New laptop feedback

[Leablahblah]

So after suffering a laptop death in June and working on a old pc that keeps bugging , I need to seriously consider buying a new laptop but of course I'm afraid to buy something that will fail... and I need to save money and that's hard without having a job.

I have my eyes on this one. Do you guys think that it will be strong enough for Photoshop and Lightroom and a bit of gaming?

Lenovo because husband says that is the brand that NASA uses and they are very strong machines. And I looked in the gaming laptops for a strong graphic card.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-...?skuId=6575388

Lenovo Legion Slim 5 16" Gaming Laptop WQXGA
AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS with 16GB Memory
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 8GB
1TB SSD

And if not, what do I need to be looking for so there is no lagging?

[Brendazzle]

I'm not an expert but 16 GB RAM, a NVIDIA GeForce graphics card, and an SSD are all really great. That's what I have in my desktop and it does pretty well with Photoshop, although I occasionally have to close and reopen it while editing files from my 5D Mark IV. (Those are some big RAW files though at 35ish MB before I even open them. I need more RAM but haven't gotten a chance to upgrade that yet.) Just scrapping with Photoshop isn't an issue; the only time I ever had a problem is trying to do the challenge with 100 elements this summer and my solution was to make each quadrant a smart object.

My family has worked with Lenovo for a while and all swear by it but I didn't know about the NASA connection. That's really cool!

I hope whatever new laptop you get works really well for you for a long, long time.

[Kimberly27]

Lenovo is a tough machine. I have used them for a while now and can be hard on my computer. I would go with a built in graphic card and a Core processor. The AMD may not be strong enough

Mine is:

Processor: 10th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-10750H Processor (2.60 GHz, up to 5.00 GHz with Turbo Boost, 6 Cores, 12 Threads, 12 MB Cache)
● Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64
● Display Type: 15.6” FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, anti-glare with Dolby Vision™, 500 nits, 240Hz
● Memory: 16 GB DDR4 2933MHz (2 x 8 GB)
● Hard Drive: 1 TB PCIe SSD
● Warranty: One Year Legion Ultimate Support
● AC Adapter: 230W
● Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 2060 6GB
● Battery: 4 Cell Li-Polymer 60Wh
● Camera: 720p HD
● Keyboard: Backlit - US English
● Wireless: Wi-Fi 6™ 802.11AX (2 x 2) & Bluetooth® 5.0

You can probably search online too for coupons.

[Leablahblah]

thanks ladies!!

So I know nothing about processors and what not.
Why would the AMD not be strong enough? Is Intel known to be better?

And I see that my graphics card is a newer model than yours. But you think it wouldn't be as good?

I would think: newer models, better stuff?

Where do I look for coupons? best buy coupons? or somewhere else? I might even look at costco to see if they have better deals.

The laptops I saw was on bestbuy.com

I tried to build the exact same model on Lenovo.com and it was more expensive to make it there.

[Leablahblah]

There is this one
if you're saying it's worth the investment and upgrade...


Lenovo - Legion Pro 5i 16" Gaming Laptop WQXGA
Intel 14th Gen Core i9 with 16GB Memory
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 8GB
1TB SSD

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-...?skuId=6575389

but when I compare the two laptops, it says this one has a midrange graphics card and the one up above has a high end one.

[Kimberly27]

The graphic card is good that you have...I was just saying you want a built in one. My computer is several years old so newer is def better.

I would google best buy coupons or you can add extensions on Chrome. Coupert, Coupon Cabin, Be Frugal, Rakuten (my fav bc of the cash back), Retail me not, be frugal, Capital one (this one you can use without having a card). I have an extension on my computer called Extensity that lets me turn off those extensions when I am not using them bc they can get annoying. I am a reseller so use these a lot for shopping online.

[Leablahblah]

I see! Thanks for that!

So out of the two, would you go for a better processor or a better graphics card?? Lol

[TraceyM]

Go for the graphics card - Photoshop is graphics heavy. I've been trying to decide for two years now and I have loved my Lenovo. When I bought it they declared Lenovo was actually better than Apple.

Go online and ask for a comparison of the two AMD vs Intel engines. See if it looks like it will be too great a difference.

This one has a little more of the good stuff in it we want.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-...?skuId=6575390

[Leablahblah]

Thanks Tracey. I know that the more money I'll put into it the better but I don't have any income right now and coming up with that kind of cash is going to be so hard. And by the time I have the money I'm sure new models will be out. lol

[sweetdoll]

A good tip to make your Photoshop even faster is to use an external SSD just to run it, this certainly helps me a lot.

[Robin Carlton]

Lea, my husband and I both think the first one you linked in the thread is a great choice. AMD Ryzen processors have come a long way and are great for graphics / gaming / etc. The Intel vs AMD debate is really just a brand preference at this point. They are both great processors that will perform well. The Nvidia 4070 is a fab graphics card. Memory is what you really want for Photoshop so I'd get the most memory you can afford. 16GB will honestly probably do just fine though.

