Faster processor or more memory

Kido

I'm looking at buying a custom built laptop for editing photos and videos whilst I'm travelling. The files are quite large (each photo being in the region of 15mb (last time I was travelling I was trying to load and edit about 50 at a time and around 20 minutes of HD video from a camcorder) and my current laptop doesn't cope with them so I'm looking at getting a new one. On the specifications it gives me options of different processors or more memory. I can either afford to upgrade the memory to 16gb (from 8gb) or the processor from Intel Core i7 4700MQ 2.40GHz Mobile to Intel Core i7 4800MQ 2.70GHz Mobile. Which is going to be more beneficial for my use? As well as photo/video editing I usually have a word processor running so I can make notes and also Itunes when editing photos.

closed

why do you need to do 50 at a time

Kido

I load them all on then I can see what I've got then delete or photoshop as required.

Johnmcl7

I'd go for the faster processor for a few reasons, firstly 8GB of ram is a decent amount - this is how much I have in my video editing/processing machine and I've not see it run out of ram even when it's doing multiple video renders and a batch export of images.

Secondly, as this is a custom built laptop I assume the ram is accessible therefore you can likely upgrade the ram in the future and possibly cheaper as well if ram prices have dropped. Upgrading mobile processors is usually difficult as it's not intended to be user-accessible and expensive as laptop processor are usually not sold for consumers.

What hard drive configuration are you looking at? That can also make a big difference to the system's performance.

John

Kido

I'm looking at a 128GB SSD drive and a 1TB HDD (Seagate ST1000LM014 Momentus XT 2.5" SATA Solid State Hybrid Drive - 1TB Slim 9.5mm - 64MB Cache)

closed

viewing them shouldn't use much resources, but editing 50 at once may. what are you using to do this now

Kido

My desktop PC (i7 3770k @ 3.5ghz, 16GB memory) is what I'm currently using.

closed

that should be able to handle anything you throw at it.

Kido

It does, but I need a laptop for when I'm travelling and don't have access to my desktop.

closed

I doubt you need an i7 to edit photo's. i5 4-8GB should cope easily if you want to save money, and less of an expense if it gets damaged/stolen

Kido

closed wrote: »

I doubt you need an i7 to edit photo's. i5 4-8GB should cope easily if you want to save money, and less of an expense if it gets damaged/stolen

I'm looking at an i7 so I can edit the video footage I take as well. My brother is getting married the day before I go away (my camcorder and I are in charge of videoing the event) and I'd like to be able to edit the video whilst I'm away as well as any video footage I get whilst at Disney.