Posted by Brian Murphy on May 28, 2018 at 10:49 AM
I am wondering what computer some of you use for editing photos. Do you have a computer for only editing? Is it just your house hold computer? Mac? etc..
Thanks,
Brian
Posted by Jerry Austin on May 28, 2018 at 12:10 PM
I use a 27 inch iMac for all my photography work. The screens on Mac's just seem a cut above other computer monitors. I recently purchased a MacBook with a retina display. It is truly amazing to see images on a Mac with a retina display.
Contact B&H. They can help you with a computer and monitor for photo editing.
They helped me with a stock setup I added to for editing. They can also recommend monitors that are suited for editing. I use the system for everything.
Puget Systems is an excellent company who offers both stock and custom made computers, and their service and advice is absolutely top notch. They are not inexpensive however. Here's a link - https://www.pugetsystems.com/
I'm currently using an HP Desktop which I have increased RAM to 48GB and 2ex 4 TB Hard Drives plus an additional 2 ez. $ TG external Hard Drives. For mu monitor I'm using a 30" Dell Ultrasharp Color Critical monitor, calibrated with an X-Rite colorimeter. I've been very pleased with it. I would have preferred a Puget Systems computer with the same monitor I currently have but I just couldn't afford it at the time I purchased it.
Brian, I just emailed you via your link for your email, but it came right back. Please email me with your current email, for some info I'd like to share.
I have an HP desktop computer that I use only for my photography work. I custom-ordered it some years ago, and and have never had a problem with it. I added a 24" NEC monitor several years ago, which I really like.
This computer is completely separate from our household laptop. I download my photos onto my computer, then re-number them, and sort and delete, delete, delete. Then I back them up onto several (totally separate) 4TB hard drives.
I don't use my computer for surfing the net; about the only thing I do online with it is updates and posting images here on NPN. It is getting kind of old though, and one of these days I will need to look at getting a new one.
I will second Bill's recommendation for Puget Systems. I have one of their workstations and a 15" laptop (Puget no longer sells laptops). Both are excellent machines.
My workstation is 7 years old and continues to run nicely and is very quiet. I did upgrade to an SSD, an Asus 2GB passively cooled video card, and 32 GB of RAM. It handles anything Photo Shop throws at it. I also use it as my 'every-day' computer.
If you look at Puget's offerings, there are two product lines to look at: Spirit and Serenity. The Spirit is more budget oriented, and the Serenity is higher-end and absolutely silent.
Here are some points that sold me on Puget (in no particular order):
Lifetime, free tech support that is in-house, including Windows.
Lifetime labor warranty (If you have to send your computer back to them, you pay for parts, labor is free)
Excellent consulting. Tell them what you plan to do with your computer, and your budget, and they will help you configure a machine
No hard sell: they do not push you to buy.
No up-sell
When you call, you speak to a real person
E-mail messages are replied to with an hour, sometimes minutes
They use only the highest quality parts. They qualify every part in-house before offering them in their builds
Exhaustive burn-in testing, bench marking, and QC checks
Shipping packaging that UPS can't hurt.
The wiring and internal setup is clean and organized-almost artful
They provide a binder with all the specs, manuals, and discs
They give you a box with all spare parts like power cables, SATA cables, screws, etc.
The best customer service I have found anywhere
Are their machines more expensive? Yes, but they are competitive with other custom builders.
I recently went with a laptop and additional monitors with an external hard drive array for storage. The last is something I've wanted to do for a long time to eliminate cord clutter. I poked around and decided to go with a gaming laptop. They don't have the display that the Macs do, but they're about 1/3 the price and I rarely process using the laptop display anyhow. The laptop I chose was an 17 inch ASUS with a relatively low resolution display (the 4K displays added a lot of cost). It runs Photoshop and Lightroom quite easily. One thing I did to modify it was to buy a tray that allows you to replace the DVD drive with an additional laptop hard drive. That added 2TB of internal storage. The tray came out of the Netherlands and had good instructions, so it was an easy swap.
Discussion
8 repliesThanks,
Brian
They helped me with a stock setup I added to for editing. They can also recommend monitors that are suited for editing. I use the system for everything.
Good luck.
I'm currently using an HP Desktop which I have increased RAM to 48GB and 2ex 4 TB Hard Drives plus an additional 2 ez. $ TG external Hard Drives. For mu monitor I'm using a 30" Dell Ultrasharp Color Critical monitor, calibrated with an X-Rite colorimeter. I've been very pleased with it. I would have preferred a Puget Systems computer with the same monitor I currently have but I just couldn't afford it at the time I purchased it.
Sandy
Moonshadow.Sandy@yahoo.com
This computer is completely separate from our household laptop. I download my photos onto my computer, then re-number them, and sort and delete, delete, delete. Then I back them up onto several (totally separate) 4TB hard drives.
I don't use my computer for surfing the net; about the only thing I do online with it is updates and posting images here on NPN. It is getting kind of old though, and one of these days I will need to look at getting a new one.
My workstation is 7 years old and continues to run nicely and is very quiet. I did upgrade to an SSD, an Asus 2GB passively cooled video card, and 32 GB of RAM. It handles anything Photo Shop throws at it. I also use it as my 'every-day' computer.
If you look at Puget's offerings, there are two product lines to look at: Spirit and Serenity. The Spirit is more budget oriented, and the Serenity is higher-end and absolutely silent.
Here are some points that sold me on Puget (in no particular order):
- Lifetime, free tech support that is in-house, including Windows.
- Lifetime labor warranty (If you have to send your computer back to them, you pay for parts, labor is free)
- Excellent consulting. Tell them what you plan to do with your computer, and your budget, and they will help you configure a machine
- No hard sell: they do not push you to buy.
- No up-sell
- When you call, you speak to a real person
- E-mail messages are replied to with an hour, sometimes minutes
- They use only the highest quality parts. They qualify every part in-house before offering them in their builds
- Exhaustive burn-in testing, bench marking, and QC checks
- Shipping packaging that UPS can't hurt.
- The wiring and internal setup is clean and organized-almost artful
- They provide a binder with all the specs, manuals, and discs
- They give you a box with all spare parts like power cables, SATA cables, screws, etc.
- The best customer service I have found anywhere
Are their machines more expensive? Yes, but they are competitive with other custom builders.Highly recommended.
--P
I recently went with a laptop and additional monitors with an external hard drive array for storage. The last is something I've wanted to do for a long time to eliminate cord clutter. I poked around and decided to go with a gaming laptop. They don't have the display that the Macs do, but they're about 1/3 the price and I rarely process using the laptop display anyhow. The laptop I chose was an 17 inch ASUS with a relatively low resolution display (the 4K displays added a lot of cost). It runs Photoshop and Lightroom quite easily. One thing I did to modify it was to buy a tray that allows you to replace the DVD drive with an additional laptop hard drive. That added 2TB of internal storage. The tray came out of the Netherlands and had good instructions, so it was an easy swap.
Just following up. Did you find a machine that will work for you? If so, what did you get?
--P