Replacing my fast desktop with an equivalent Lenovo notebook

My desktop is adequate for my current needs, mainly I can work with my six core i5-8400 at a steady 3.9 GHz
all day. With 32 GB of 3000 MHz RAM, a mid-range GPU, tons of storage etc I can do what I need to do in my photo processing.

I do a lot of work in Lightroom/Photoshop CS5/PTGui (for high resolution domes) and go back and forth in all three for hours at a time.

My current aging notebooks (T430 and W520) are totally inadequate for my workflow these days and I don't even attempt to do what I need to do while on the road.

Is it possible to configure a modern Lenovo to actually replace my desktop (I build my own desktops) considering my workflow? I keep hearing the term "throttling" which I'm guessing means it would heat up and throttle back the frequency of the cpu for who knows how long which would strangle my workflow. Things like that to consider.

 

Lenovo P52 workstation with i7-8750H hexa-core CPU and support for up to 128GB RAM.

According to the review, the CPU is able to maintain a 3.1GHz clockspeed across all cores for sustained workloads, or 3.4GHz for short workloads.

 

I was kinda hoping for a reply for someone in my position with real world experience, comparing their fast desktop with their supposedly "as fast" notebook.

 

Hi, I don’t mean to be rude, but your “fast” desktop is kind of slow by modern day spec comparisons.

There are tons of laptop machines out there that are better than your desktop. I had to double check your post to make sure it wasn’t three years old.

I have a boring Clevo laptop with an i7 8700k, 64mb of RAM which would eat your desktop for lunch.

What other specs matter to you? Is portability or battery life an issue? What about quality and price? For example, a Dell 7530 or 7730 have Xeons and 12gb video cards but they are expensive... and do you need a 4K screen for your work?

R

 

Well, you still need a pretty high end mobile processor (say, i7-8750H) to match the i5-8400 desktop. A ThinkPad P72 can be configured for that, and you can get it with an excellent 4K screen for image processing work. A Dell 7730 would work just fine, too.

 

I've been looking at laptops with the i7-8750 and higher. A high cpu frequency is what keeps my workflow motoring along so I'm also looking at reviews of different laptops with an eye to their cooling and potential throttling. Like I've said, my i5-8400 can stay at 3.9 GHz all day while staying at 40 degrees C. I don't necessarily need a 4K screen, just bright and readable, I don't have a 4K right now and don't need one. My processing doesn't really use the gpu so having a 1050ti or such isn't really a need. I never game on my laptops, just work.

Looking at gaming laptops, I can get decent specs at around $1200 but once I go up to, say, a so-called "work station" like the 7730 suddenly I'm way above my budget. So for now I'm searching "i7-8750 and 32 GB ram" for starters. I've only owned Lenovo laptops so I'd prefer to stick with Lenovo in the future. But then is that being short-sighted?

 

So your processing isn't very parallel? If it were, throughput more than clock speed would likely be the requirement.

 

Lots of talk from a guy that doesn't even have enough ram to run a modern OS

 

Lol... you got me.

That’s GB of course.

R