desktop computers for photography?

[rebeccayhb]

my TOSHIBA laptop is dying..and I've been using it for almost 6 years by now...
my husband is going to get me a new one but I told him I'd rather get a desktop since I don't travel that much...

would anybody give me some suggestions? thank you so much!

 

[Dao]

Hoping this thread will not turn into PC vs Mac type thread that we had once in awhile.

 

[bigtwinky]

I assume your main goal is for photography? Then the main things you need to look at are:

- high amount of RAM. 4GB at the lowest, more is better
- high amount of hard drive space. 1TB or more.
- high quality monitor. Crappy monitors will affect the colours and such of your images. With this, an image calibration software such as the Spyder3 Pro

This applies to Mac or PC.

You should also think about a backup solution for your images. It can be as plain as a secondary internal hard drive, or an external hard drive you copy your images to. I had a hard drive crash, non recoverable, and lost a huge chunk of images.

 

[KmH]

Quad 64-bit processor
Video card with 2 monitor outputs and a GPU with at least 1 GB on memory for OpenGL capability.
An IPS monitor (not TN)
2 monitors is better for image editing (image on 1 screen, tools and pallets on screen #2).
A minimum of 500 GB of internal storage space, preferably 2 internal 500 GB hard drives (1TB), and at least 1 external 500 GB hard drive.
Plenty of fans to keep everything cool and a big enough power supply to run it all.

47 USB ports and 14 Firewire ports.

 

[bigtwinky]

47 USB ports and 14 Firewire ports.

I laugh, but this will probably be true in a few years

 

[robertwsimpson]

shrug

I edit my photos on a computer with a dual core 1.8ghz processor, 2 gig of ram, dell monitor, and it has a blue light on the front, which I think helps.

 

[Dao]

Will 46 ports works?

BTW, when will the USB 3.0 stuff is going to be available?

 

[robertwsimpson]

I think when the iPhone 4g comes out.

 

[rebeccayhb]

Hoping this thread will not turn into PC vs Mac type thread that we had once in awhile.

haha I hope not! I can't afford to get a MAC right now.

 

[rebeccayhb]

I assume your main goal is for photography? Then the main things you need to look at are:

- high amount of RAM. 4GB at the lowest, more is better
- high amount of hard drive space. 1TB or more.
- high quality monitor. Crappy monitors will affect the colours and such of your images. With this, an image calibration software such as the Spyder3 Pro

This applies to Mac or PC.

You should also think about a backup solution for your images. It can be as plain as a secondary internal hard drive, or an external hard drive you copy your images to. I had a hard drive crash, non recoverable, and lost a huge chunk of images.

thank you so much for your info!I'm not a computer geek type girl..so I don't know much about it! my husband takes care of things like this..but apparently I'll have to learn quick!
and yes I need to have a computer for photography, I already bought a good LG monitor, so now I just need to get a tower.
I'll look on the features you suggested

 

[rebeccayhb]

Quad 64-bit processor
Video card with 2 monitor outputs and a GPU with at least 1 GB on memory for OpenGL capability.
An IPS monitor (not TN)
2 monitors is better for image editing (image on 1 screen, tools and pallets on screen #2).
A minimum of 500 GB of internal storage space, preferably 2 internal 500 GB hard drives (1TB), and at least 1 external 500 GB hard drive.
Plenty of fans to keep everything cool and a big enough power supply to run it all.

47 USB ports and 14 Firewire ports.

wow...this is a lot of tech words...um...
I really need to catch up on computer learning..

 

[rebeccayhb]

shrug

I edit my photos on a computer with a dual core 1.8ghz processor, 2 gig of ram, dell monitor, and it has a blue light on the front, which I think helps.

thank you! anything will help! for I'm such a computer know-nothing!

 

[KmH]

Quad 64-bit processor A computer processes information in "words". Until recently those words were 32-bits long. Newer computers can process words twice as long 64-bits which makes them somewhat more capable. 64-bit processors are the new standard. Just a short time ago Dual processors were the new thing. It's now Quads (4).
Video card with 2 monitor outputs and a GPU with at least 1 GB on memory for OpenGL capability. Photoshop, begining with CS4 can use some of the memory on the Graphics Processing Unit, a separate computer on the videoo card. That capability enables features heretofor unavailable.
An IPS monitor (not TN). This is about the technology that makes the display, display. TN (Twisted Nematics) monitors are inexpensive but they have very limited viewing angles and cannot be calibrated as precisely as IPS (In-Plane Switching - TFT LCD - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
2 monitors is better for image editing (image on 1 screen, tools and pallets on screen #2).
A minimum of 500 GB of internal storage space, preferably 2 internal 500 GB hard drives (1TB), and at least 1 external 500 GB hard drive. Photographs are big as far as data files go, though video files are larger. An editing workflow that insures against the loss of precious irreplaceable photographs results in multiple copies of a photograph: original, edited, and output. Plus, again related to the way image editing software works, it speeds the editing process up if there is plenty of internal "scratch disk space".
Plenty of fans to keep everything cool and a big enough power supply to run it all. Heat is the #1 killer of electronics. Insufficient power is the #2 killer of electronics.

47 USB ports and 14 Firewire ports. You can never have to many auxiliary ports for plugging in any plthora of consumer electronic products.

wow...this is a lot of tech words...um...
I really need to catch up on computer learning..

Yep, sounds like you're about 10 years behind, and the rate at which it advances is speeding up.

 

[rebeccayhb]

wow...this is a lot of tech words...um...
I really need to catch up on computer learning..

Yep, sounds like you're about 10 years behind, and the rate at which it advances is speeding up. [/QUOTE]

I started playing with photography stuff two years ago when this TOSHIBA worked just fine. now it's starting to have different problems everyday, I realize I not only need to change a computer, also I need to learn about all the tech stuff!

big thanks to you for your explanation!!!

 

[icassell]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I have similar interests. My situation is that I don't want to over-buy on a tower that is going to be entirely for photographic use. I currently use my laptop with dock and outboard IPS monitor, but I use the laptop for lots of things including work and I want to dedicate a computer to my hobby. What do you folks think I need to last me for the next couple of years (I already have two 2TB outboard USB drives, two 500MB outboard drives and a good IPS monitor)?

How much RAM?
Processor Speed?
Quad 4 or 6 core (going to run Windows 7 Pro).

Looking at a Dell XPS 7100 with an AMD 6 Core and 8 GB, but do I really need anwhere near that much? I get the feeling I could do very well with a lot less. I really don't want to build a machine myself and I get good prices from Dell through an employee purchase plan.

Currently using CS5, LR3, Photomatix, Genuine Fractals 6 and shoot entirely in RAW with my 7D (with file sizes in the 25 MB range per image)

Thanks.

I