wteffey Loc: Ocala, FL USA

For counterpoint, I run Elements on an off-the-shelf HP with 8 gig ram and a 1 TB hard Drive. I usually edit one RAW photo at a time, with one or two more JPEG's open for comparison. For me, editing is an artwork, and I find speed limitations are my own, and not the PC. Most of the time the PC is waiting for me to decide what to do next. After a lifetime of photo taking I am now pretty selective about what I keep and what I discard. (Sentimental or historical photos are a different matter. I keep most of those without regard to quality) Really, how many photos of red roses do I need? I find it hard to believe an amateur has accumulated 30 or 40k of good photos, but others may not be as selective, so storage is a different matter that processing speed. You have not indicated your budget for a new computer, but many with restricted budgets might find that your photography legacy might be better served by better cameras and equipment than an over the top PC.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

I have a 1TB for my C: drive (WD SATA) and 4 8TB drives for data (also SATA) Note: D: drive is SATA 8TB. E: is CD/DVD reader/writer F:/G:/H:/ are 8TB Sata and I, J, K, and L are on my server.. M is my WD Cloud drive

pbradin Loc: Florida

I build my own computers from scratch, since most "pre-made" computers aren't particularly suited for heavy Photoshop work. That being said, I use a 256GB SSD for my boot drive (the one your operating system and programs are loaded on) then I have a 2TB internal standard 7200RPM hard drive (both Seagate and Western Digital are good brands although I tend to lean towards WD Caviar Black), then I have a 128GB SSD that I use for a "scratch disk" for Photoshop to use as temporary storage (nothing else is stored on this drive). All of those are internal drives. I use external drives for photo storage (currently have 12TB of externals - on rodeo weekends I may take over a thousand shots and I shoot raw + jpeg medium so it eats up space fast, without a rodeo on weekends, I take about 200 shots per week, again raw + medium jpeg). My current computer is the first one where I used an SSD as a boot drive and it really speeds up booting and working on my shots. My computer is about 4 or 5 years old now with no problems. If I was building a computer today, I would probably go with at least a 512GB SSD for a boot drive and more likely a 1TB just to give me more space for saving files that I am currently working on and for having more programs. Prices today for SSD's are soooo much cheaper than they were when I built this thing. To complete my rig, just for informational purposes, I have an Asus motherboard (I had 2 computers that I built with Gigabyte MB's and they both failed), Radeon 4GB video card (I use a two monitor setup, but might go to a single 34" curved monitor), 32GB of RAM, and my processor is a 2nd generation Intel Core I 5 processor. I have a Corsair liquid cooling system for the processor. I also have four cooling fans in the case to keep it all cool in addition to the two standard fans that came with the case (a Corsair 200R mid-tower). My operating system is Windows 7 64-bit Pro. This system has been stable as hell since day one, and I love stability. The two systems before, with the Gigabyte motherboards were a little finicky, sometimes shutting down in the middle of working on a photo. I never threw the computer across the room, but I wanted to. Maybe the emphasis on cooling this time has helped, but I have always liked Asus MB's. Anyway, SSD's have become very reliable. I chose a SanDisk SSD (Samsung's are good ones, too, and are easier to find) just because I have always used their Compact Flash cards in my cameras and have never had one fail, even when I ran them through the laundry in the pocket of my blue jeans. Just a footnote. Computers are pretty easy to build. It is basically "insert Tab A into Slot B". As long as you use "mainstream" components that have been on the market for a year (that gives manufacturers time to work out communication bugs) and you don't go for "bleeding edge" components you will get a problem-free system. That's my 10 cents (it may be a nickle overpriced). Good luck, I think you will enjoy the faster speed of an SSD boot drive.

spraguead Loc: Boston, MA

Like others said, an SSD for your OS and programs. Just the time savings in start up makes them worth it. Then use standard drives for storing photos and files. And don't forget extra drives for backup.

woodworkerman Loc: PA to FL

A company near me that works with govt contracts has 3 copies of everything stored digitally in different buildings. I set up my computer with that in mind. Besides internal storage, I have 2 additional external drives and have copies of those images and files I don't want to lose in all three locations. I have been programming since 1967 and have seen many hard drive failures over that time. So if I lose one drive, I can replace it without loss of my precious data.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

