mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I have a "ready built" HP with an i7 processor, 24 gig of RAM, a mid quality Nvidia video card, a small SSD C drive which my programs run on, a 2 terabyte D drive for data, and Windows 10. Plenty a speedy for any image editing I need to do.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

I would disagree that 6 or 8 is plenty. OWC Computing did a study and found that processing (for PS and LR) steadily improves up to 32GB. After that, it still improves, but at a much slower rate. The sweet spot seemed to be 32GB with 16 being pretty good and maybe fine for many and going above 32GB not all that much improvement unless doing lots of video, 3D, etc.

RAM is cheap now. I remember spending $1000 for a 1 MB chip about 25 years ago.

Erik_H Loc: Denham Springs, Louisiana

I'd have to agree. My desktop has an i7, ssd and 32gb ram and runs LR and PS excellently. My laptop on the other hand has an i7, ssd but only 8gb ram. It doesn't perform nearly as well running both LR and PS. To the point that I rarely use it for processing photos.

DRG777 Loc: Metro Detroit

I agree that the money might be better spent to make sure you have a great graphics card first, and then a large and fast hard drive.

Don, the 2nd son Loc: Crowded Florida

peteto Loc: Las Vegas

There it is right there. 24 g of ram will be plenty if your graphics has dedicated memory, 2, 4, 6, 8g rather than a card with shared memory that draws from system memory. that is plenty of processing power.

Pete

whitewolfowner

Excellent advise.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

24GB of memory is good, but 64 seems like overkill. Of the uses you list, image processing will require the most memory, but 24GB should be plenty. I've had 16GB in my previous computer, although I recently built one with 64GB, just because I could. It's always cheaper to buy aftermarket memory than to have the manufacturer plug it in. I'd stay with the 24.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

It would help if you gave us the computers specs

leftj Loc: Texas

I doubt very seriously that a new computer off the shelf would have 24gb or ram unless you opted to add ram at extra cost. I've never heard of a desktop or notebook computer with 64gb of ram. You need to re-check your information.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Probably not. 24 GB RAM should serve you very well. If you use LR & PS you may find a bit more speed in processing photos, but the difference would probably be negligible. What would make a difference is an i7 6th generation processor, advanced video card (GPU), an SSD for operating system and a 2nd drive for storage.
Mark

wapiti Loc: round rock, texas

I really appreciate you guys taking the time to assist me. One of my concerns is that the Dell comes with a 256gb ssd{c drive}. Will this be enough to handle LR CC, PS CC, On1 Raw, etc? The graphics card is 2gb Nvidia GTX 960. Processor is Intel i7-6700. There is also a 2TB 7200RPM SATA drive.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Probably, unless you intend loading it with many additional programs. I had a 250 SSD that was almost full. I opted purchasing a 1TB Samsung EVO 950 and replacing the 250 GB as my OS drive. It will never need additional storage. The transfer was easy because I backup all my internal drives with Acronis. I purchased a sata/usb cable, inserted the new drive, had it recognized in Device Manager, recovered my SSD file to it. Now all that was left was to physically remove the old and connect the new one. Easy/peasy!!!
Mark

AircraftGuru

I am a retired Aeronautical Engineer who loves photography since I was a kid .... 2 of our adult kids with their families live a day's drive away ... so when buying a new computer 6 years ago, our son (an I.T. Guy at a college) suggested I should order the highest end computer HP makes and make it a laptop so I could grab and go when we went to their homes in Idaho and Mesa, AZ..... so I called HP and ordered a HP Envy 17" ....with an Intel 800 GB Hybrid drive .... Drive C having 160 GB SSD (Solid State Drive .... and after 6 years only about 130 GB was useable and had only 6 GB free (lots of programs are on it). And a 640 GB mechanical drive which was half full after six years. I bought 2 - 23" Asus monitors back then with one on each side of the computer ....(Mistake ... they should have been HP ... because their color with photos does not match the HP Envy Laptop ..... close ... but not a match ... and with custom cabinetry in the den .... there is a pull out tray for a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse ..... the system worked great for me for a bit over six years ..... and used nearly daily.
But a few months ago, I was getting concerened about possible hard drive failure in the Intel Hybrid Drive. I called our son and he agreed and suggested I get a new one .... and he also thought that Intel now has a 1 TB SSD .... Hmmmm .... I went to Intel's web site ....and found their customer support number .... and called them ..... yes they do have one and the guy gave me their part number .....!i then found it on Intel's web site ..... and their Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) is 1.6 million hours ..... sooooo .... running 24/7 ... that is 180 years .... I then plugged that P/N into Amazon's site and the price was about $300.... I printed that page and took it into Best Buy and their sales guy checked and found they have it in a warehouse .... and in front of me is the current model of the HP Envy 17"!with the latest Intel i7 chip plus other nice attributes .... Best Buy did price matching to the Amazon sheet for the 1 TB SSD .... there was a sale going on with the Envy with its 1 TB HD ... and their Geek Squad would remove the 1 TB HD and install the 1 TB SSD and put a partition in the new drive (Drives C where my programs would be and Drive D for the data) and copy over the stuff from the old laptop to the new one for $100 ..... and for $30 for an external case for the 1 TB HD for a backup drive.
I had to re-install all my programs .... they would not copy over and work correctly from the old Windows 7 machine to the new Windows 10 machine. But that was okay.
This new computer is fast .... and there is no cooling fan like the old computer .... it doesn't even get warm .... amazing how things change in 6 years. The 3 screens are great .... good luck to all of you out there. And please excuse any typo's.

sinead

64 gigs