PC system for photography - updated: Can anyone tell me the most economical PC system to use for editing photos. Photos would be for personal family use (framed pics) at home. And...

kirtina502

Can anyone tell me the most economical PC system to use for editing photos. Photos would be for personal family use (framed pics) at home. And printer also. Please show detail such as min. RAM and etc. Updated links welcome. Thanks in advance.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Picasa (from Google) is free. It will frame to size for you. and it's easy to use.

Singing Swan

PC system??? A cheap laptop?? Or is there such a thing??

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Do you have a budget?

warrior Loc: Paso Robles CA

:thumbup:

larrywilk Loc: Palm Harbor, FL

kirtina502 wrote:

Can anyone tell me the most economical PC system to use for editing photos. Photos would be for personal family use (framed pics) at home. And printer also. Please show detail such as min. RAM and etc. Updated links welcome. Thanks in advance.

Don't know your budget, but I would not attempt to edit in Lightroom with less than 8 Gig of RAM. I just purchased an HP with 8 Gig of RAM with a six core processor 3.5 Ghz, 64 bit Windows 8.1 for $330. This would do well for most editing but I also put in another 8 Gb of RAM which can be done later. Right now many sales are in progress and after Christmas there will be a lot of clearance sales up through February.

I personally prefer HP but have also had good luck with Lenova, Gateway, and Asus. I have also built my own that I still use for entertainment - movies, karaoke, music. I do not care for Dell since many of their parts are proprietary. Others swear by them but since I do many of my own repairs I dislike them.

My recommendation? Get the best computer you can afford. It will pay in the long run. Hope this helps, good luck!

alandg46 Loc: Boerne, Texas

For a desk top, I suggest you build your own.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

I will take one more shot.

Economical for you and economical for someone else are very different things.

This kind of question is pointless without a budget. A dollar figure.

How much can you afford to spend?

zigipha Loc: north nj

alandg46 wrote:

For a desk top, I suggest you build your own.

Build it yourself only if you want to have experience of putting parts together. no home-built computer can be built for less than a packaged system (as mark levin says, "thats right i said it!")

You can customize a home built to your heart's content and can get a higher performing system doing a home built one; if you want a good system with nominal features, reduce your time and dollars out of your pocket get a packaged system

zigipha Loc: north nj

dsmeltz wrote:

I will take one more shot.

Economical for you and economical for someone else are very different things.

This kind of question is pointless without a budget. A dollar figure.

How much can you afford to spend?

I can afford to spend 3k of the OPs money - maybe i'll go up to 3.5k

:)

larrywilk Loc: Palm Harbor, FL

larrywilk wrote:

Don't know your budget, but I would not attempt to... (show quote)

You can go to the HP site here and play with different configurations to see what's available and the cost.

http://store.hp.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SearchDisplay?client=&jumpID=se_r1002_usen_ac&searchTerm=customizable&search=%EF%80%A1&beginIndex=0&catalogId=10051&charset=utf-8&langId=-1&pageSize=50&pageView=list&resultCatEntryType=2&sType=SimpleSearch&searchSource=Q&storeId=10151

jcarlosjr Loc: Orange County

I have Photoshop elements on laptop and desktop Windows computers with as little as 2gb of RAM and a simple dual core processor, up to an i7 with 16gb.

Sure there is some delay with the lower capacity machines, but sometimes I travel with a "throw-away" laptop (low cost in the event of damage or loss when I travel).

I cannot find any computers sold today that don't meet the minimums below. So just open your wallet from $250 to the size of your bank account.

PS ELEMENTS:
http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/system-requirements-photoshop-elements.html#Photoshop%20Elements%2013.0

PS CC:
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/system-requirements.html

LR CC:
http://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/system-requirements.html

RV Loc: Chicago

I would highly recommend having one built. 16G of ram, 512 Meg SSD
( Main Drive), 3 or 4 Terabyte of hard drive used for second drive, video card w/ 2 gig of memory, 700 Watt or more power supply, pref an i7 or maybe even an i5 if there are budget constraints, Windows 7.1. People don't realize the importance of a good case as well. Mine has 2 fans in it and with additional fans for the CPU and the graphics card. Everything runs cool and quietly. I just had my new system built similar to this and I can tell you Lr, Photoshop and video processing using Pro Show Gold just fly using these components. I had mine built buy a company called CPU Solutions. I did extensive research and checked out Dell, HP, and many others and for what I had built they can't come close to the quality of components and I paid less. The company is excellent to work with. I believe in the old saying "Pay me now Pay me later) www.cpusolutions.com
Good Luck.

Zone-System-Grandpa Loc: Springfield, Ohio

kirtina502 wrote:

Can anyone tell me the most economical PC system to use for editing photos. Photos would be for personal family use (framed pics) at home. And printer also. Please show detail such as min. RAM and etc. Updated links welcome. Thanks in advance.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dell's XPS 8700 Special Edition Desktop with Microsoft Windows 7 with service Pack 1 installed, mixed with Dell's U2713HM 27" monitor gives color accuracy and color quality that anyone would hope to expect to see !

For a printer, Epson offers several that do very nicely !

Although you did not ask for post processing software, you will find that Lightroom, Photomatix Pro, portrait+3 64bit, and Photoshop CC will get you where you want to be !

Merry Christmas !
~Doug~

kirtina502

Just downloaded Picasa today. Thanks!