jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

[quote=Baysitter11]

Costco is excellent. The closest ones to me are over an hour north and over an hour+ south. : (

BenSanford Loc: Falls Church, VA

First, I an in the build your own camp. That way it is easy to get 32GB of RAM without paying too much to the manufacturer for an upgrade. The manufacturer might use 4 separate 4GB sticks to build the computer with 16GB of RAM - filling all of the available memory slots. If you later want to upgrade to 32GB you'll need to throw away the 16GB installed, and then put in all new memory. If you built your own, you can just start with 32GB, or use two 8GB sticks, and later add two more.

Even if you don't build your own, make sure the manufacturer isn't filling all of the slots with smaller memory. Typically four 4GB sticks are slightly cheaper to buy than two 8GB sticks.

If you built it, you'll also know how easy it is to add additional hard drives (internal or external), and will know to get a case and power supply with additional capacity. 4, 6, and even 8TB drives are reasonably priced, and with extra drives built in, you can easily have copies of your photos and Lightroom library in multiple locations within the computer. Maybe do a back-up to one of the extra internal drives and then disconnect it until potentially needing it later. Or, use an external drive for backup.

If you spend a few extra $$'s to start with, you will actually save money because you won't feel the need to upgrade as quickly.

I also agree with the 27" monitor recommendations, and check the resolution as well. Ideally 1920 x 1200 should be the minimum resolution for a 27" monitor for photo work.

I have LR and Photoshop installed on my laptop as well, and even though it has 16GB of RAM and a high-resolution (but 13") display - It is difficult to do much in the way of serious photo post-processing on a display that small. I mainly use it on vacation to just review recently taken photos.

dino21 Loc: McAllen, TX

Dont buy a Dell....nothing but low grade junk that will go down on you quickly. Build your own!! I did not think I could and did so myself for my own, my wife's and my son. All are built with quality parts as opposed to low bid stuff from Dell and have given me no problems at all.

We have Dells where I work and they are always breaking down.

Go to Newegg or Tiger direct and buy the quality components you actually want. A case, a motherboard, a hard drive, memory, etc. Do it yourself. Step by step instructions are on the internet and very easy to follow.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

JCam Loc: MD Eastern Shore

When I was last in your current position, I could only find laptops with Win8 so bought one rhat had the features I wanted (except the 0S). About a year later they came out with an 'upgrade Win 8.1', and shortly followed with some threats about horrible things to happen if you didn't upgrade, in one afternoon I learned to hate it--to many changes too fast. I had been running Win XP for years, loved it and had no problems.

On the day after I downloaded Win8.1 it locked up the entire computer, nothing worked not even the PW I'd been using for years. I ended up taking it to the local Computer shop who has a great reputation. They couldn't get it to run either. I ended up having him get rid of all things Win 8 & 8.1 and reinstall Win7 Pro. It works like a charm and has had no conflicts with UHH. I know that MS says they will only support it, such as their support for it is these days, but it is good until Dec 30 ?, 2020, but I hope to stay with it as long as I can but put a stronger Anti-virus and firewall as necessary. So Far, So Good. I have heard many complaints about Win 10 too regarding Photos and UHH and virtually none about Win 7 so at this point I'm ignoring Win 10 too.

I would support the position of the UHH'rs who have recommended you get as much memory financially possible in your new computer. Personally, I'd also like to have a pen for PP, but this computer will not accommodate it.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

John Geyer

Or you may shoot a 45mp camera and want to make a panorama from 6 wide angle shots and then you see why you want a Porche. I use 8th gen I7 k processor, 1080 video card and 64gb of fastest ram available. Also you can edit video. Since you are a snapshot user you bought what you needed. Serious shooters need serious processing speed. Dont cheap out....you will never regret speed in PS and LR.

wteffey Loc: Ocala, FL USA

Anyone who can afford a 45mp camera does not need my advice. My camera is 20mp, and a rather modest PC works fine. I would rather spend my limited resources on something that helps my photography rather than something that sits idle most of the time.

Cheap shot, by the way.

JRowe

OK, OK, Thanks for all the ideas and advice. I always wanted a Porsche, so will go with a high end Dell or HP. — John

rfmaude41 Loc: Lancaster, Texas (DFW area)

That one only has a "hard drive" not an SSD.

dino21 Loc: McAllen, TX

You will regret it!!

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Consider Dell Outlet. Big savings on certified returned and refurbished units

http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandId=2202&c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh&~ck=mn

therwol Loc: USA

Not a terribly difficult upgrade. I've done it on all of my computers. You need a USB to SATA cable and cloning software like the free version of Macrium Reflect. Then you spend a couple of hundred bucks on a 1TB SSD. It is definitely worth it.

Charlie'smom

According to Consumer Reports, after three years the estimated breakage rate for Apple is the best at 13%. I’m not saying to go with a Mac, but when it’s compared to a Dell with 23% and HP with 26%? I’m also looking to get a new desktop and it’s not an easy decision. I’m thinking at this point to just increase my RAM from 4 to either 8 or 16 and call it a day for another couple of years.

TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA

I purchased a Dell XPS8900 directly from Dell - the reason for doing so is that if 2 parts have to be replaced under warranty, Dell sends you a replacement computer to swap for your lemon. The original machine had W7 pre-installed. There were some severe software problems with W7 that Dell mistakenly diagnosed as h/w and tried to repair with first a new HDD and then a new motherboard, and it did fail after the MB. They took the first machine from the line that was bigger than what I had paid for and swapped for mine. That was in spite of my telling them up front that it was a software problem. I did not install anything until I was able to get my hands on W10. I have not had any problems other than ones that I knowingly caused while testing the limits of the system. I have pushed the machine memory over 10GB while in PP, so I would say that 16GB is an absolute minimum for me. Be sure not to depend on the on-board video or audio. My audio is handled by a USB connected Audioengine D1 DAC. The video is handled by a Radeon card having 2GB of storage. Choose any card that will handle the kind of load that you will be subjecting it to. The quad-core i7 processor in the machine is sufficient for me for the next few years. My display is a Dell P2715Q - a 27-inch high resolution, high gamut display. Since I am neither a gamer nor a pro, I do not need an SSD. I can add one (or two or more) should the need arise. I can also go as high as 32GB if needed.

therwol Loc: USA

There are many choices. You might consider a high end All-in-One. I bought this. https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/desktop-and-all-in-one-pcs/new-inspiron-27-7000-series-amd-non-touch/spd/inspiron-27-7775-aio/smi7775w10hs277

Ordered it from Sam's Club. 27 inch 4K display, 8 core AMD Ryzen 7 processor, 16 gigabytes of RAM as delivered, 256 gig NVMe primary drive with the operating system, 1 TB spinning drive for storage, AMD Radeon™ RX 580 with 8GB GDDR5. I think it was $1699 from Sam's Club. I upgraded the memory to 32 gigs, and I replaced the 1TB spinning drive with a Samsung 860 SSD. That added about $550 to the cost. I think I'm set for awhile.