frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

Finally, a response to the ops question, and not info on a desk top. Good answer Bill.

I'm sure more will follow.

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

I disagree. Not all Dell computers are "good", especially their laptop computers. Of all the PC brands I've owned or used over the past 25 years, Dell has been by far the least reliable. For a monitor, instead of buying a dedicated computer monitor, use a nice 4K flat panel TV.

photoman43

Another vote for Lenovo. My laptop is a 15 inch Lenovo ThinkPad. They have various product lines so search carefully for what you need.

Another alternative to a laptop is a separate monitor and a small tower desktop like the Lenovo ThinkCentre like the ThinkCentre M70s Small Form Factor Desktop.

Regarding what is in it, I suggest at a minimum a 512 TB SSD drive; 16 GB RAM; video card with dedicated RAM (This depends on the software you will be running) and ports needed to attach things like a external hard drive, mouse and keyboard. And if you get a laptop, a video port for an external monitor.

I am not a fan of Dell products as I had two high end Dell XPS laptops that failed to work properly. Dell offered me no help even after they admitted the problem was theirs.

Ltgk20 Loc: Salisbury, NC

I like buying used engineering spec Lenovo laptops. They are designed to be punished, have the hardware to properly support the i7 processor and Nvidia graphics card and are very expandable. If I were looking now I'd be looking at a P51 or newer. I run a P51 and my graphics artist daughter runs a PRO. She also used a W520 (a predecessor to the PRO series) from 2011 which kept up Photoshop, the rest of the Creative Suite and Autodesk Maya. I buy them used on eBay.

AirWalter Loc: Tipp City, Ohio

Do you have any computer now and what operating system are you used to?

Many people on here are going to tell you to buy an Apple!

An Apple will cost you an awful lot of money that is not necessary!

I wish someone who tells everyone that they need an Apple would tell me just what can an Apple do that you can't do with an Intel PC, cheaper, and you can update it when you need to.

AirWalter Loc: Tipp City, Ohio

Why would you never go back to a PC, please.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I'll chime in on that one. I used both PCs and Macs (one of each in my office) from 1986 to 2012. I used Windows because I had to. There was no Mac interface for the AS/400 business apps I used. And part of my job was documenting PC systems we were developing.

I used the Mac initially for apps like PageMaker that were initially unavailable on PCs, and then because I couldn't tolerate the Microsoft operating systems' way of doing things. Even when the apps are essentially the same, I prefer a Mac version, and always have.

The classic example is FileMaker Pro. I developed a dozen large FMP database solutions where I worked. I always configured them on my Mac, yet deployed them on Windows. Developing the screen layouts was MUCH faster on the Mac, because of the OS. Once they were up and running, I didn't care which system I was using.

Years before that, I was an IT systems manager/project manager for a large database development project. I had three developers who struggled with Windows 3.1 and its crazy underpinnings in DOS. They all cringed when debugging. "Unimplemented And Without Carryover" was my favorite error message. "Error 3471 — No User ." (that's space and a period where a clue would have been) was another. None of them made any sense until explained either by Microsoft or the database platform developer (Superbase, which we nicknamed Stupidbase). Visual Basic in Access 2 was equally opaque.

My wife tells similar stories. She is a marketing manager. She used Macs almost exclusively from 1986 to 2013. Even after using a PC for the last nine years, she still has a big white Apple sticker covering the HP logo on her work laptop, like a pirate flag of protest.

BigOldArt Loc: Seminole, FL

Is there a reason why you say "laptop"? Will you do much of your photo editing away from your home/office?

YMMV but consider a UHD 27" or larger monitor if you have the desk space.

russraman Loc: New York City

Any refurbished Macbook Pro purchased from Apple.com's "Refurbished and Clearance" site ... https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished

hrblaine

[quote=Gene51]

"This computer, configured with 32 gb ram (which I consider minimum for most photo editing programs)'"

You (other) guys and your 16gb of ram amuse me. Gene is correct, you need 32 at least. (imho)

I wouldn't consider any less than 32 and frankly prefer 64. It's not like ram is a multimillion dollar addition, so get 32 or 64. I never tried 128 but it probably "vouldn't hoit." >g< Harry PS With 64, I often run two programs at once. But not photo editing programs obviously.

