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Skylar McMahon View Drop Down
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    Posted: January/25/2016 at 08:31

Recently I purchase Adobe Lightroom, and as I tried to load it on my computer at home, it gave me an error that my OS is out of date and the software will not work.


After talking with others about this, I have come to the conclusion that MAC would be the next solution for processing photos and ect...


So...after looking at them, there are several to choose from, which do I opt for?

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rancid Coolaid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 09:19
First and foremost, I am no professional photographer or professional photo editor.  But I do edit photos on my computer, and have had best results with lots (and LOTS) of RAM and processor speed.

If you plan to buy a computer that will have the singular purpose of photo editing (and you are comfortable with Mac) then go that route.  If the computer will be doing multiple tasks, I'd say stick with the one that does them all well.

I hate Mac file system, I've run Windows boxes since Win3.1 and just know the way they work.  I've had a few Macs and tried to love them, I just don't.  All hardware being equal, they are faster; but all hardware isn't equal.  

If your computer is a powerhouse with an older operating system, why not just upgrade your OS?  
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote supertool73 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 09:35
What OS you got Sky?

I have used lightroom just fine and Windows 7, Home Server 2011, Server 2012 and Windows 8 and 8.1.

Also when it says out of date, it could just mean you need to get current on windows updates.  If you are running 7 there is a service pack one that unless you have it, lots of software will not install. 
Lifetime warranty and excellent customer service don't mean a thing when your gun fails during a zombie attack.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Skylar McMahon Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 09:37

Sadly it is no powerhouse. Only got it years ago for regular everyday things, like email, forums, ect..

It's been a fair machine. But after getting in Photography and now toying with videos, I have learned that I am handicapped.



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Skylar McMahon Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 09:37

It's Vista. The worst OS I have ever used.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote supertool73 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 09:40
ohh, yeah vista sucks.  If your specs are good enough you can upgrade from vista to 8.1 and probably 10 for that matter.

What you got under the hood? 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote supertool73 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 09:43
you will spend twice the money for a Mac.  But they are great machines for photos and video.  My sister is a Macaholic and would never go back to PC.  But Lightroom works just as good on a PC. 
Lifetime warranty and excellent customer service don't mean a thing when your gun fails during a zombie attack.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Skylar McMahon Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 09:43
I may have to call you tonight and see where to look that information up. I have never done anything like that. Prior to this one, I had Windows XP, wich I really enjoyed, but then we went with a new tower that had Vista on it and I have not liked it honestly.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote supertool73 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 09:56
Please feel free to.  Would be happy to help.

As far as looking it up, its pretty slick.  Just right click "Computer" or "My computer" (what ever it is called in vista.  Then go to properties.  It should bring up a page that has your PC name, OS version, Processor, and Memory on it. 
Lifetime warranty and excellent customer service don't mean a thing when your gun fails during a zombie attack.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Skylar McMahon Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 09:57

I will check out and PM you ST.


Rancid, thank you for your input as well.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rancid Coolaid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 11:17
You need horsepower for photo and video, and that means no on-board video, no shared memory, etc.

And computers, PC or Mac, cost more than the "do everything okay" variety.

As with optics, what is your budget?
What other uses?
What monitor you have?
"Needs" and "wants"?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Kickboxer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 11:36
Originally posted by Skylar McMahon Skylar McMahon wrote:

I will check out and PM you ST.


Rancid, thank you for your input as well.

Macintosh OS is what Windows, and others, poorly tries to duplicate.  The latest OS upgrade, El Capitan, (upgrade to Yosemite) significantly improves speed, especially with photo processing.  You have access to iCloud for photo storage... quite extensive. 

Get the iMac with 4GHz processor, 27 inch monitor (beautiful), and max out the internal memory.  Then, I suggest spend some time with your Mac Store learning how to use it.  I've just done the upgrades on my iMac, but have not spent the time to learn the new features.  It comes with fairly extensive photo processing tools, but, once again, I've not "hit the books" on how to use the great features, yet.  Started to, got sidetracked.  GIMP, Pixen, Pixelmator are all FREE 'add ons" to Apple Photo... which is Mac's free "Photoshop" upstart.  My opinion... Photoshop is the best out there... was initially and still is, but you can get DANG close with the free stuff from Apple and its minions.  Free can be quite useful. 

I don't do photo editing like I used to... not doing detailed government tech manuals anymore, but nothing beats Mac in the photo manipulation world.  In the not too distant past (about 10 years ago), a company in this area in competition with a Japanese consortium built the world's fastest supercomputer out of networked Mac G5's... at 20% the cost of the Japanese competitor.  Received high usage from the supercomputer user world for quite some time.  We ran a number of hyper-codes on it in record times, cutting weeks to hours, hours to mere seconds.  Of course, parallelizing code became important for those endeavors. 

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote supertool73 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 11:43
Modern on board video is fine for photos/lightroom, Photos are not very taxing on the graphics dept. unless you are using a 40" 4K monitor or something crazy like that, and even then your just putting one picture on the screen at a time, so its really not a big deal. 

