Dikdik Loc: Winnipeg, Canada

Do a complete backup of all your data, immediately...

Dik

Hip Coyote

My desktop computer died recently. Purchased a HP Pavilion Laptop with an 11th gen intel 7 processor processor. 16 megs of ram and a smallish 500gig ssd hard drive...from Costco. Added to that an HP docking station that connects with a usb type c cord. It keeps the computer powered and acts as a hub. Wireless keyboard and mouse. External monitor. Very happy with the set up so far. The new super resolution feature in Adobe gets processed quickly. The only thing there is a slight delay loading photos from my external ssd hard drive through the docking station. The one very positive up side is the touch screen of the laptop. Currently using google earth for another project and touch screen is very helpful.

Also I have data in the cloud and a few external ssd drives. Nothing lost. Just a bit of time to reload programs onto the ssd. Which is why the smallish ssd works for me.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Side note for those who missed it.
If the anti-trusters had not broken up Ma Bell (1982 under President Regan, started in 1974 under Nixon/Ford), we would all be using UNIX pure today. Apple and (to an extent) Microsoft would have been left in the dust of failed companies. Apple is just a derivative of UNIX, so there would have been no entry point for them. MS DOS would not, I think, have gotten a toe hold. But that is questionable based on the IBM mind set at the time. Who knows. Maybe the dominant survivor of the time would have been WANG who owned the word processor field back then.
"Vertical marketing" rules!!!! You have to remember WANG to get that last bit.
Even in the 80's though Wang gave their employees t-shirts emblazoned with the phrase "I Love My Wang"
Did not go over big with the religious right. May have undermined their marketing strategy.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Wise advice here...

Very few laptop screens truly are good enough for photo and video editing. The newest 13" M1 MacBooks are exceptions, with their P3 color gamut retina displays.

My son has an M1 MacBook Air. His laptop monitor is an excellent match for his P3-capable 4K LG desktop monitor, once both are calibrated to the same aim points.

He uses Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, Blender, MS Office 365, Chrome, Safari, and GarageBand, with no real issues save for having to attach many terabytes of external storage to handle all the files! It's much faster than he hoped. It cuts through 4K video like a hot knife in butter.

For travel, he has an external 2TB SSD (This one —> https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-Portable-External-SDSSDE60-2T00-G25/dp/B08HN37XC1/ )

Here's a very analytical review of the MBA that convinced me that this is 'da bomb', especially for Mac users.

https://youtu.be/egr_TMj3IoE

Max also did reviews comparing two top Windows laptops to the MacBook Air:

> Dell XPS 13 https://youtu.be/zlmkoOwBC4U

> LG Gram https://youtu.be/frRwGFVALv4

Actually, any of these three laptops would be fine for most people. You can buy cheaper, but most likely not better.

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

What do you have now, and why do you say it is dying. What photo software are you using/planning on using? How big is your bank that you are hoping not to break? Are you looking to replace what you have now with something similar, or do you want to upgrade?

Until you provide the answers to these questions people are just going to tell you what they have, and just purely guessing about what you really need. . . - not the best approach. With computers, the best approach is to select the computer that will serve your purposes today, and hopefully be able to do modest upgrades (ram and storage) to meet future needs. Unless you are getting Apple products, where you really have to get a crystal ball to predict what you might need down the road, since upgrades can be dicey, depending on what model you get.

Dikdik Loc: Winnipeg, Canada

My new Dell XPS 15 9500, with a 15.6" UHD+ (3840 x 2400) InfinityEdge Touch Anti-Reflective 500-Nit Display, driven by an NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 1650 Ti 4GB GDDR6 is the nicest laptop screen I've seen... including
Apple products. Quite expensive, though... ordered it with the 256G M.2 and replaced this with two 2TB M.2... the original M.2 was sh*t and should never have been used for anything... even a small paperweight.

Dik

JohnR Loc: The Gates of Hell

Strange - "dying"?? laptops are usually dead or alive with no intervening period

Craigdca Loc: California

Gary, I checked but did not see your PM. As you have “HP Pavilion DV6, Win 7 updated to Win 10” you can still run the process if you have HP’’s System Restore disks for the factory reset unless it’s already configured to run without them. Then the Windows 10 update will work as your system is already registered with Microsoft from your previous upgrade.

**BACKUP first if you haven’t already**

If you plan to use the latest Lightroom feature that requires 16GB RAM, then you will have to get a new computer since your laptop’s max is 8 GB RAM. The data from your current internal hard drive can be transferred to the new computer via a USB adapter.

terpfan Loc: central coast, California

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad, I 7 chip, that last year I changed the 500mg HDD to a 2 TB SSD. With the most recent upgrade to Lightroom, it slowed to a craw. I contacted LR and they said latest upgrade needs 16 g of ram. So I upgraded that and all is fine. I upgraded the screen when I ordered it from Lenovo. I should mention I'm using Windows 10.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Which is why several people jumped to back up now, do not pass go do not look for a $200.00 coupon! I mean look for a coupon code later because they are awesome, but first back up!!! Also why I like external data drives for laptops and secondary data drives for desktops.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Thank-you for reminding me to plug in my Time Machine drive that I unplugged earlier today to clean up my desk...

Dean37 Loc: Fresno, CA

**********************************************
I agree that we would have been using UNIX, but that would have inhibited the growth of computers, as it is difficult to apply until you are well versed in it. I stated in about 1982 that UNIX is by far the best operating system, but it definitely needs a front end that is easy to learn. X Windows as the early front end for UNIX was a big help, it was not the answer for the masses.

That came along with Linus Torvalds when he developed LINUX. Since the front ends Gnome and KDE allow it to be used easily, now the average person can jump in and be well versed in a short time. While Apples early OS's may have been related to UNIX, their newest OS's are essentially LINUX, and Windows is coming around to being a LINUX OS, too. LINUX is virtually command for command the same as UNIX.

Of course Wang screwed up choosing to stay with Mini Computers rather than move to the micro computers (like IBM PC's and Apple).

Of course the technology was changing from 4 bit to 8 bit and then 16 bit so software could get far more complex. Today 32 bit is entry level yet going away and 64 bit is where most new software is. The microprocessors with their multiple cores of today couldn't have been imagined in those early days.

UNIX is alive and well, though most of us use it in the LINUX format even though most have no idea.

Gallimaufry Loc: Denver, CO

B&H is a great suggestion. I also suggest you go to YouTube and search for "Just Josh" (without the quotes). He's a constant laptop reviewer, if that's what you're after.

But I also agree that a desktop is more powerful and will edit faster.

To save on a PC, after you've done your research on what will work, visit your local used computer store if you have one and ask them to look on their database of used/refurbished computers and have them custom order it for you. I have always bought like this, and never had a problem.

Barry

Dikdik Loc: Winnipeg, Canada

and has a 'real' monitor rather than a 15" screen...

pdsilen Loc: Roswell, New Mexico

If you do a lot of photo editing like I do, use a desktop.