burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Familiar sort of story... if I had a dollar for every one like it, I’d buy us a few beers.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

First you indicate you want good screen resolution and then you ask if you need 1920x1080 resolution. If you want good screen resolution you will need at least 1080p.

jouster Loc: Witlesss Protection Program

Mac vs Windows is like Canon vs Nikon. Almost everyone has an opinion. They both will work for you.
If you have computer experts in your family who can and will help you, then get what they recommend

1920 by 1080 is the absolute minimum now. I recommend buying the largest, highest quality monitor possible. Better yet two of them. If you do buy a laptop you can bring it to your desk and easily connect your large monitor(s).

Desktop computers are less expensive than equivalent laptops, and are cheaper to repair and upgrade. I'd only recommend a laptop if you are COMPLETELY SURE that you need to take it with you when you leave home. Many people end up leaving the laptop at home on a desk and rarely or never taking it anywhere.

Warning: you can contract computer GAS too. I spent most of my budget a few years ago (what remained after camera GAS) on a high end desktop, a bunch of hard drives, and two good 27" 1920 x 1080 monitors. I'm now thinking about getting larger, 4K (higher resolution) monitors. I bought a cheap laptop but rarely do any photo work on it beyond looking briefly, and making backups - one copy to the laptop's HD and another copy to the slim portable external HD.

MrGNY Loc: New York

I am in the Mac camp, but you said you wanted Windows. In that case I would suggest a Surface Pro, it's lite, fast and you can use it like a tablet. But with that being said you are also going to pay more for it. These are Microsoft Spec Machines, built by or for Microsoft.

Like any computer it depends on processor, ram, hard drive speed etc. This is where I think Mac has an upper hand you get one company making the machine and everything works. Windows machines have gotten better for having less conflicts but you are not always buying the same spec machine as say Joe over here who says hey I bought I Brand X Model CQ from (insert name) and you go to (insert name) and get the same what you think Model because it is Model X CQ for a better price but the machine has different components to meet a price point. So buying a Windows box you need to read every spec to know that you are buying the same computer Joe has bought.

I can tell you that a Mac is a better all around computer, it will run Windows faster than a Windows machine and will outlive your PC. You will have less issues with it. I can tell you this from experience, I am a graphic artist by day in the corporate world and work on a Dell laptop. My personal and business computer is a iMac 27 5k with 24GB ram running Mac OS 10.12.6 and Windows 10 for a few forms design programs that won't run on Mac. I run Adobe Creative Suite on both sides and Photo Shop and Lightroom both run a bit faster in Mac OS. Windows is much stabler on the iMac.

tdekany Loc: Oregon

I’m not sure what this guy is smoking, his other fake claim is that m4/3 can’t print larger than 8x11. Oh well, I guess on the internet you can say anything without any repercussions.

jccash Loc: Longwood, Florida

Tony Northup Computer suggestions. Few years old:

https://youtu.be/iQkE6dQ4wGg

https://youtu.be/p7bzBRbYqfI

https://youtu.be/WbsyglPqK6o

jccash Loc: Longwood, Florida

Mate, I have same wife same experience but I upgraded my wife’s HP laptop to 16 gig ram and 1 tb SSD drive. She happy and she will get more time with it.

My wife loves Shutterfly. It’s online so she can make photo albums from any computer once images are uploaded. When using Shutterfly she uses my MBP due mainly because of my 27” monitor I bought for it. MPB is older. 2012 version but upgraded to 16 gig RAM and 1TB SSD drive. Never had a problem with it.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Yep.

I have rendered 40x30 inch images from m4/3 with outstanding results, using a 7 year old Mac Mini running Parallels Desktop and Windows 10.

Could I have made a technically better print from a full frame camera? Yes. Would it have been worth 2.7 times the price for the gear? No, because the compact size, portability, durability, and audio and video flexibility of what I have is worth far more to me than a tad more still image quality and inferior video performance in the most common situations I film.

Could a faster computer render the 40x30 quicker? Sure. But the Mini was connected to the printer, spooling faster than the printer could print. The printer is always the bottle neck in such scenarios. And the Mini ran the Mac software I prefer, and the PC software I need.