<p>One thing to consider - unless you're springing for a solid-state drive, laptop drives tent to be 5400 rpm instead of 7200 rpm, which most desktop drives are these days. So they're generally slower on large transfers. The less RAM you have, the more likely Photoshop is to use the disk for scratch space, and you may find the speed drop frustrating. <br /><br />Are you using any 3rd party plugins, from DxO or whoever?<br>
One suggestion if you're budget conscious - outlet.lenovo.com. The selection can vary quite a bit, but I picked a new (not refurb or scratch & dent) Thinkpad Edge up for the kids schoolwork over the summer - an i3 with 4GB of RAM and a touch screen - for $380 with tax and shipping. I do know people who have picked up the refurbished models - they're as good as new. They regularly have models that have i3/i5 CPUs and 8GB of RAM. You just have to jump quick when you see one you want. If you're fond of HP, I think they have a similar outlet site. <br /><br /></p>