new machine....

[snappysi]

Hi all,
I am getting more and more work lately so im looking into getting a new machine that will be used solely for photoshop and lightroom. My question is a simple one that i thought some of you may have insight into and could share. My query is should i go laptop or desktop. i have never had a laptop, so that would be new to me, and not sure if required. I do have a tablet that i find useful for portable things that i need to do, but would a laptop realy be useful as far as portability goes....
Any thoughts as to your own experiences would be welcomed....
If it helps, i am leaning towards sticking with desktop....and windows based, not Mac.
TIA

Simon.

[MissionMan]

I have a laptop and I find it incredible useful but I travel a lot so I'm different. My wife on the other hand could live with a desktop.

If budget is important, a desktop will give you more power per $ hands down. If you have the budget, you can get incredibly powerful laptops that will almost match desktop performance.

[Solstafir]

I find editing photos etc on a laptop tedious with the smaller screen, non ease of use of a mouse or tablet (unless you stick it on a desk...in which case....). Having said that I still do use a laptop for travel etc. but the main workhorse photography wise is the iMac, the larger screen, permanently set up backup drives, wacom tablet etc make it much easier for me to work productively without frustration.

[MissionMan]

Agree with the comments on the screen size and if you do go for a laptop, I'd invest in a 24" screen. They are fairly cheap these days.

[JJM]

I would agree with what the others have said, desktops will give better performance per $ spent. I have a laptop for work (Not photography) and I have photoshop etc installed on it but will only use it when I have to. Much prefer working on my desktop with the larger/better screen and better performance

But don't go with a off the shelf PC from Harvey Norman etc!! Get a custom built machine from a proper computer store, if you need any help drop me a message as I am reasonably local to you.

[Burrster]

I'd go desktop unless you have a need for mobility. AS others have said, better bang for buck. I'd recommend an SSD and HDD combo too for speed reasons.( and lots of ram etc.... )

[MrQ]

Get a laptop. Yes, a desktop will give you more bang for buck but it's not portable at all. You also get a lot of bang in some of the modern laptops (at a higher price). You can easily add a larger monitor for use at home. Using a mouse, tablet, etc. is dead simple on laptops too. If portability is even remotely of interest then a laptop is the only option.

Don't discount the Macs either. I'm a longtime anti-Apple person but recently got a Macbook Pro. Photoshop and Lightroom work exactly the same way (other than different names for the Ctrl/Alt keys) as they do on Windows and if you're on Adobe CC you don't even need to pay any extra for the Mac version. The rest of the Mac operating system has some quirks that seem odd after long time Windows use, but nothing that has made using it difficult.

[snappysi]

thanks for all the replies everyone.. Im not in a hurry just yet and thought i had decided on a desktop. i have however in the last day made quite a few bookings in Adelaide for photography work that may turn into a few trips down that way hopefully, so now im thinking the laptop may be of benefit so that i can download shoots straight into the comp. Seems like a good option as far as security goes in being able to back them up straight away rather than keep them on cards till i get home ?????

If i went this way i would keep my good screen and connect to it for editing at my desk. I cant see myself editing on a smallish screen. ( In comparison to what i look at now ) Either way my main goal would be a system with lots of ram... does anyone see a reason to go over 16 ??? i still want to keep the cost reasonable... 16 gig of ram in a laptop is going to cost from what i have seen in my brief browsing.... does anyone use less and find it to be ok ??/

Thanks

Simon

[peterb666]

I have a laptop and use it with a 24" screen for editing. Can use both the laptop screen and the monitor at the same time as an extended desktop. Works a treat. I find the laptop essential for processing while travelling.

[ktoopi]

I have both a laptop and desktop.......I would go desktop all the way as I find it a complete pain in the butt using the smaller screen of my laptop for editing. I only use my desktop for editing and use my laptop for surfing the net, facebook, ausphotography etc although on the rare occasion I need to edit on the run I put up with my laptop

[MrQ]

16GB of RAM should be fine - for laptop or desktop. You could get away with 8GB if the price is an issue, but you'd probably regret it.

[torro]

Have a MacBook Pro, 15 inch, 16 gig ram. This works well with nikon d800 large raw files. I'd also second 24 inch monitor.

[wideangle]

Just upgraded to a new PC and wouldn't consider a laptop unless you want to spend a lot more and portability is key to your workflow as you can get a lot more bang for your buck. I would highly recommend getting an SSD for your operating system drive (photoshop/lightroom etc on it) and a traditional HDD to store and work on your photos. Most motherboards these days have inbuilt graphics so you wouldn't have to fork out for a dedicated graphcis card. An Intel core I5 processer would be a good balance between performance and price. 16GB of RAM with the room on the motherboard to upgrade to more if needed in the future would be good too. All up you could spend around $1200 on the setup (minus screen) or cheaper if you are confident in building yourself. Also remember to get a 64BIT version of Windows if you are using this as an OS to take full advantage of accessing all your RAM.

[ameerat42]

Yep, a Yes, or No decision (or is that NOPE?).

Japes aside, Simon, I got a pretty powerful laptop just for the processability to go with the portability.

Whatever you get, make sure you have a couple of decent SSDs inside as well as the likes of a pretty good Core-I7.
Add some USB3 external drives to that so that you don't bottleneck it all up. (Leave screen considerations to you but at least
a full HD display.)

Bon chance!
Am.