singleviking Loc: Lake Sebu Eco Park, Philippines

Just be sure if you assemble this machine yourself, to thoroughly read the MOBO reference and installation booklet. Also, after you get your machine up and running, go to the MOBO manufacturer's website to check for any BIOS improvements or upgrades as many have improved or gotten debugged since your MOBO was made. A suggestion is to use the latest BIOS but not "experimental type" ALPHA BIOS as these are not fully debugged. If your new system has UEFI BIOS capability, make sure to store this BIOS file on a flash drive for easy reinstallation in case of system crash. Those websites can be tedious and time consuming to access and download at times.

It also sounds like you may use this system for gaming in the future. Having a dedicated video card with minimum 1 Gig of DDR3 or DDR5 is mandated for this application and for faster frame rates, even more video RAM or SLI/CROSSFIRE video card capability will prove beneficial. This also requires that your system have sufficient power supply to handle this increased load and that's why I seriously recommend getting nothing shy of a 500 Watt power supply (in my lists, I spec 750 watt Power supply that's on sale and modular). Some of the new multi-core CPUs can draw 125 watts or more by themselves. For any CPU drawing 125 watts or less, a good CPU fan cooler is sufficient as long as over clocking is not utilized.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

catusflower Loc: California

did you price the Macs desk top they have I think two screen sizes.

Cat

shall1585 Loc: Prichard, WV

Nope, no gaming for me, other than bingo on my iPad... LOLOL I never was into all that stuff, the "play" that I mentioned was playing with PSE and LR and I barely have any time for that between working full time, taking online classes full time, and my 3 yr old :)
Thanks again for all your suggestions, some other people suggested having one built, but you actually broke the parts and everything down for me with suggestions on not only WHAT to get, but WHY. I really appreciate it.

Thank you to everyone else who has given me suggestions too! I knew you guys would be great about letting me know your personal experiences and preferences. I could read all the reviews in the world and still not come up with much of an answer, but when you get real people giving real opinions, it makes a world of difference. Looks like the consensus is in, and I've narrowed my choices down to Dell or a custom system (leaning towards the custom now). :D

shall1585 Loc: Prichard, WV

I love my other Apple devices, and I really wanted to get a Mac, but I would have to buy PSE again to put it on a Mac. It says you can put it on 2 systems as long as you're the primary user, but they have to be the same format. I know Macs are what most of the pros use because they're great for graphics and such, but until I really get serious about photography and editing (don't get me wrong, I love it, I'm just not able to be "serious" about it right now) I think I'll stick with a Windows based system. I'm trying to break myself out of the "I'll need it one of these days so I may as well get it now" habit.. "One of these days" I'd like to have a photography business, but of course there's no guarantee of that. It won't happen unless I can FIND time to get serious about it and make it happen.
Thanks for your input, I appreciate it :)

catusflower Loc: California

I have the Mac, and I am a amateur photographer and when I get back from taking pictures, I can hardly wait to see what I got, one time I took a pictures what I thought was only ducks on a wood raft in the middle of a pond, at a vineyard, and when I checked it, there were about 7 turtles all in a row on the wood raft, Good luck with your computer venture.

Catusflower

Dun1 Loc: Atlanta, GA

In most instances tests of HP vs Compaq. Comparisons found that the internal parts in the Compaq in many instances were less expensive or cheaper parts than those installed in the HP computers

catusflower Loc: California

Just want to wish all of you a Very HAPPY NEW YEAR, your all wonderful to chat with.

Catusflower

shall1585 Loc: Prichard, WV

That's what I was thinking too. My grandma has an HP and hasn't had any problems with it, but we tons of problems with all of our Compaqs..

hondo812 Loc: Massachusetts

I have had Dell and HP. Both have their failings. For a whole lot less you can build your own. Go shop at Newegg.com for desktop combo's. Do your homework! Some MOBO manufacturers are better than others. You should be able to get yourself a nice little Intel i5 setup for about $400'ish sans monitor. If you are determined to buy a brand name unit give Lenovo a try.

