Lightest, smallest computer that runs lightroom

My laptop is 6 1/2 years old and heavy. Traveling with it is not easy - along with all the other camera equipment we all have on us.

Wanting to know what is the smallest and lightest PC that will run lightroom to travel with. I know that I will have to have a slim portable hard drive with me, not a problem. Will one of those net books ("thigh tops") work? This is an area I am not good at and need help.

Thanks for the help - DiverPam

I have a Lenovo T420s, it has a 14" monitor, so it might not be the smallest, still at slightly less than 4lbs, I consider it light enough to travel with. You might also want to look into the ultrabooks (MacBook Air and its PC equivalents). They are even lighter, but usually don't come with optical (DVD) drives. You might not need it anyway.

I have an Acer Aspire One D257 netbook which I used for weekend trips. It weighs around 1kg (2.2lbs). It is not blindingly fast, but is adequate to run Lightroom. The screen is small (10.1" and 1024x600) but it is OK for reviewing images and starting the cataloging process.

If an Apple is of consideration then an 11" MacBook air or 13" if you want an SD card slot built in.

I have an Asus Eee PC Seashell series - 10" screen it cost £225 twelve months ago at Comet. Added a 2 gb RAM chip (east peasy) £10 from Amazon - It runs Lightroom well.

I am very pleased with this wee machine for trips

Thanks for the info. All of my programs are for PC/windows based computers. So I am committed to a PC model. Will keep this info for when I get to this.

Sorry for the delay in responding - in Cayman doing some diving and my computer (old one) has not been vrey responsive at times this week.

Thanks again - Pam

11" macbook air, then use bootcamp to load windows.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the best laptop for running windozs.

Rather than the Macbook Air, I think I would go for the 13" Macbook Pro as it would be more convenient and capable of other things.

Steve

Rather than the Macbook Air, I think I would go for the 13" Macbook Pro as it would be more convenient and capable of other things.

Steve

Smallest and lightest.

11" macbook air, then use bootcamp to load windows.

 

According to the Wall Street Journal, the best laptop for running windozs.

Thanks for the input. What is bootcamp and is it free? And I consider myself tech challenged when it comes "easy" to load things and changing out chips. Why would I buy a MAC product to load windows on it? I am sure that seems like a stupid question to some - but humor me please.

Thanks - DiverPam

Thanks for the input. What is bootcamp and is it free? And I consider myself tech challenged when it comes "easy" to load things and changing out chips. Why would I buy a MAC product to load windows on it? I am sure that seems like a stupid question to some - but humor me please.

 

Thanks - DiverPam

Hi Pam,

Bootcamp allows you to choose which operating system you want to load when you boot your computer. I was a diehard PC guy since the beginning of the PC but switched last year to a Mac Book Pro and LOVE IT! I use a program called VirtualBox which is free. Essentially, instead of choosing at start up which operating system to run, VirtualBox allows you to run a Windows OS within your Mac OS. The cool thing about it is that there's a mode that allows you to have the Windows apps run seamlessly so you can be running Mac and Windows apps side by side on the same computer.

Why would you want to do this? Well if you've invested in Windows apps, this gives you the opportunity to migrate apps to the Mac over time. As new versions of software come out, you buy the Mac version and slowly transition away from the PC. There are of course apps that are only available for Windows and in that case you can run those on your Mac through VirtualBox too. When I first had my Mac, I was running Lightroom and Photoshop CS4 on Windows within the Mac until I got Lightroom and Photoshop CS5 for the Mac.

VirtualBox is what's known as a virtual machine. You could actually run any operating system you want inside it. I happen to have Windows 7 64-bit running. You will need to install Windows inside VirtualBox which means you need the Windows DVD and license key which you hopefully have from your existing machine.

Andy

The lightest, smallest computer than does Lightroom *really well*. It would be 11" Macbook Air with the i5 and 4gb RAM, hands down. Fantastic machine, really quick, super light. Load it up with Lightroom 4, CS6 and Parallels with Windows 7 instead of Bootcamp.

Parallels has a feature called "coherence" mode with allows you to mingle Windows and OSX apps without switching OS's or rebooting. It works fantastic. I use MS Office under Windows 7 and I can double click on a .docx file and OSX will automatically launch Word under Windows without leaving OSX. I don't know if I'm explaining it very well, but it works really awesome. For file comparisons I still believe the Windows version of Beyond Compare works better than anything OSX has, so I just use it through Parallels. In Coherence mode, Windows can "see and write to" the OSX folders and OSX can "see and write to" Windows directories.

The Macbook Air is just an awesome device. There's a reason every Windows laptop manufacturer is trying to copy the concept -- it really is a game changer. Barely larger than an iPad and more powerful than any laptop more than 1 year old. The SSD in the Macbook Air makes everything launch almost instantly.

