Should I upgrade my laptop to a photo editing PC and separate monitor?

[Scubacollie]

Hi All, i purchased a Lenovo Ideapad Y700 laptop approx 6 years ago and I specced it for video editing.

Its been good, however i don't use it anymore for video editing, and also a couple of years ago it performed an update, and ever since then its been taking longer to boot up (it has an SSD and initially booted in approx 20 seconds but now takes approx 3 mins....) not sure what could be causing this?

Anyway, its not a bad spec, it has Windows 10, Intel I7 6700 @ 2.60ghz, 16 GB RAM, and a 1TB HDD, and 500GB SSD.

However, the screen isn't very good, and i have a separate screen for my work and i've been linking it up for that when i'm in my leisure time.

I've also started getting into photography with a DSLR, and i've been using the work screen linked via HDMI to the laptop to edit my photos.

I'm not sure if i should purchase a Desktop Photo Editing PC?  And a new screen?  As i understand you should be using a SRGB 4K screen for photo editing?

If i were to purchase only a new screen for photo editing, would i benefit from the screen if its running off the laptop?  Or would it be a waste?

The laptop has a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M......

Edited January 29 by Scubacollie

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

I'd load a fresh Windows 10 install. Not sure what all you have in there.

What do you mean by "the screen isn't very good" Do you have a problem with it?

You can replace the screen for cheap. I've done this many times.

edit: might want to upgrade that RAM, too..

[Scubacollie]

The screen is working fine, however its always been a bit dull looking, its not as bright or high contrast as my work screen that i've been using.

It was years ago when i purchased it, but at the time i had two choices of screen and went with the cheaper option (can't remember what the options were now).

Its been over a decade since i've messed with PC's, reformatting drives etc., in those days you could purchase a disc and load it by changing the boot sequence on start up from the cd rom instead of hard drive, however not sure how its done now as its all downloads i believe? (i feel so old school!!) 

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Might be a backlight problem.

I haven't used windows for years, so I'm not sure what they use now. (just look at my avatar)

Could be you have too many bogus programs starting in the background. Which takes time. Look at this:

https://www.howtogeek.com/74523/how-to-disable-startup-programs-in-windows/

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Lenovo released the IdeaPad Y700 nine years ago in 2015, so the technology in it is a little older, from the year Windows 10 was released.  You can certainly upgrade it, and that will improve performance.  This particular model can be upgraded to 32GB (2×16GB) of DDR4-2133 RAM, and the drives can be upgraded, too. 

The M.2 slot in your model has a PCIe 3.0×2 (two-lane) interface and will support M.2 2280 NVMe SSD drives, but at around 1,900 MB/s, which is about half the maximum speed of a PCIe 3.0×4 (four-lane) interface.  Most M.2 NVMe SSDs use four lanes for their interface, and there are discussions about how to modify the Y700's BIOS (UEFI) firmware to add the two missing PCIe lanes to the M.2 interface, which would get it up to around 3,500 MB/s or so. 

The 1 TB HDD in the 2.5" drive bay could also be replaced with an 2.5" SATA SSD, which top out about about 550MB/s in speed.

So, you definitely have some upgrade options available to you which will improve the performance of the computer, especially with a fresh install of Windows.  Even wiping the drive and performing a clean installation of Windows, as @Mindovermaster noted, will likely have some performance benefits as well.

The question, though, is, should you upgrade any of the hardware in the system?  That is a little tougher to answer.

The computer will run Windows 10 just fine, however, it's CPU is below the minimum requirement for Windows 11, which specifies eighth-generation Intel CPUs (or equivalent from AMD) as the minimum supported type of processor.  Support for Window 10 is currently scheduled to end in October 2025, about one and three-quarters of a year away.

You may be better off investing in newer hardware or performing only modest upgrades to the Lenovo Y700 with the expectation of using it until its operating system no longer receives updates.  That is more of  a nuanced decision based on your upgrade strategy and your budget, amongst other things, and I am not sure if any of us can actually answer that for you, since it is such an individual decision.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

[Dick Montage]

On 29/01/2024 at 23:30, Scubacollie said:

The screen is working fine, however its always been a bit dull looking, its not as bright or high contrast as my work screen that i've been using.

Then do not use it for photo manipulation.  Full stop.  Plug into a decent monitor.