Advice on what computer

inyourface

inyourface

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Now i have a bit of a dilemma.
I would like to buy a new computer but i dont know which one.
i will only be using it for surfing the net and photoshop or lightroom, now is a mac better than windows machine and would desktop be better than laptop.

my budget will be around £800-£1200

so what do you guys advice


cheers

mat
 
Basic recommendation is normally at least:

i5 quad
8-16gb ram
Ssd

Mac is no better than windows, period. in fact it seems windows may be better performing for Lightroom based on the recent ram or gpu thread.
 
my current laptop has
amd a10
12gig
thats all i know about it, tbh i think its more the screen, i could do with something with a bigger screen for ps
 
not struggling no, i had LR and ps open earlier and it was fine
it does have a hdmi port so i gues i just need monitor and lead then
 
I recommend finding a PC with a decent screen which appears to be harder then you would think. Dell tech have no idea what gamut is and will tell you their displays are all RGB. Try an HP? Mac pro has it all including price tag but I could never recommend going to the dark side.
My PC is quite old with a dual core 2.8ghz P intel, 8GB ram 750GB WD Black Scorpio and its fine running LR & PS together.
 
Hey man u can buy my PC as I am going to laptop :). He he a bit cheaky..

But my experience is that you need a decent CPU...around 8-16GB ram. Most importantly, fast SSD and a sata 3 mobo. And if you have 10bit screen then u need a firepro or quadro card.

And don't get Mac...if you want an apple go to your fruit store!
 
Peter69 said:
I recommend finding a PC with a decent screen which appears to be harder then you would think. Dell tech have no idea what gamut is and will tell you their displays are all RGB. Try an HP? Mac pro has it all including price tag but I could never recommend going to the dark side.
My PC is quite old with a dual core 2.8ghz P intel, 8GB ram 750GB WD Black Scorpio and its fine running LR & PS together.
Click to expand...
Can't vouch for the laptop displays but dells ips displays are widely used by photographers. The 2713 for example is adobe profiled and 120% gamut.
 
I think you'll run into problems trying to drive a 27" from an HDMI port. They normally can't handle the native resolution. As to needing a pro graphics card for a 10 bit monitor... No, you don't. The only time you need that is if you have a complete 10 bit workflow which includes the software. Light room - for example - is still only 8 bit.
 
Hi

Just got a new one myself

Its a HP unit from PCWorld they had on offer, i7 processor 16gb Ram and 2TB HD standard SATA not SSD

I use it mainly for Photoshop working with multiple 300gb plus TIFF files and it realy flys along without a hickup.

Paul
 
neil_g said:
Can't vouch for the laptop displays but dells ips displays are widely used by photographers. The 2713 for example is adobe profiled and 120% gamut.
Click to expand...

Have to be careful with HDMI here - most will only run up to 1080p which means any decent 27" is out of the question (this leaves 24" version), unless OP has displayport on his laptop
 
Peter69 said:
My PC is quite old with a dual core 2.8ghz P intel, 8GB ram 750GB WD Black Scorpio and its fine running LR & PS together.
Click to expand...

I use a 15" MacBook Pro core 2 duo 2.8GHz, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD and 1TB 7200 rpm storage HD (replaced the optical drive), similar spec to the quote above, along with a Dell IPS display. I have no issues running PS CS6 and LR5 processing raw files from my D7100. This is a 2009 model bought early 2010. I think too much emphasis is given to using the latest and greatest. A decent display is a higher priority for me.
 
It depends what your expectations are. My home PC is an overclocked (to 4.7G) quad core i7 with 16G and a pair of SSDs - one for O/S the other for data. I'm sure if I tried your system for editing, I'd find it painfully slow and want to throw it out the window.
 
