Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Odd... I run Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Bridge, and a whole bunch of other fancy high end software on my under 2400.00 IMac.... never any issue - smooth and fast....

I agree, go into an Apple store by all means, touch and feel as much as you want, they won't chase you out. Put a Mac to the test, and you may be hard pressed to explain why you don't want it.

Just because they might not have the one app you are looking for loaded is NOT a reason to discount the machines - thats kind of foolish.

jethro779 Loc: Tucson, AZ

I have an iMac, a MacBook Pro, & an E Machines desktop. The E Machines desktop is 7years old and is still in good shape because I have not used it since I got my MacBook Pro 5 years ago. I got the iMac 6 months after the MacBook. The best thing about a Mac in my opinion is there is no major learning curve when a new upgrade of the OS is put on your computer. The only thing I notice about the MacBook Pro is it will get a little warmer when I hook an external monitor to it. To counteract that I use a cooling fan pad under it.

BooIsMyCat Loc: Somewhere

No really. This guys states he wants to run specific programs. There is no reason why an Apple store can't provide a demo of PS and/or LR for the customer. If they can't do that, why should the customer put out $2500 or so? Especially, when they might be switching platforms.

Not telling the guy to pass on an Apple.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

Get a good gaming system of whatever brand you prefer.

I use Capture One Pro which is arguably the fastest post ed program on the market.

If looking around, get a good "gaming" computer but don't need to go crazy with super coolers for the cpu and things, just decent air flow in the box.

I don't own a Mac but several friends do. The only real advantage they have is the lack of updates. Windows gets a bunch once or twice a month upon shutting down.

Get a good graphic card with at least 1 GB memory.

Look into a fast motherboard and make sure it has usb 3.0 ports. If it doesn't, you won't be happy downloading.

Go for a cpu that is an 8 core type.

Many newer motherboards now support 32 GB of RAM memory. Be sure yours can and get it.

Since drives are relatively cheap now days, go for a solid state drive of at least 120GB and a 2 terrabyte drive with fast abilities. Also pick up a good offline drive, one that has 1 or more Terrabyte storage and be sure it has usb 3.0 connection.

Be extra sure you get a large quality power supply of at least 700 watts. The ones that come with many pretty made pacages are likely around 400 watts. Larger power output let's you have power when needed and runs cooler for most needs.

Look into a graphic board, most use Wacom.

Do a quick Internet search and see the many stores that will work with you to make a system. Many don't sell Macs but still others do. Most of my suggestions above are for a Microsoft computer but you can check them out.

Micro Center, Tiger Direct, and Newegg come to mind where you can build a system with their help. Places selling only box setups are generally restricted to what the factory provides them.

Several others can give better advice than I can but that is pretty close to what you need.
You basically know what to look for now go and check them out.

londonfire Loc: NY to NC

Buy the laptop for the specs and price range and hook up an external monitor. You get the size you really want/need and it's much better for editing.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

No idea why they could not or would not - I think it would be a good selling point, but it does all come down to dollars - it always does.... but the facts are that Mac's DO run all the software fine, and in many cases the machines are not the 2500.00 you quoted.

The best advice is to go find out. Going to an Apple store gives you hands on, access to expertise that do not work on commission, so they don't care if you buy or not.

In fact, I usually visit the store to look and touch, make my decision and buy online - same price, free shipping, fast delivery, same warranty. In fact the refurbed store online can get even better deals, same warranty as new, same free shipping, same fast delivery.

Just looked at the apple store online prices for 27" IMAC's...

1,799.99 for a low end, 8gb ram, 1TB hard drive model, 1999.99 for the next step up with additional video memory - and a 27", 5k video model
with 8gb of ram comes in at 2,499.99

8 GB will run most everything fine, 16 GB is better of course, but the ram is user upgradable easily on the 27" model.

Going with the 21.5" models of the Imac is much cheaper...same internals, smaller screen, ram is NOT user upgradeable though. (1000, 1200, 1400)

And the 21.5 " will run the software just as good as the 27" of course.

Retina screens will add to the costs - but not sure how required they are.

Festus Loc: North Dakota

Why didn't you do this research when you bought your "new" computer? Maybe then you wouldn't have to buy a "new, new" computer! :~)

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

It would be really helpful if you would post the current computer make and model of your computer to the list.

bcmink Loc: Monona, WI

The OP did what you ask in a follow up:
Lenovo NE3-0028 computer (Which is in the M90 series)

Like many of these ongoing threads the OP question gets lost somewhere along the way.

Bottom line is she purchased a refurbished computer that likely did not have the on board graphics processor enabled in the BIOS. The fix is probably easy but it appears that the "IT guy" she uses might have missed a few steps. This happens when refurbishers update the BIOS as a last step in their refurb process and then neglect to bench test before passing it on as ready for sale.

I'm never one for throwing the baby (in this case a newly refurbished computer) out with the bath water. Seems like the reseller of this computer should have an obligation to repair or replace before the OP proceeds with thinking about purchasing another computer. The specs for the M90 are likely adequate for her needs; no matter what dozens of other have said about Mac versus PC (that's always an endless debate).

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Thanks,

I agree with the obligations of the reseller.

Unless she paid cash, she should stop payment until the 'fix is in'.

neillaubenthal

This anti Mac (you could at least get the name right…MAC stands for Media Access Control which is the physical hardware address of any Internet connected device, Mac is the computer) rant is just wrong in so many ways.