[Leablahblah]

Thank you Raquel for the tip! I've never heard of that!

Robin thank you so much for comforting me with my first choice. That makes me feel better because I really can't see myself spend almost 2k on a new laptop especially if they are only supposed to be good for 5-6 years!

[TraceyM]

I actually just bought the one I linked you to. I know that doing design I want as powerful as I can afford and luckily I can afford that one. Two years searching and stashing money towards one.

I'm sure you'll be perfectly happy with the one you were looking at too. My high techie BIL said that most of these computers will do great on Photoshop even if the specs are not the top ones.

[TraceyM]

I actually just bought the one I linked you to. I know that doing design I want as powerful as I can afford and luckily I can afford that one. Two years searching and stashing money towards one.

I'm sure you'll be perfectly happy with the one you were looking at too. My high techie BIL said that most of these computers will do great on Photoshop even if the specs are not the top ones.

[sweetdoll]

Originally Posted by Leablahblah

Thank you Raquel for the tip! I've never heard of that!

In Photoshop's preference settings you can choose which unit it will run on, its performance is better when it is not running with other essential system programs.

I don't even want to imagine the value of one of these computers here in my country, which is full of taxes.

[Leablahblah]

Originally Posted by sweetdoll

In Photoshop's preference settings you can choose which unit it will run on, its performance is better when it is not running with other essential system programs.

I don't even want to imagine the value of one of these computers here in my country, which is full of taxes.

well the price shown here doesn't show taxes yet either lol

[Leablahblah]

Originally Posted by TraceyM

I actually just bought the one I linked you to. I know that doing design I want as powerful as I can afford and luckily I can afford that one. Two years searching and stashing money towards one.

I'm sure you'll be perfectly happy with the one you were looking at too. My high techie BIL said that most of these computers will do great on Photoshop even if the specs are not the top ones.

This is so exciting! Congrats on the new laptop!

[rach3975]

I bought a new computer for scrapping in June. I bought a model that was released in 2023, so after the 2024's were released the price dropped a lot. It was about $1000 with tax. I've been very happy with mine. Here are its stats:



I went with Lenovo for 2 main reasons. One is the quality and the other is that they're one of the few brands these days that offer 2 SSD slots on some of their lines. As soon as I got it home, I added a 2TB SSD in the empty slot for about $140. It was going to cost me a lot more to buy a computer with that much storage from the manufacturer, and the ones I could find also included other upgrades that I didn't need and didn't want to pay for. At some point I'll probably add more RAM, but for now it's running well on 16 GB.

Lenovo has a lot of sales when you buy direct from them, so when you're ready to buy you might want to watch their website for a good sale and see if it beats other places. I hope you find something you love!

ETA: I just looked at some of the 8th generation Legion Slim models on Lenovo's website. They were listed as having their RAM soldered, which means it wouldn't be upgradable later. The 9th generation model that you're looking at isn't listed as soldered, but you might want to confirm that and keep it in mind if you see a good deal on an older model.

[Leablahblah]

Thank you Rachel!
Wow you sure got a good deal on that computer!

Originally Posted by rach3975

I bought a new computer for scrapping in June. I bought a model that was released in 2023, so after the 2024's were released the price dropped a lot. It was about $1000 with tax. I've been very happy with mine. Here are its stats:



I went with Lenovo for 2 main reasons. One is the quality and the other is that they're one of the few brands these days that offer 2 SSD slots on some of their lines. As soon as I got it home, I added a 2TB SSD in the empty slot for about $140. It was going to cost me a lot more to buy a computer with that much storage from the manufacturer, and the ones I could find also included other upgrades that I didn't need and didn't want to pay for. At some point I'll probably add more RAM, but for now it's running well on 16 GB.

Lenovo has a lot of sales when you buy direct from them, so when you're ready to buy you might want to watch their website for a good sale and see if it beats other places. I hope you find something you love!

ETA: I just looked at some of the 8th generation Legion Slim models on Lenovo's website. They were listed as having their RAM soldered, which means it wouldn't be upgradable later. The 9th generation model that you're looking at isn't listed as soldered, but you might want to confirm that and keep it in mind if you see a good deal on an older model.

[Leablahblah]

Laptop was just ordered on the phone through a Lenovo rep. He was able to give us $106 discount which isn’t phenomenal but it’s better than nothing!
My husband is helping me out until I can pay him back fully.

I can’t wait!

[rach3975]

Originally Posted by Leablahblah

Laptop was just ordered on the phone through a Lenovo rep. He was able to give us $106 discount which isn’t phenomenal but it’s better than nothing!
My husband is helping me out until I can pay him back fully.

I can’t wait!

How exciting! I hope you love it! Which one did you go with?

[Leablahblah]

I went with my first choice at the top.

Lenovo Legion Slim 5 16" Gaming Laptop WQXGA
AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS with 16GB Memory
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 8GB
1TB SSD

[Leablahblah]

I got my new laptop!!! Now the fun of reinstalling everything begins!

[Txcorey]

That is sooo not fun! Hopefully it goes quick.