Dun1 Loc: Atlanta, GA

I have owned Windows machines made by most of the usual suspects, HP, Dell, Gateway. I have owned machines from each of he manufacturers that were constant problems technical problems, i.e. internal parts failure that required a service call or repair by a technician. I have had machines that never gave me a minutes problem with repairs or internal parts failures.
If you enjoy photography and you enjoy editing you images. I have found that Macs are far better and simple to use.
No matter which operating system you choose Windows or Mac if you intend to edit photos and skimp on RAM, by skimp buying a machine with the basic 4 gigs of RAM the majority of manufacturers install in a machine. You will suffer the heart break of watching the Windows hour glass fill, or the Mac beach ball rotate while you machine is attempting to execute the action you requested. Buy as much RAM as you can afford. RAM is very easily purchased and installed in most desktops. When considering any machine you also should consider a video card that will enable you to watch video without your machine stopping, grasping for more video memory.
Don't go to your business and look at what are more than likely work stations, basically a terminal networked to a server where most of the software and other features reside. More than likely the company you work for purchase several work stations that is they were stand alone computers, would not work well for most photo cataloging and editing tasks.
If you think that your brother in law can buy the parts and components and build a computer, (meant to be the best and last computer you will own) you think better than most of the large computer manufacturers offer, consider that HP, Dell, or Apple might be far better able to obtain a better price than he and certainly have the ability to manufacture a computer based on your needs far less expensively than your brother in law. Most of the major manufacturers will allow you to customize a machine to what better suits your needs.
I use a 27" iMac to store and edit, photos and video. In most instances the 27" iMac will out perform the latest and greatest Mac Pro for most every day photo editing task. The Mac Pro is far more expandable and far better suited to video editing. Apple/Macs had as their strong suit at one time that all of their machines were easily upgradeable. Now you must choose how much RAM you wish to use at the time of the order, the RAM is mated to the motherboard.

singleviking Loc: Lake Sebu Eco Park, Philippines

If you do your research, you'll see that there are numerous versions of the i7 CPUs available as well as numerous AMD FX models. To upgrade your system from i5 to i7 is an added expenditure of at least $100 and some can increase your system costs by $500 or more. i5 is really all that's needed for your applications right now. If you prefer to save a few bucks, you can go the AMD route and their 8 core FX series will add a lot of processing power and speed to your number crunching of PP work for minimum increase in systems price (AMD FX 8320, 8350 and 9370 are really fast CPUs and range from $150 to $250 for an 8 core powerhouse running at 4 GHz. To implement an INTEL of the same speed and capability you would have to spend hundreds more for both the MOBO and the CPU)
Also, there's the option to use AMD's new A series CPU/GPU combo to save some bucks but the clock speeds are lower. You might also purchase your CPU and MOBO as a package together to save even more money.
The implementation of the new 64 bit WINDOWS OS will surely surprise you since you seem to be using older 32 bit versions of VISTA or older. All of these CPUs and systems are compatible with 64 bit OS and upgradable for future needs. Just be sure to get a MOBO that's 1150 type socket for INTEL or AM3+ for AMD CPUs so you have the faster system bus speeds, USB3 and SATA3 capability.
Good luck in your build.

shall1585 Loc: Prichard, WV

So I looked at building a custom system, and chose all of my parts from Tiger Direct for right around $1000 including Windows 7. That price of course didn't include a monitor. Where I've had to wait until I get my financial aid for school, I keep checking Dell and HP's websites comparing systems thinking I may just go ahead and go the "pre-built" route. I had chosen an i5 processor for the custom built system. WELL, when I got onto Dell's website yesterday, they seem to be having a big sale right now. They have the XPS 8700 with an i7 processor, 8GB RAM, and a 1B HDD for the same price as one with the i5 processor (everything ekse the same). Works out to $686 with my student discount. But I got looking at their sale items even more, and they have the 8700 with 12GB RAM, an nVidia GeForce GT635 1GB DDR3 graphics card, and the i7 processor with a 22" touch screen (I know, not the best for photos! But this PC isn't JUST for photo work) IPS monitor for under $1000 (regular price around $1500!). As much as I'd like to build one, I don't believe I can beat this. I plan to buy an SSD to install, and figure out how to move the OS over to it, which is also where I plan to install PSE and LR.

Thanks again for all the suggestions!!