Do this -- go to the Apple store with a flash drive full of photos and pop it into a Macbook Air. It will shock you how fast it will load your photos in iPhoto.

take care,

JP

The lightest, smallest computer than does Lightroom *really well*. It would be 11" Macbook Air with the i5 and 4gb RAM, hands down. Fantastic machine, really quick, super light. Load it up with Lightroom 4, CS6 and Parallels with Windows 7 instead of Bootcamp.

 

Parallels has a feature called "coherence" mode with allows you to mingle Windows and OSX apps without switching OS's or rebooting. It works fantastic. I use MS Office under Windows 7 and I can double click on a .docx file and OSX will automatically launch Word under Windows without leaving OSX. I don't know if I'm explaining it very well, but it works really awesome. For file comparisons I still believe the Windows version of Beyond Compare works better than anything OSX has, so I just use it through Parallels. In Coherence mode, Windows can "see and write to" the OSX folders and OSX can "see and write to" Windows directories.

 

The Macbook Air is just an awesome device. There's a reason every Windows laptop manufacturer is trying to copy the concept -- it really is a game changer. Barely larger than an iPad and more powerful than any laptop more than 1 year old. The SSD in the Macbook Air makes everything launch almost instantly.

 

Do this -- go to the Apple store with a flash drive full of photos and pop it into a Macbook Air. It will shock you how fast it will load your photos in iPhoto.

 

take care,

JP

Yep, Parallels is another virtual machine similar to VirtualBox. What Parallels calls "coherence mode", VirtualBox calls "seamless windows". They're both virtual machines so either solution will do a similar job. Parallels is about $80, VirtualBox is free but if you feel that you need the tech support Pam, you may want to pay the $80 for Parallels.

Thanks for all of the info guys. The Best Buy here has an Mac display with a specialist to help wtih questions, etc. I also think we have an Apple store in a local mall that I could check out. Will try this as soon as I can.

Thanks again - Pam

The new macbooks with Retina display will be out in the next few months. I'd wait if you can.

Mac is not the only solution.

I have an ASUS Zenbook UX31E-DH72 Ultrabook 13.3" and is a rocket.

Weight 2.87 lb

1.80GHz Intel Core i7-2677M

4GB DDR3 RAM

256GB SATA III Solid State Drive

USB 3

Mac is not the only solution.

I have an ASUS Zenbook UX31E-DH72 Ultrabook 13.3" and is a rocket.

Weight 2.87 lb

 

1.80GHz Intel Core i7-2677M

4GB DDR3 RAM

256GB SATA III Solid State Drive

USB 3

The ASUS Zenbook is an impressive Windows ultrabook. Quite competitive with the 13" Macbook Air. However, if the intent is to get the "smallest" computer for traveling, the 11" Macbook Air is both smaller and lighter.

Also, a Zenbook with the spec you have listed above is $1500 vs. an 11" Macbook Air with 4gb/128gb/i5 at $1200. It's more machine to be sure, so it depends on how much a person wants to spend. It's certainly another good choice for a travel machine.

I think if a person wants a Windows machine, the ASUS is the best one out, but I personally would rather have the Macbook Air if nothing else because the trackpad and keyboard are better than any Windows machine I have owned or tried.

Just stirrin' the pot

JP

The ASUS Zenbook is an impressive Windows ultrabook. Quite competitive with the 13" Macbook Air. However, if the intent is to get the "smallest" computer for traveling, the 11" Macbook Air is both smaller and lighter.

 

Also, a Zenbook with the spec you have listed above is $1500 vs. an 11" Macbook Air with 4gb/128gb/i5 at $1200. It's more machine to be sure, so it depends on how much a person wants to spend. It's certainly another good choice for a travel machine.

 

I think if a person wants a Windows machine, the ASUS is the best one out, but I personally would rather have the Macbook Air if nothing else because the trackpad and keyboard are better than any Windows machine I have owned or tried.

 

Just stirrin' the pot

 

JP

In that case we can consider the ASUS Zenbook UX21E-DH71 Ultrabook 11.6"

1.80GHz Intel Core i7-2677M Dual-Core

4GB of RAM

128GB Solid State Drive

USB 3

2.43 lb

Right now offered by BHphoto at $999.00

In that case we can consider the ASUS Zenbook UX21E-DH71 Ultrabook 11.6"

 

1.80GHz Intel Core i7-2677M Dual-Core

4GB of RAM

128GB Solid State Drive

USB 3

2.43 lb

 

Right now offered by BHphoto at $999.00

Nice. A worthy competitor if one wishes to have a Windows box. ASUS makes nice stuff.

Thanks for the input. What is bootcamp and is it free? And I consider myself tech challenged when it comes "easy" to load things and changing out chips. Why would I buy a MAC product to load windows on it? I am sure that seems like a stupid question to some - but humor me please.

 

Thanks - DiverPam

Boot amp is free with Mac.

Unlike the others mentioned it runs Windows as your root operating system. So it maybe faster.

Either way you would have to buy windows OS to installl.