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

Ignore the noise from the Mac fanboys. In many cases they are either living in the past, when Mac was in fact better, and PCs were dreadful. I made a fortune supporting pcs in the 80s and 90s because of that. Or just ill-informed about how Windows computers really work these days. You often hear "I switched 10 yrs ago and will never go back" etc etc etc. Nonesense. They have no clue what they are missing out on - better, faster, less costly equipment with almost limitless internal storage options, and gobs of ram, swappable NVME m.2 SSD drives, internal RAID, 30 bit color display adapters and displays that are consistent with photo and printing industry standard RGB color spaces, and so on and so on.

But today, there is little difference between the two when you consider user interface, reliability, longevity - when they work (which is most of the time for both platforms) they are pretty indistinguishable from each other) and when they break you still have to get them fixed. But you do have many more options for repair/upgrade with the open-platform PC vs the "you-have-to-do-it-our-way" Mac platform. You are not making a wrong decision here. Hope your son-in-law puts a nice system together for you! Enjoy your retirement!

Japakomom Loc: Originally from the Last Frontier

I second the advice to check out Puget Systems. They build custom towers specifically for Lightroom and Photoshop. You can configure your machine exactly the way you want it and it will be warranted for life.

BarryUP Loc: NEW YORK CITY

Does anyone care about the GPU, I use a nvidia 1070 and it greatly accelerates the processing.

mineart

Definitely make the switch to Mac if you have the chance.

Greatest reliability in industry (less downtime)
Overall cost of ownership is lower (more money for 'tog gear!)
TRUE plug and play (accessories just work)
Integrated hardware and software (better design, more energy efficient)
GORGEOUS ID (not an eyesore)

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

An "IPS" monitor should be spec'd also for better viewing angles and larger gamut 8 bit color.

SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

I am a PC user, so that is my preference. However, the basic criteria are the same no matter what you choose. My desktop computer was custom-built, but if I were to buy one, I would look at Dell first.

Computer - Main things you will need:
CPU = Processor: At least dual core, fast speed ~3GHz - the Intel i7 is the newest generation as far as I know
RAM = Memory: Minimum 8GB, but 16GB is better
Hard Drive: Bigger is better, and you have the choice between mechanical [HDD] and solid state [SSD]. Size and type mainly depends on how much you want to spend.
You can have one internal HD for everything, but I prefer having two - one dedicated to programs, the other to documents and pictures.
Video/Graphics Card: Dedicated Graphics card [not using the CPU for handling graphics]
Backup Software: At least as large as your HD
Monitor: For photo editing, 24" and up is better, IPS type. If buying a laptop, make sure you get a non-reflective monitor. I think they are described as back-lit LED these days.
I read somewhere that CCFL is better, such as the Dell Ultrasharp monitors. Resolution is important - higher is better. Also wide color gamut.

Software:
You will get lots of opinions on this one. But for editing photos the Adobe CC subscription is industry standard - includes both LR and PS. $9.99 per month
Later on you can add "plug-ins" for various special editing processes.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

As a daily user of BOTH systems, I can say, based upon my experience, that the Apple machines are better than the PC machines, especially for PP work. Neither are bad! Best of luck.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

Dave, No matter what others may say about the Windows vs Mac debate, you want something with Intel Optane "memory". It only works for the 7th generation processor and beyond.

Generally speaking, it speed up a hard drive to act similar to speeds like an SSD memory unit. Although very little more than an SSD it still does speed it up but only for the primary drive form some reason. Anyway that means you can get a 4TB hard drive for your Windows "C" drive and it will speed up a bunch. Not for the first time you it but the second and more it will.

To get massive speed and save cash, try getting something like the Dell XPS line of computers and have them put a big hard drive in as your primary "C" drive, then put an SSD in for your second and or third drive slot. I say that because with Optain speeding the boot and program initializing, you don't want to spead hundreds of dollars for an SSD to use as primary when you can get big stuff for a lot cheaper as a hard drive. Your choice since it will speed up and regular SSD also, but not as much.

Regular SSD is one than does not already have the Optain cash memory built in it like the Sansung 960 Pro or similar would have.