If you want, you can probably get away with spending a fair chunk less than your budget and still speccing a perfectly good PC. I had a 16GB SSD-based i7 system built for me for £600 (no OS, no monitor) and could have shaved £100 by getting a more "sensible" processor. 8GB is enough for LR but I'd probably encourage 16GB for PS unless you're just using a handful of layers. If you want to build yourself you can probably get a monitor-free and OS-free setup for £400. £200 for monitor and OS combined and you're done for £600 or less.
 
neil_g said:
Basic recommendation is normally at least:


Mac is no better than windows, period. in fact it seems windows may be better performing for Lightroom based on the recent ram or gpu thread.
Click to expand...
apart from Mac has smaller colour bit rate then windows
 
pjm1 said:
If you want, you can probably get away with spending a fair chunk less than your budget and still speccing a perfectly good PC. I had a 16GB SSD-based i7 system built for me for £600 (no OS, no monitor) and could have shaved £100 by getting a more "sensible" processor. 8GB is enough for LR but I'd probably encourage 16GB for PS unless you're just using a handful of layers. If you want to build yourself you can probably get a monitor-free and OS-free setup for £400. £200 for monitor and OS combined and you're done for £600 or less.
Click to expand...
£400 might be a stretch
1) decent i5 4th gen is around £180 new entry level £130
2) entry i7 £200
3) decent motherboard £60+
4) 250gb SSD £80 but 512gb is probably better that's £150
5) PSU £60-80 maybe you cab use the existing in his PC
6) PC case another £30
7) graphics card...£60-80 assuming for photo editing only.
8) Ram 8GB - £60, 16GB -£150

So that 400 quid budget is gonna be thrown out quite quickly unless some exising computer bits are reused or a heavily second hand market sourcing.

Also a decent monitor for £200 might difficult. Dell u2413 goes for more than that on eBay...

If you want 27inch then I would love to have one at that price :)
 
Last edited:
daugirdas said:
Have to be careful with HDMI here - most will only run up to 1080p which means any decent 27" is out of the question (this leaves 24" version), unless OP has displayport on his laptop
Click to expand...


HDMI 1.3a can support up to 2560x1600

Check your GPU and cable specs.
 
ricky1980 said:
£400 might be a stretch
1) decent i5 4th gen is around £180 new entry level £130
2) entry i7 £200
3) decent motherboard £60+
4) 250gb SSD £80 but 512gb is probably better that's £150
5) PSU £60-80 maybe you cab use the existing in his PC
6) PC case another £30
7) graphics card...£60-80 assuming for photo editing only.
8) Ram 8GB - £60, 16GB -£150

So that 400 quid budget is gonna be thrown out quite quickly unless some exising computer bits are reused or a heavily second hand market sourcing.

Also a decent monitor for £200 might difficult. Dell u2413 goes for more than that on eBay...

If you want 27inch then I would love to have one at that price :)
Click to expand...

It might indeed be a stretch if you decide to go for non-entry level stuff and somewhat unnecessary things like a huge 0.5TB SSD and graphics card (if photo editing only then there's absolutely no need for a separate GPU). And it's not a budget, it's a target I suggested... the budget is actually £800-1200, going back to the OP.

i5 Processor / mobo / 16GB bundles are pretty keenly priced especially if you avoid Haswell refresh - something like a 4440. As you say, 250GB SSD works (I've actually got 120GB and it's fine), PSU + Case can be bargain basement branded if not overclocking (just avoid no name PSUs). I reckon ex monitor and OS and you're talking sub £450 from "standard" places like Amazon, Scan, Ebuyer etc. That includes a 1TB second internal drive and that could easily be trimmed by going for 120GB SSD (the same as I'm using pretty effectively) and/or 8GB RAM (my usage doesn't often go above that, TBH).

It is the OP's money and if he/she would prefer to spend more and get a higher specced system then that is their choice entirely - and not for us to say whether they're right or wrong. It just surprises me at the moment the relative quality kit you can spec for a lot less than the budget. I could very easily spec a £4k system as well, but I'd suggest the performance enhancement vs a £400+ system used for a bit of photo editing wouldn't be earth shattering.
 
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