For videos yes I agree a dedicated card would be better and is probably a must.  But 3d rendering is a whole different ball game than pictures.  And even then the modern CPUs with built in GPUs are pretty neat and can run recent games pretty well.  So unless you are a hard core video editor no need to go crazy in the video dept either 

With photos, memory is where it really matters.  That way you can have a bunch of huge resolution pictures open at the same time and not have to buffer to your hard drive. 

Lightroom 5 recommends 8 gigs.  My wifes PC has 8 gigs and she has no issues with lag so far.  I would probably get 16 gigs though.  It should only cost you $50 more for the upgrade. 

Processor wise, they are so powerful today any decent one will work.  I would suggest a intell core i5 or a similar AMD.  With AMDs you get 90%+ of the performance for often times half the cost. 

A solid state hard drive would also be a huge benefit.  You get 500% more performance out of one of those over a traditional hard drive.  For pictures or video they make a huge huge difference. 

Mostly just remember you are just editing photos.  You don't need a super computer for that.  No need to spend $2000 or more.  A decent mid priced computer that is customized for your needs will do what you are wanting just fine. 

 
Lifetime warranty and excellent customer service don't mean a thing when your gun fails during a zombie attack.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rancid Coolaid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 12:36
Originally posted by supertool73 supertool73 wrote:



Mostly just remember you are just editing photos.  You don't need a super computer for that.  No need to spend $2000 or more.  A decent mid priced computer that is customized for your needs will do what you are wanting just fine. 

 

I disagree: if a supercomputer can do the work 2X faster for only 5X more money, it'd be stupid not to go for it.  Go big or go home, I say.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote supertool73 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 13:12
haha.  That would be a sweet setup.

A fellow local IT guy has a 5 monitor setup in his office.  It is awesome. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Kickboxer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 13:48

The most high-end configuration of the XPS One 27 costs $2,599, with 16GB of RAM and a 32GB solid-state hybrid hard-drive upgrade.

27inch iMac with Retina 5K display (Apple’s newest iMac has the best display ever on a computing device. techcrunch)

4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
16GB memory | 2TB Fusion Drive
Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz

AMD Radeon R9 M395 with 2GB of GDDR5
Apple Magic Keyboard | Magic Mouse 2

2699.00

I'll take the Mac, any day...

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mike650 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 13:51
Didn't MAC (Apple) change their hardware to be more like a PC?  Wink

I have Lightroom running on both a MAC Air and multiple PC's (windows 7 and 10) and it works fine on both platforms. Get that Vista crap off your PC and upgrade to at least windows 7. Your hardware is probably dated and challenged (slow) when running certain programs, video, etc. You're better off getting a new PC or laptop if you're going to stay with Windows.

MAC graphics are hard to beat and the device itself is very easy to use, their business plan was to target kids in school and the elderly which they have with great success, years later the kids kids kids are now learning on MAC's. With that said I don't care for MAC/Apple's proprietary approach with software and cables. They're way over priced (very expensive for what I'd get) and you better decide how much RAM, etc. you want up front because you can't upgrade it later like a PC. Don't get me wrong, MAC's are very very nice.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote supertool73 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 14:11
I bet that 5k monitor is amazing. 

Other than the monitor, spec wise the Apple is no better.  Fusion drive is just a hybrid drive.  Just apples name for it.  The Radeon is not even that high end with only 2gig memory. 

If a guy done it himself he could build that same Dell with 27" 4k for $1500ish.  Computers are kind of like ARs.  Super easy to build and setup. 
Lifetime warranty and excellent customer service don't mean a thing when your gun fails during a zombie attack.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Kickboxer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 14:36

Originally posted by mike650 mike650 wrote:

Didn't MAC (Apple) change their hardware to be more like a PC?  Wink

I have Lightroom running on both a MAC Air and multiple PC's (windows 7 and 10) and it works fine on both platforms. Get that Vista crap off your PC and upgrade to at least windows 7. Your hardware is probably dated and challenged (slow) when running certain programs, video, etc. You're better off getting a new PC or laptop if you're going to stay with Windows.

MAC graphics are hard to beat and the device itself is very easy to use, their business plan was to target kids in school and the elderly which they have with great success, years later the kids kids kids are now learning on MAC's. With that said I don't care for MAC/Apple's proprietary approach with software and cables. They're way over priced (very expensive for what I'd get) and you better decide how much RAM, etc. you want up front because you can't upgrade it later like a PC. Don't get me wrong, MAC's are very very nice.



They've for a long time pretty much used the same processor

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Kickboxer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/25/2016 at 14:38

Originally posted by supertool73 supertool73 wrote:

I bet that 5k monitor is amazing. 

Other than the monitor, spec wise the Apple is no better.  Fusion drive is just a hybrid drive.  Just apples name for it.  The Radeon is not even that high end with only 2gig memory. 

If a guy done it himself he could build that same Dell with 27" 4k for $1500ish.  Computers are kind of like ARs.  Super easy to build and setup. 

but they have the fake OS... windows

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