Of course you want to max out your DDR4 on board memory as much as you can but that is also expensive.

Be careful as some motherboards can only accept one type where other motherboards will accept both type. Some there are SATA type, (Very fast on-board memory and the ENMe type, (Also called Envy Me since it is so fast, others will "envy" your system.) The SATA "memory" is locked at a very high speed and the much smaller ENMe type is topped out beyond that. (I seem to recall that they don't even know the top rater speed yet?) When it comes right down to it, either type will speed up thing a lot!

I can't wait to see what's around the corner!

Hope this helps!

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/memory-storage/optane-memory/optane-32gb-m-2-80mm.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwH5Q8ZFJvw&t=198s

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Not much to add to that, Gene!
Mark

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

Mac vs. PC, Canon vs. Nikon. Fan loyalty is an interesting phenomenon. “My thing is the best ‘cause it’s mine!” We tend to ignore the warts on our stuff and amplify them on someone else. Then of course if we have a lot invested our egos will blind us.
Makes me think of a man I know who was VW bug owner back in the 60-70’s (was also a VW mechanic). Swore it was the best thing since sliced bread, wouldn’t stand for any criticism of the bug. About a year ago he admitted to me that the car was a piece of …..

Paul Buckhiester Loc: Columbus, GA USA

Yes but...Those of us w years of experience w Windows who have switched to Mac have some wisdom to pass along.

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

and versa visa. In truth like Canon and Nikon, they are both worthwhile. As Gene pointed out if your experience with PCs isn't with recent equipment and W10 then you would be surprised with the current stuff. Pleasantly

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

...I do both, but main processing machine is PC. Reason is I can keep up with tech easier and gain speed...I gotta buy new Mac to do that on the other side. Tell him you want a good gaming 'puter!!! 64 GB Ram and bomb graphics card...can't beat that for photo processing unless you build your own...

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Actually, I used Macs for a number of years... But switched to Windows machines for greater flexibility and versatility, much wider selection of software, much lower prices whether for complete machines or components, as well as much easier DIY repairs and upgrades.

Reinaldokool Loc: San Rafael, CA

A. Never buy a toy computer. That is to say a Mac. They are under-powered, over priced, all parts are proprietary, mostly not upgradeable. And now are the new target for a lot of malware.

B. A Windows computer. Laptops are convenient and I use one, travel with it and love it, BUT for serious photo work it suffers from almost as much lack of capability as the Mac. Just the price is better. I have owned Acer, HP, Vaio, and a couple that are no longer around. My current laptop is a Dell with a quad-core processor and 8 gb of RAM and only 13.3 in. screen. Very lightweight. But I don't try to do any serious post processing on it.

C. For all my serious post processing, including some video, I have a desktop. It started life as an HP and still has that motherboard, but I have installed three hard drives, a fast video card, USB 3.0 16gb of RAM and a pen/tablet. The point is, with a desktop, you can upgrade things as you wish. You don't need three hard drives (Plus two external USB drives for backup) or the fast video card or even USB 3.0 (Though they will all come with the USB 3.0. I think that Dell is very good for us normal folk. I will no longer buy HP because of their abominable customer service (Carly Fiorina destroyed that company.). Other good brands are Acer and Asus. (Asus has always led the industry in the best motherboards, but in the last 15 years has been making great full computers.

One comment about HP. If you buy it from Costco, Costco provides their own technical support hotline, as well as their great return policies. You can also buy a good insurance policy for not much money.

Also, you can get great support from local independent computer businesses (Stay away from the "one-man-show" folk.) I just had a disaster. My hard drive with about 15 years of work on it died. No sweat, I have two backups. BUT the Acronis backup program broke. It was telling me that all was well and I had two good backups. But really it had lost key files on the backups and left my backups unreadable. My local heroes, North Bay Computer Systems, were able to recover everything for me at a reasonable fee.

I used to know a lot about this as a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, but that was long ago and the industry moves rapidly. Now I call North Bay Computer Services who can do all the things I no long know about.

I like to end with "Your Mileage May Vary." LOL