Apple sells more computers than just about any other builder…you are comparing a single builder to the whole spectrum of Windows computer builders with your market share baloney…not to mention that BMW, Lexus, Dyson and many other companies are doing just fine with smaller market shares. Fact is that Apple is the most valuable company in the world and is just about the only one making a profit on either computers, tablets, or phones.

A Mac does not cost 40% more than the equivalent Windows computer. Sure…you can get one from Bob's Garage Computer Company that's cheaper but when you compare equivalent hardware of the same quality the price is pretty much comparable.

Beside…Apple's software just works most of the time…Windows is great if you have an IT department to support you but for the non-geek it's much easier to manage…and this is coming from a guy that spent 20 years being a Windows System Administrator.

Viruses are pretty much non existent on Mac's…there have been a few malware and trickier sorts of things but nothing to the extent that Windows has and the vast, vast majority of Mac owners run no protection. The fact is that being Unix based it's simply more difficult to write malicious software for a Mac. Bad guys have to depend on social engineering and tricks…and you have to be dumb to fall for most of those.

You should really get some facts before you start spouting the Macs are evil line…rather than just repost all that bogus info you put in.

Windows 10 has some nice features…or rather I should say that Microsoft is going back to a lot of the way that XP worked as Vista, 8, and 8.1 pretty much blew chunks. Windows 7 was not bad though.

From the bad guys point of view…being the first one to take down Apple's OS would provide a tremendous boost to that hacker's reputation as to date it just hasn't happened. There are a lot of reasons for this but inherently the OS just has a superior security model. Granted…the model in later releases of Windows (7 maybe, 8 and beyond definitely) has been changed to much more reflect the unix based security model than what older versions of Windows used…but the fact remains that Windows is continually taken down by script kiddies and the like and to date Mac OS hasn't been. You can claim it's small market share and operating system flux all you want but you're simply incorrect.

Thombar Loc: Hominy, OK

I too am not a computer expert. Far from it in fact. :mrgreen: I bought my first Mac in 2004 and have never regretted leaving Windows behind.

My latest Mac is the 21" to which I added a couple of items mainly to increase speed since I use both LR and PS CC. and wanted faster processing. I paid about $2,400 for it but as I recall you can get it without the upgrades for around $2,100..

While Mac's tend to be, in my experience, trouble and virus free, you might want to consider how far you are from a service center. Although Mac's have wonderful tech support. You can get a 3 year service contract that covers your Mac for everything with call in support. But if you are a long way from a tech center having your Mac brought in could be problematic. Hope this helps.

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

A couple of things. Your computer has an integrated graphics card, most likely an Intel, and it shares system memory with the operating system and applications.

All computers are vulnerable to getting viruses. But here is the rub - PC's, simply by virtue of the sheer numbers in use (for every Mac there are 9 PCs in use), malware authors target the population most likely to yield what they are looking for. Now that Macs and IOS devices are becoming more popular, and the user profile is more of a person of means, the Apple products have attracted the attention of the malware writers. Add to that the fact that viruses are a relatively new thing on a Mac, there is very little antivirus software out there that recognizes and can remove malware. Just google virus and mac and you will see how this is evolving.

Apple computers are fine, but you definitely get either more power or you get to save some $$ by going PC.

Internet speed is just going to slow you down on the internet, not when you are running programs.

Applications are pretty much duplicated across both platforms, so that is not a concern.

So the only thing you need to do is decide on which.

There is one last thing. Mac OS does NOT support wide gamut displays - you are limited to 8 bit - 256x256x256 for 16.7M colors. PCs on the otherhand support 10 bit color - 1024x1024x1024 - 1,073,741,824 colors. Big difference, but only if your applications support 10 bit display bit depth. Your current software does not, but if you move up to Photoshop, a PC can be configured to run in 10 bit - and boy does it look nice.

I run a hybrid system drive - 1T mechanical, that is cached by a smaller 60 gb solid state drive. I then have (4) 2 tb drives in a RAID array, 32 gb ram, an NVidia K620 10 bit graphics card with 2 gb vram. The CPU is clocked at 4.5gHz, so it is quite fast. The system cost me around $1500 total. It would be hard to buy a Mac with those specs for less than $3000 I think. But, in Apple's defense, the $3000 Mac would be almost, if not just as good.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Given that you live in a mountain town, I assume you are not near a city that has an Apple Store; so going in for a 'hands on' shopping is not an option for you. The Apple web site has a 'store' where you can order new or refurbished Macs. You need to list your needs. For examples; do you want to load from software DVDs or play music CDs or burn CD/DVDs, then you will need an optical drive (super drive in older Apple parlance) but these are no longer provided in the newer Mac laptops; do you need substantial picture/other file storage needs, know that more Mac laptops come with pricy flash memory storage rather than hard drives; (ranty) the more one needs externals the more a laptop becomes a desktop, so how much table top space you have to dedicate to a computer comes into play. Take it slow in deciding. Apple is not the only place to shop for the externals, etc - check out Other World Computing who specializes in Mac stuff, then there is B&H camera.

Photolady2014 Loc: Southwest Colorado

Well, you have all made my head spin. Thank you for all the comments so far. I need to sort things out! Keep posting, I'll keep reading & I'm not making a decision today or even next week! I will make due for now & make sure I get it right next time!
Thanks so much for all your help so far.
Beth
I'm going out to take some pictures now, I'm tired of thinking about computers :?