i7 2640M/Dell XPS 15z for photo editing?

[Ksanti]

Looking to upgrade my laptop so that I can edit on my laptop rather than just my desktop (spend most of the week sleeping away from home and a lot of time abroad).

I've kind of settled on the Dell XPS 15 or the 15Z and getting it from Outlet but I'm stuck deciding between the two. I'd prefer the 15Z if it had the i7 quad core but as it doesn't I'd want to know whether it would be able to match up to my desktop.

The i7 2670QM in the XPS 15 is meant to easily be able to keep pace with a moderately clocked i7 920 (I have a 920 @ 3.6Ghz in my desktop), and from a couple of benchmarks the i7 2640M in the XPS 15z is meant to be able to get the same results as a 3.2Ghz 920, but I don't know enough about benchmarks to know which are most relevant to photoshop/lightroom performance.

As long as it can match the i7 920 in my desktop I'm happy with it as there's been nothing that's really pushed my desktop so far in terms of processor speed. Don't need gaming performance or anything like that really.

If there's anything else like that sort of spec at the £800 or below (preferably below) then let me know but I've never really seen anything other than other refurb outlets compete with Dell Outlet pricing.

 

[arad85]

2670QM will run flat out at 2.8GHz, the 2640 will run at 3.3GHz. On single core tasks (e.g. mp3 encoding, the 2640 will be ~15% faster. On tasks that can be paralleled (e.g. filtering) the 2670 will be ~70% faster (due to the 4 cores).

Most of what you do is single threaded for most things. A lot of things you do in image processing (e.g. adjusting levels) can be split in to a number of parallel tasks so these will run slightly quicker on the 2670. In other words, the 2640 will probably feel a little snappier for general use, but adjusting sliders will probably be snappier on the 2670.

I know that isn't a massive help but...

BTW, I have a 2630QM based XPS and I'm just thinking of putting an SSD into it. I think that will speed it up quite a bit.

 

[Dale_tem]

I have the 15z with dual core i7 and it runs photoshop with photos fine.

I've got a 750Gb drive.

The only downside to the laptop so far is the chrome strip around the edge has come off a little near the touch pad.

I'm pretty sure it is around if not quicker than the 920 as this is what i have as one of my desktops.

iirc the 15z has a higher resolution screen as well. I have the 1920 x 1080 screen

 

[Ksanti]

Hmm okay, well if there's that much of a difference in it I think I'll go for the XPS 15 as it's cheaper and more powerful for photoshop anyway. I'll just wait until one with the spec I want shows up on outlet and go for it then. I often do some pretty hectic editing even if just for fun (particularly full resolution brenizer/panorma stuff etc.)

EDIT: Hmm yeah I don't want the laptop falling apart and there have been some reports of that with the 15Z.

Both the 15 and 15Z have 1080p screen options and that's what I'll be getting.