Mr. SONY Loc: LI, NY

Oops! I screwed up.

fetzler Loc: North West PA

I agree macs are a PIA and Apple treats its customers like a cash cow.

The brand of computer doesn't matter much. Look at the specs. You need adequate memory and a large drive. Dell and Lenovo are certainly OK. An External Drive is great and a second one can be a backup. I agree with some other comments that a larger External Monitor is useful because it is larger and because the viewing angle affects image perception. It is hard to keep this constant with a laptop. I like small laptops for travel but a big one is better for photo editing. I use my laptop for making presentations and for portable radio operation and not photo editing.

jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

Foto Jo,
You have received a lot of advice. Regardless of your set up, something does not make sense to me.
You will be using the external drive for images. I assume that you mean all your original images. These generally are called 'referenced' images when setting up your editing program. Makes sense.
But you want to have large internal storage for your edited images. This is confusing to me. Programs like LR and Capture 1 'save the edits' to your original image in a Catalog. Most keep this Catalog in the internal storage for faster retrieval and processing. These Catalogs take up a fraction of the space that the original files do on your external drive.
The only way to have your 'edited images' on your internal drive is then to export the edited images and store them on in this drive. The size of your original file all depends on your camera and set up. And then the final size of your edited image will be determined by your export set up. This can be voluminous-BIG.
My question is Why? If this is what you are doing, then WHY? Your edited/original images are already on your external drive coupled with the corresponding catalog(s). If you want to send edited pictures to someone, then export them how you want them to be viewed or printed-send them-and then delete them from you internal drive. Or save them into your PP software in a 'Folder', 'Smart Folder', or other format that is integral to your software.
There are reasons to have a large internal drive, but not for what your are requesting.
I find that a 1TB internal drive is enough for me for both work (non-photography) and photography. I have used 2TB Samsung and Sandisk external drives and have been transitioning to 4TB drives.
FWIW, I am working on a 2021 16" M1 MacBook Pro.

gouldopfl

I have a ASUS 17" laptop TUF ( 2019 ) with 64 gig of Ram and upgraded to a 2 Tb SSD last Christmas. I have an AMD Ryzen 9, 4900H CPU, plenty of horse power. The only thing that I would have liked was a higher level video card and a newer GPU. They are still reasonably priced now.

gouldopfl

Similar to what I use. ASUS next model year will include dual screens, and all parts being replaceable.

Foto Jo Loc: Smoky Mountains of North Carolina

Thank you all for the comments. Each comment I learned something. I am leaning toward a Lenovo, 32gb, 1tb or 2tb SSD upgrade. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Jo

Foto Jo Loc: Smoky Mountains of North Carolina

So I need the largest monitor size I can get, is that correct?

gouldopfl

I would not say the biggest. I have a 37" which is a bit too big. Maybe a 32" instead

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

I have a 32". A good size for sitting in front of.

Artcameraman Loc: Springfield NH

MB Pro, 19 1TB is enough unless you download in the field or have to sens out jpegs to clients for approval where SSD or spinners R 2 slow. Unified RAM 16GB/32GB with a 2 TB Drive would B my choice.

OwlHarbor Loc: Pacific North West USA

MAC vs Windows is a Pepsi vs Coke thing. I have an iPhone for work and personally use an Android and old Samsun Note 9 but it still does what I need. ASUS and ACER are good. I have a DELL for work but it's a lower to mid-grade machine as it costs more for a better CPU and more Memory. Most important what are your specifications and budget? If you want to keep the MAC then go to YouTube and find instructions (if you want) Steve Jobs was a great salesman. I used to drink both Coke and Pepsi and eventually started drinking Coke exclusively. There are many ways to store your photos, but hard drive arrays are expensive. There is Cloud storage which is not cheap either. I would suggest checking all avenues for pricing because sometimes you get better prices for shopping unless the company price fixes. Yes I know its illegal to fix a price but MFRs set a suggest retail price and on occasion offer their product for less and if a store sells it for a lower price that company will no longer sell to them.

gouldopfl

My experience with MFR's is that with electronics there is a 23-30% profit in the MFR's

Artcameraman Loc: Springfield NH

What ever works 4 U I don't get kickBacks.

Foto Jo Loc: Smoky Mountains of North Carolina

Thank you for your words of wisdom. I truly appreciate every word you wrote. I will go to U-Tube for videos to help w/ the MAC.