bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I live in a condo and an RV. Our computers have to be laptops. I took up video editing a few years ago and found an Asus "Republic of Gamers" model that makes Adobe Premier Elements and Sony Movie Studio sing. It hardly has to breath to run Photoshop Elements, Lightroom and a bunch of plugins. And it can run two or three of them at once!

High spec laptops do cost more than equivalent desk or tower machines with the same performance. But they are not hard to find. Look for "Gaming Notebook" or "Mobile Workstation".

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Sorry, last message was difficult to quote from watchwinder....

The tech world is in a big transition right now. It isn't that things are going away, more the balance is shifting...

I'm an old fart, I drive stick shifts, I live in San Francisco and I learned to drive in much more challenging circumstances than SF....

For computers, sure things are changing but not going away, the general public is shifting to a model that consumes media, does not create it. Guess what, as photographers, amateur or pro, P&S, bridge, entry DSLR or pro DSLR or more, we are creators. We need creators' tools.

The tools are not going away, just getting more specialized and the markets are shrinking.

I tend to build my systems, and sometimes it doesn't go perfectly, but do look at the professionally built gamer machines, they are close to the spec that we need.

I do not do games either, and I am not pushing the high end, but with a decent multi-core Intel processor, Intel motherboard (that is now about 5 years old) and is still doing well with 8GB RAM, 750GB SSD, 16TB total storage and dual 22 inch monitors, it works. Could I upgrade sure, not worth it yet for *MY* needs. Can I upgrade within the system sure, a bit, if I need to, to some degree, but in a year or two I will need to start over.....

Five years in tech is a long time, 10 years approaching extinction....

However, this tech is not going away, it's more that we are becoming more specialized consumers than the average Joe or Joanne, so the local Walmart isn't generally going to do it for us....

But, the Gamers are a big market, and what they need frequently works well for us, so that provides a bigger market that reduces overall costs for suitable higher end machines that can work well for the photographic community.

Good luck

ptcanon3ti Loc: NJ

I assume you run windows versions of these software programs?

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

It may not matter to the end result significantly, but perhaps you could tell us whether you are a MAC or a Windows guy. That might help to get more focused responses.

Thanks

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Yes, Windows 7 because I bought then. Windows 8 would be fine.

When I did my shopping I was also looking a Mac Book Pro's with similar specifications for screen, CPU, memory and storage. They were almost twice the price. Adobe is pretty good at making there stuff work on both iOS and Windows.

ptcanon3ti Loc: NJ

I've been using Macs since I first started using personal computers at home. In work I use Windows based Dells.

I only ask because I thought Gamer Machines and 'custom built computers' were always windows based machines.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

That's true. I've never seen a Mac "Gamer". But "gamer" is a marketing work for fast CPU, lots of memory, fast drives and pretty screens. Lots of Apples do that to. But the use words like "air", "book" and "pro".

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

That sort of nails it.

For the OP, MACs have long been aimed at creative professionals. You will find what you need somewhere in the MAC line up.

The Windows systems have been traditionally more generalized and more of a "community thing", but the same quality of high end creative system can easily be found or created. It's sort of like the Nikon vs Canon thing. They can both deliver, it comes down to circumstance or preference.

So, choose your preferred platform, and then ask questions based on those criteria so that you get better answers and let those on other platforms take a back seat.

Good luck....

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

gamers and the custom build machines ordered from companies like iBuyPower are windows because Apple strongly objects to attempts to build Macs (read - they have a lot of high paid lawyers)
In addition very few of the gamer parts or for that matter the games themselves are made for mac. (reletive to the numbers for PC) Doesn't make any sense to try to build gamer macs if most of the popular shoot em up zombie hunting, wizard wars games are written for PC. Yes, I know there are games for mac, and mac gamers. But if all the gamers of the world who use PC filled the Rose Bowl, then the Mac gamers could probably fit in the head custodian's office.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Or dance on the head of the custodian :D

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

Slow day at the "What Do I Worry About Now" workshop?

blankmange Loc: down on the farm...

what gibberish is this?

mcveed Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)

If you don't click on "quote reply" before typing your response nobody will know who you are responding to. In which case your wise crack hangs in space and everybody wonders .....

blankmange Loc: down on the farm...

as it should - it was referring to the entire thread, especially the OP's original questions...

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Computers are not on the way out. They are getting smaller, but just look at the B&H catalog to see what options are available for graphics editing. The desktop workstation and 24-30" display will be around for a while.