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

go to a local computer store (not big box) and tell them what you're looking for. the tech/salespeople at my local computer store are knowledgeable and will recommend a range of laptops that will meet my needs well within my monetary constraints. i agree with the suggestion that you get an external monitor.

AirWalter Loc: Tipp City, Ohio

Windows 3.1, that's a long time ago. I guess I should have said more about what type of programs on the computer. I was thinking more along the lines of general computer use, and photography post processing, and of course my flight simulator, I'm still trying to understand navigation while piloting an aircraft. With the work you were doing , which I know nothing about, I can understand why you preferred the Mac. Back in the days of Windows 3.1, I actually looked at an Apple to buy for my first computer, but my Son showed me how easy it was to pick out the parts you wanted, and build your own computer and save some money. Been doing it that way ever since. Windows 3.1 was alright to get familiar with my first computer, but I wasn't that impressed with Microsoft's operating system. Over the years I have built about 7 or 8 desktops for myself and Wife, 4 or 5 for my younger Son and Daughter, and worked through Win 98, Win 98SE, Windows XP, windows Vista, Windows 7, and now Windows 10. I skipped Windows 8, thank God. The only one in the family that ever had an Apple was my Daughter. A couple years ago she went to Best Buy, and bought a MSI Laptop, and a Mac Laptop out of curiosity and because of the deal the salesman gave her if she bought both. She liked the Mac at first ,but then one night on the phone she told me she threw the Mac down the stairs and made a kit out of it. I didn't ask anymore, she does have an attitude at times. That was about an $1100.00 attitude.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

None of the typical PC advantages matter to me. Open standard equals race to the bottom of the price vs. quality index. It also means everyone blames everyone else when something isn't working right. There's not a single company you can reach out to for culpability or the complete solution.

Typically, I used the Mac for anything creative — scripts, procedures, manuals, audio, video, photo editing, graphics, database development... and I used the PC for things like AS/400 Client Access, Kodak DP2 lab production software, our corporate Oracle apps, our proprietary Photography Division Visual Basic field and lab databases, and the usual Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint — although I had and used all the MS Office apps on the Mac, too.

Of those versions of Windows you mentioned, XP, Win7, and Win10 were the best. I'd throw in Win2000, as well. Vista and Win8 were big mistakes. But so was Mac OS 7.5. Conversely, Mac OS X 10.6.8 was like Win XP... It was very hard to let go of! In fact, I have a drive here somewhere that runs BOTH Win XP Service Pack 3 and Mac OS X 10.6.8 at the same time, via Parallels Desktop, a setup I ran for several years. It let me do absolutely everything I needed on one computer, a 2008 MacBook Pro. My 2010 Mac mini can still boot and run from it if needed.

What is amazing to me about the current version of MacOS — 12.2.1 Monterey, is that it is so stable on the new M1 hardware. It runs cleaner and faster than the Intel version of the same OS. And quite shockingly, many Intel versions of Mac apps run faster on M1 in Rosetta 2 emulation than they did on recent Mac Intel hardware. The M1 recompiled versions run even faster.

levinton

I second the asus soln. I would order from B&H. Have had good luck with them on returns and replacements.

Hip Coyote

I purchased the following laptop from Costco. I married it up with an HP satellite that keeps the laptop charged and attached to an Asus monitor, a wacom tablet, keyboard and mouse. For me, the system works well. I use ps and lr. The cost was about 1000 for the laptop.

I never thought Id use a laptop in that I always had a desktop and was happy. As we travel more and more, the laptop works out ok. One downside of this machine is the keyboard is not lit (lighted?) At times an inconvenience.

Processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1165G7 @ 2.80GHz 2.80 GHz
Installed RAM 16.0 GB (15.8 GB usable)
Device ID 0DD27D53-526D-4344-8592-31AB11C6B03F
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch Pen and touch support with 10 touch points