tnste Loc: New Westminster, BC

Thank for the information. Much appreciated.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

It doesn't matter how much space you have on your hard drive IF:

The hard drive is 5400 RPM and its read/write speed is far below the processor read/write (I/O) speed OR

The system is starved for RAM and has to use a slow, mechanical hard drive for paging or swapping files OR

You keep lots of applications open at the same time, further increasing the need for memory paging or swapping files

RAM helps, to be sure, but an SSD is rocket fuel. Most Intel processors made in the last seven years or so are at least adequate for photography, WHEN they are not starved for data!

Computers are chains of discrete components. The entire system is only as fast as the slowest component in the chain. If you can't feed the processor as fast or faster than it can process data, you aren't getting the full benefit of what you paid for. With conventional hard drives, the processor is idle a lot, especially when chewing on or generating large files.

In 2010, people watched in amazement as Steve Jobs demonstrated the first iPad. It used flash memory (sort of like an SSD) to store files and applications. That was how Apple was able to make it appear to be so fast. The ARM core in their proprietary processor was pretty slow back then, but they fed it data quickly. Most people were still used to old, slow, 5400 RPM drives.

I remember in early 2012 seeing Julieanne Kost demonstrate Photoshop techniques at a Lifetouch sales meeting. The full size Canon 5D II raw images were popping on screen immediately after she clicked on the files. There was NO discernible wait! I asked her afterwards what was in her MacBook Pro... She said it was the SSD that made it so fast. It was at that point that I wanted an SSD in my computer.

The Adobe IT folks had installed maximum RAM and the largest SSD available back then. It made Julieanne's demos go smoothly. I had seen her demonstrate Lightroom a few years earlier, on a computer with a conventional drive, and we did wait on images to load...

tnste Loc: New Westminster, BC

Thank you for the information. I finally broke down and bought an ASUS ROG Strix III G 17.3" i7 laptop today. Specs look good but will have to see how it operates. It wont be available till January 13. Best Buy was out of stock.

tnste Loc: New Westminster, BC

Thanks for your comments. Is it really necessary to get a calibration kit?. I had a Spyder years ago and there were so many variables that could affect the calibration like angle of the screen, ambient light conditions, etc; I did not bother with it. Right or wrong I did finally buy a laptop computer today at Best Buy. Its a ASUS ROG Strix III i7 17.3" computer. Specs look good. Will see how it is when I pick it up Jan. 13. I will have to get a DVD drive but not sure what to get. My current old ASUS has a built in DVD drive which is nice to have.