traderjohn Loc: New York City

That's it? I wish that's all it cost me to get in with what was wanted.[/quote]

Yeah, but what was needed??

mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma

I’m not going to weigh in on your computer choice but I will share that I moved from desktop to laptop and my neck is happier for it. Much more comfortable for post processing for me. Others would disagree ;0)

wteffey Loc: Ocala, FL USA

I had to take my 6 year old HP 8g RAM PC in for service last month. (Had a power failure while rebooting.) The technician who worked on my PC told me that still photo editing is not especially resource demanding, and that my PC when running properly would be just fine. I offered to have him installed more RAM, but he told me I would not notice much difference. He summarized by telling me that just about any off the shelf PC with 8g RAM will work just fine.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Look at the specs on what’s considered a "gaming" machine and shoot for that.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I’m guessing the tech didn’t do a lot of PP with PS or LR or stitching large panoramas and other computer intensive work, or maybe he didn’t mind waiting on the machine while it was constantly paging to disk, or perhaps photo editing to him involved cropping JPEGs (or maybe he was a member of Geek Squad).

Btw, one way to drive down the cost of a new machine is to buy it with a minimum HD and Memory, and then add those items from a 3rd party at a dramatically reduced cost. One of our engineers just built a “full house” Dell laptop and saved almost $800 by purchasing his own 1TB SSD and extra memory. And before anyone reminds me that could void the warranty, just retain the old parts so you can swap them back in the (rare) event of a failure.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I started processing photos with a PC running 7. About 4-5 years ago, I switched to a 27" iMac. The PCs are now used for backing up photos and programming.
--Bob

dajanes4

MB Pro- mid 2012 (last upgradable Macs) $400-500 on ebay. If not already upgraded, add SSD for about $150 and 16 GB's of Ram for same. Beginner external monitor for about $150. External HD's $100. I use this setup for pretty heavy editing with LR, PS, Topaz, Luminar, etc.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

This is for the OP; just adding on here:

The latest Consumer Reports ranks Apple's portables at or near the very top of the ratings. They have consistently given them the very highest ratings for customer service and reliability. They aren't cheap to buy, but they last a long time, and don't get in the way of your work.

When I need Windows, I run it on my iMac. Macs can run Mac OS, Windows, or Linux, either in dedicated boot mode, or all at the same time, if you have enough drive space and memory.

Apple announced a new Mac Mini last week. The new Mini is quite powerful — up to five times faster than the 2014 model. It should be able to handle what you need. My 2010 Mini runs almost all of Adobe Lightroom Classic CC 2019 and Photoshop CC 2019 (current versions) pretty well, considering its age. The new Mini, configured similarly, is more than ten times faster.

While most software will run on less, I'd recommend:

16 GB RAM
256 GB SSD startup drive (or larger)
2 TB 7200RPM hard drive
Accelerated video graphics with at least 1GB VRAM
Minimum HD display (1920x1080 pixels); 4K preferred
WiFi and 1Gbps Ethernet

Additionally, get a monitor calibration kit if you intend to print anything. It will save oodles of money on ink and paper or lab bills.

Jack 13088 Loc: Central NY

The three most effective use of your budget are RAM, RAM, and RAM!

Get at least 16GB then spend any left over change on more. Make certain your choice is expandable. Too little RAM is the only factor that will cause your computer to go comatose.

SSD is almost standard and an i7 processor is nice.

OS choice is not a driving factor. Spend your energy on understanding where your files are stored and how to backup and restore them rather than brand A vs brand M.

jayluber Loc: Phoenix, AZ

I just upgraded my late 2009 27"iMac DUal core to a new one with the i7 chip, 1T fusion drive, 24 g of memory, and the best video card they offer in the series. . It flies and does almost instantly what my old iMac took several minutes (or caused it to crash or lock up) to accomplish. The difference in speed and performance is astounding. HIghly recommend it. Got it from B&H - no shipping or tax. It was "used" but when I received it there were no signs of it having been un boxed or used in any way.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

My twins each have one of those. They're still great machines! The boys have had them and abused them for two years, and they still work fine.

OWC (macsales.com) has RAM and SSDs and drives for most used Macs. Actually, OWC sells reconditioned used Macs of all sorts, too. That's where we got the MBPs, and most of the accessories we've ever needed for Macs.

scubadoc Loc: Sarasota, FL

A refurbished last generation MacBook Pros or iMacs from the Apple store are a great way to go. I have a 2015 MBP, refurbished, that came with a full Apple warranty. Does still and video post processing with any of the standard software without a hitch. 16gb ram is ideal, 1tb internal SSD drive makes it fly. Images are stored on an external 2tb SSD drive. Don’t forget a second external hard drive for backing up your images. I use Carbon Copy Cloner. I also have a Time Machine drive for complete backups of the entire hard drive.

wteffey Loc: Ocala, FL USA

Reread the original post. A beginner on a budget.

scubadoc Loc: Sarasota, FL

Most beginners become advanced amateurs once the bug bites, and you can always budget for more gear. One problem with buying the cheapest package is that you outgrow it fairly quickly, then must start all over again if you buy stuff that isn’t readily upgradeable or not really suited to your needs. Photography is not cheap if you are serious about it.

billgdyoung Loc: Big Bear City, CA

.................................
Just a quick note... I'm sure you'll get plenty of tech opinions. I video record (almost said video"tape") lectures... my Canon video camera records in 2GB increments and restarts immediately... so a 1 hr lecture about 6- 2GB files. When I'm converting these files to MP4, I watch the various performance metrics of the computer... i7 dual core, 16GB ram, 1TB... the performance monitor shows that the CPU is pegged at 100% most of the time, but the RAM is about 40% during the conversion. That leads me to believe that 16GB RAM is enough, but the i7 dual core is the limiting factor... bottom line: go for the fastest processor (CPU) that you can afford.