That is how I have my laptop set up. I have an internal SSD and an external portable 2T HD. Have you chosen a manufacturer? There are deals to be had through Lenovo and Dell for refurbished systems. (I find Lenovo's site kind of hard to use)

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

If by 34gb you are referring to RAM, 16 is plenty but be sure to get a high end graphics card with memory like game machines have. For drive space, an SSD of 400gb and a high speed HD up to 3 or 4T would be good. The SSD is for your operating system and programs because it's very fast and the HD is for your data outputs.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

BUT....don't get just one backup HD. Also, it's best to store one of them off-site, but update it at least monthly. If you're still working you can keep it in your desk at work if you have one.

gerdog

SSD drives are also more durable, so a good choice for laptops that might get jarred around a lot. For most programs you won't see much difference in speed. Good processor and plenty of ram are most important, especially when working with image files that can be quite large.

Rasppe

While I am new to photography and just getting started myself, the computers I use need to be adequate for gaming and those I am very familiar with. I run a fairly new I7, with 16 GB of ram, a fast NVME SSD (512gb) (I think the transfer rate is around 2500 MB a second), and a 1 TB Hd. My video card is a Geforce GTX 1080 Founders Edition (for the faster ram on the card - 8GB) I don't have a 4K moniter but it is 2K, 34" Widescreen. It's great for older eyes. That all said so far it's been really nice so far working with photos on. I have about 1600 to 1800 in it. 279 of that was for the moniter.

Rasppe

One difference in an SSD vs the traditional HD is that while the SSD may last longer, when it goes there is no warning, it's just either good, or it's gone. With a traditional HD it may start acting up, (ie.. slow down, make funny noises sometime) so you may get an inkling to back up your files before you can't. Which really you should do anyway. Not so with an SSD, so backup I think on an SSD is even more important in my opinion.

albertaoldie Loc: Lloydminster Alberta

Just purchased a dell xps15 laptop : 32GB ram, i7-7700 processor, 1 TB SSD drive, 4k display , GTX 1050 graphics, this was a real deal on Costco for 2600 canadian dollars. The speed and clarity were so awesome I junked my home computer and replaced with Dell 8930 32GB ram,1 TB SSD plus 2 TB HD, i7-8700 processor , GTX 1050, 28" 4k monitor, . I did a lot of research and found these specifications most cost effective for photoshop work I do. Higher level graphics would be of interest to gamers, more ram would help photoshop. It all comes down to $ and results. The 4k display on laptop is so clear I no longer need to print photos to see exactly what I have it is right there in front of me. Hope this helps

fetzler Loc: North West PA

Dell - Inspiron 11.6" Laptop - AMD A6 - 4GB Memory - 32GB eMMC Flash Memory - Gray

Here is an example of a laptop(windows 10 computer) with a 32GB solid state drive that Best Buy has for sale. These computers are good for nothing but internet searching and email. Indeed after a few windows upgrades you won't have enough space to upgrade the operating system. These computers are very cheap but they are usually are not even worth this price. I have a tablet like this to run a small dedicated task program. It is fine for mypurpose and nothing else. This computer probably will not even be able to install the necessary photo software.

For Photos at least an i5 and 8GB memory and 500GB hard drive

seagull5

Lenovo Y900re...128 ssd boot+2tb 7200...NVidia GeForce 1080 8 gig video...16 gigs Ballastic 3200 ram...SD slot...DVD writer...mechanical Razer keyboard and mouse (lights up) slots for 2 more drives. Its a gamers build but for doing photo editing and 4 k its awesome. I remember paying just over 1K with $70 for a 3 year onsite. The video card alone if you bought it would be 5 to $600. Looked at the boutique builders but they were all much more expensive. I am very pleased with the system. Lenovo will not build custom. Dell even in the outlet came out more expensive.

ChristianHJensen

I have a 1TB SSD and a 1TB HD in my laptop (the HD is used for in machine backup) and 32Gb RAM - also has a dedicated graphics card, Quad Xeon processor, 4K screen and a 4K 32 inch external high end monitor. Using external HD's for archiving and storage

It's not a cheap laptop but a real work horse