New Win Laptop for Photoshop

[Gregs]

Replacing laptop time again: getting a thinkpad running win 7. 2  (T440S) Questions:
1) Any one have experience running Lightroom/photoshop CC with intel HD4400 graphics (the built in graphics on the ultra-low mobile Haswell chips)?
2) I'll be installing a 750GB samsung Evo as main drive. I can install a second M.2 format drive. Thinking of using this for photoshop cache. Would this be usefull? How big? The m.2 format drives are currently available in 16-128 GB sizes.

[PhotoEcosse]

Not an answer to your questions, Gregs, but do you have an overwhelming reason for using a laptop rather than a desktop?

I just can't imagine how anyone can do photo-processing satisfactorily on a laptop, unless they couple it to a pair of 27" monitors (or, at least one).

Also, in terms of equivalent processing power, laptops seem to be very considerably more expensive than desktops.

I do, however, appreciate that personal circumstances or non-photographic computing requirements might disctate that a laptop is the answer.

[Gregs]

Its a second system doing double duty. My current T410 has nividia switchable graphics, and it runs a PA721 fine - has full display port. The newer thinkpads have mini-display ports, but should work fine with display port to mini adaptor. I've used thinkpads in the past for photshop on external monitors: was doable even in multi-layer CS6 files with 100-200 mb scans. Mostly plan for preliminary work on images, mostly in lightroom.

[Gregs]

The low voltage i5/i7 laptop chips might surprise you. Some CS6/CC actions can be interminably slow, but most - eg colorcorrecting, PS sharpening, NR etc are fine - at least in a non-professional/production environment. Wonder if the older nividia laptop graphics chips are  inferior to the current ULV Haswell built in graphics (HD4400) - I have no experience with it, and was wondering if anyone has used these new chips for photo editing. Maximal, display port only, externally supported resolution,  for the HD4400 is stated to be 2500x1000 (approx) - which equals the PA721. Not sure about real world use.
Still asking if there's any need for a small, second, SSD for photshop cache, if the primary SSD is huge (750GB) and is run at 50% capacity.

[jerryrock]

Still asking if there's any need for a small, second, SSD for photshop cache, if the primary SSD is huge (750GB) and is run at 50% capacity.

Adobe says there is no need for a separate cache drive when using SSD.

http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-performance-photoshop-cs4-cs5.html#main_Solid_state_disks

My experience with the Wacom Cintiq Companion (Intel i7-3517U processor, 8GB RAM and it's 512GB SSD) is that Photoshop CC runs very fast using the same SSD drive for cache. I also use the same internal SSD hard drive on my MacPro 6,1 for both programs and cache.

[Hans Kruse]

Not an answer to your questions, Gregs, but do you have an overwhelming reason for using a laptop rather than a desktop?

I just can't imagine how anyone can do photo-processing satisfactorily on a laptop, unless they couple it to a pair of 27" monitors (or, at least one).

Also, in terms of equivalent processing power, laptops seem to be very considerably more expensive than desktops.

I do, however, appreciate that personal circumstances or non-photographic computing requirements might disctate that a laptop is the answer.

I'm doing all my photo processing on a single machine which is MacBook Pro 15" retina i7 quad core 2.3 Ghz 16GB RAM 1TB SSD and use a 30" HP monitor in my office with a keyboard and a magic mouse. This works absolutely great and I have no need for a desktop machine. It's an expensive machine but it replaces both a laptop and a desktop. For me this is the ideal setup.

[Gregs]

Looks like I won't need a second SSD cache drive! Thanks for helpful replies