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May 14, 2016 22:27:14   #
johnh1944 Loc: North Las Vegas
 
My HP desktop died and I need to replace it. Looking for recommendations . I will mainly use it for photography plus MS Office .

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May 14, 2016 22:57:04   #
NormPR
 
Time for a Mac.

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May 14, 2016 23:07:13   #
Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas
 
Hmmm -
How much is your budget
How much post processing/photography work do you do
Office works with Microsoft and Apple - what are the primary modules you need (word/outlook/excel/access/powerpoint/...)

How fast do you want it to be/what quality/size display do you want
For high video demands you need a good video card with lots of dedicated memory
The more system memory the faster it is 16G or more when talking desktops...
You want a large high speed hard drive or a solid state drive

Brand -
I use HP business models, others - Dell, Apple, Lenovo, Acer - computer brands are like cameras/cars - everyone has their own opinion - pick what you're comfortable with....

The more you spend, the better/faster you get...

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May 15, 2016 06:31:54   #
johnst1001a Loc: West Chester, Ohio
 
Yep, get a MAC.

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May 15, 2016 07:06:40   #
MTG44 Loc: Corryton, Tennessee
 
Mac is the only one.

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May 15, 2016 07:38:01   #
jm76237
 
I switched to MAC three years ago. I also have parallels on it so I can run Windows programs - Windows runs so much better on a mac! I have the best of both worlds, run all my business apps in Windows and all my creative "stuff" on the mac side.

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May 15, 2016 07:46:02   #
Impressionist
 
Look into a loaded Mac Mini. Your keyboard and monitor should work fine with it.

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May 15, 2016 07:58:11   #
jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY
 
johnh1944 wrote:
My HP desktop died and I need to replace it. Looking for recommendations . I will mainly use it for photography plus MS Office .


Switching to Apple is a big decision. I use both, mainly because so many programs I use aren't available for the Mac. I'm working on installing Win10 on a Mac - eventually.

My son is considering replacing his (actually my) 2009 Dell, which is running Windows Vista. As always, he would get a Dell XPS 8700/8900, Core i7, 16GB memory. He'll probably replace the hard drive with a Samsung 500GB SSD, as I have done. The hard drive would then become the D drive for storing all data. That Dell comes with a pretty good Nvidia graphics card. An alternative would be to do a clean install of Windows 10, since his machine has the Core i7 and 16GB of memory. Decisions, decisions.

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May 15, 2016 08:26:57   #
Carl D Loc: Albemarle, NC.
 
Get a Mac.

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May 15, 2016 08:56:19   #
WayneT Loc: Paris, TN
 
Stay with the fastest processor you can afford, a minimum of 8 gb of memory (more is better) and a 700+ or better Nvidia graphics card. This is a general base. I guarantee you if you spend as much on a Windows PC as you spend on an equivalent Apple you will have a better machine with the PC.

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May 15, 2016 09:14:22   #
waywest Loc: las vegas
 
you know you can run windows on a mac.

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May 15, 2016 09:45:53   #
jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY
 
WayneT wrote:
Stay with the fastest processor you can afford, a minimum of 8 gb of memory (more is better) and a 700+ or better Nvidia graphics card. This is a general base. I guarantee you if you spend as much on a Windows PC as you spend on an equivalent Apple you will have a better machine with the PC.


There was an online article comparing Windows and Mac, with each costing about $4,400. The PC was faster. Of course, not many of us spend that much on a computer.

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May 15, 2016 10:08:05   #
2Dragons Loc: The Back of Beyond
 
I've had good luck with Lenovos. I've got a Lenovo Ideacentre desktop, and just replaced a 9 year old Lenovo laptop running Vista, with a new Lenovo Windows 10 laptop. Still learning Windows 10. The desktop is about 6 years old and, knock on wood, still running fine with Windows 7 Pro and a dual monitor Nvidia card that I installed after getting directions from a youtube video. Lenovo is what used to be IBMs PC division that was bought by a Chinese company.

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May 15, 2016 11:19:06   #
Architect1776 Loc: In my mind
 
johnh1944 wrote:
My HP desktop died and I need to replace it. Looking for recommendations . I will mainly use it for photography plus MS Office .


I purchased an Asus laptop for Architecture primarily as it has the speed and power to do REVIT including the rendering and animation, so things like photos that at their largest are a mere fraction of a REVIT file. For pp I do not know about screen calibration but there are some here who do. But for sheer processing power it is hard to beat with windows 10.

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May 15, 2016 12:03:36   #
Indi Loc: L. I., NY, Palm Beach Cty when it's cold.
 
jerryc41 wrote:
Switching to Apple is a big decision. I use both, mainly because so many programs I use aren't available for the Mac. I'm working on installing Win10 on a Mac - eventually.

My son is considering replacing his (actually my) 2009 Dell, which is running Windows Vista. As always, he would get a Dell XPS 8700/8900, Core i7, 16GB memory. He'll probably replace the hard drive with a Samsung 500GB SSD, as I have done. The hard drive would then become the D drive for storing all data. That Dell comes with a pretty good Nvidia graphics card. An alternative would be to do a clean install of Windows 10, since his machine has the Core i7 and 16GB of memory. Decisions, decisions.
Switching to Apple is a big decision. I use both,... (show quote)


Jerry, I have the Dell XPS 8900 i7. It came with only 8GB RAM. I upgraded to a SAMSUNG 1TB SSD. That speeded things up a bit.
BTW, I cloned my old drive to the SSD but eventually had to reinstall everything.

Then I replaced the RAM with 32 GB of Corsair (Vengeance???). Not much of a change.

I'm not a real Dell fan, but this computer runs pretty darn good.
I wouldn't leave the old drive in the computer. You can buy an enclosure for $25-30 and use it as an external. Safer that way.
I actually took the HD that came with it and stored it in a closet in case I have to start from scratch or sell the computer.
Just my 2ยข.

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