memory and SSDs instead of Dell's.

 

[CBR1100XX]

The Asus is the best deal by far but it's about the same size as the XPS17 so I'd have concerns over that.

And with the current XPS 15 that GPU is a bit small for video editing both in power and VRAM but Dell has on their site a new one with the 13th gen i9 and an RTX 4070. The issue is that spec'd out like you want it's 400 dollars more currently ($2,950) but it's a Dell so if you can wait a little bit it'll go on sale.

 

[bakubo]

I haven't owned a recent Asus, but I've had three of their laptops in the past. I had no failures with any of them. My one concern with all three is that they were difficult to upgrade, requiring fairly major disassembly.

That was years ago, they may have improved in that respect. If you ever plan to upgrade memory, storage, etc. I'd suggest you check your proposed model's support page and see if you can find a service manual that describes the upgrade procedures.

Also youtube video reviews of laptops almost always include taking the back off, checking to see how to update RAM, SSD, etc. Checking the support page and actually seeing RAM upgraded in a video are both useful.

Upgradeability was a major reason I've been buying Dells in recent years; I've upgraded memory and/or storage on each of the last three laptops; it was easy and the service manual was very good.

On my XPS 15 9570 I bought the cheapest version and saved significant money by using third-party memory and SSDs instead of Dell's.

 

[sssanti]

Thank you for all the replies with very valuable input.

I finally ordered the ASUS 16" proart. I will take me some time to set it up before I can see how it works for my needs.

 

[bakubo]

Thank you for all the replies with very valuable input.

I finally ordered the ASUS 16" proart. I will take me some time to set it up before I can see how it works for my needs.

Cool. What specs did you choose?

 

[sssanti]

Thank you for all the replies with very valuable input.

I finally ordered the ASUS 16" proart. I will take me some time to set it up before I can see how it works for my needs.

Cool. What specs did you choose?

i7-12700HL, RTX 3080 Ti, 32GB, 2x1TB SSD and 3840 x 2400 OLED HDR display

The two 1TB SSD come with Raid 0, so they show as a single 2TB drive. I am trying to decide if I want to keep it like that. I read that this increases speed but it could complicate a future upgrade replacing one of the drives with a larger one.