** Back to the dark side **

[Atlas]

Hey Guys,

Back in the day of 286/386 computers I used to build them myself, had some wonderful ones over the years.... 

For the 5 Yrs I have been using an MSI gamer laptop, which has served well for my photography work. But after the problems I have had with backups etc and the MSI is literally falling apart I thought I might look at a PC again. 

Trouble is I have been out of the loop soooo long I have no idea what I need. 

I need space, lots of space, heaps of RAM and a good separate graphics card. 

No idea what I number they are even up to now.

Is it practical to get all SSD hard drives ? Or maybe too expensive. 

I guess I am after the minimum specs of today's machines that will suit using Photoshop and Lightroom, my 2 go to programs. 

Any advice appreciated

 

[article22]

If you don't need to play games, then you might be ok with a desktop otherwise get another laptop.

Graphics cards above RTX 3060 are too expensive here.

 

I got this laptop which is very powerful and great for editing or games...

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/legion-laptops/legion-5-series/legion-5-pro-16ach6h/wmd00000468

I got it from Lazada for 53k baht

https://www.lazada.co.th/catalog/?q=LENOVO+LEGION+5+PRO

Get one with the better screen (2560x1600 IPS) and greater than the RTX 3050 (which is crap)

 

If you look at buying the Nvidia RTX 3070 card then you are paying *the* same amount as for the entire laptop!

If you do decide to build a desktop then always get at least 1 SSD or else it will run like a dog...

 

Basic specs are:

a. New CPU (AMD has more bigger cores and use less energy, Intel has faster single core speed but less efficient) - more cores are better for video and photo editing in general for my pick would be an AMD R7 CPU with 16+ cores

b. Min 16 GB DDR4 ram, if video editing then aim for 64 GB (make sure your motherboard supports it)

c. Min 256 GB SSD for installed the Operating System and apps on it

d. Second drive, either HDD if storing films or SSD if need fast video editing

e. Decent Power Supply (very important! easy to skimp and buy crap and it will cause issues and drive you nuts!)

f. If in Thailand then get a decent UPS! Very important here with the number of power cuts...a laptop has one built in

I have a 1200W one, loads of options... APC are the leader but expensive https://www.lazada.co.th/catalog/?q=1200W+ups

 

If you need a hand building it, then call @dragonrider I hate building the bloody things now!!

[Atlas]

Thanks mate.

Desktop I think as I want some hard drives for backup

I am over external drives dying 

[stacksreg123]

Discard basically anything that guy said.

Laptop vs desktop is a question of your mobility needs. You will always have sub par performance on a laptop at the same price point of the desktop.

Biggest price point is graphics card. If you don't play video games or render intense stuff, you should be ok with onboard graphics from modern CPUs.

As for storage, how much are we talking? And do you really need it all offline? SSD got cheap, so 1TB is available at a decent price, but if you're looking at massive storage then you'll be best off in the cloud. Google drive Unlimited is 10$ a month e.g..

[article22]

32 minutes ago, stacksreg123 said:

Discard basically anything that guy said.

Laptop vs desktop is a question of your mobility needs. You will always have sub par performance on a laptop at the same price point of the desktop.

Biggest price point is graphics card. If you don't play video games or render intense stuff, you should be ok with onboard graphics from modern CPUs.

As for storage, how much are we talking? And do you really need it all offline? SSD got cheap, so 1TB is available at a decent price, but if you're looking at massive storage then you'll be best off in the cloud. Google drive Unlimited is 10$ a month e.g..

You didnt read what @Atlas wanted then...try reading next time.

1. Using Photoshop and Lightroom means that he needs a discrete graphics card plus the OP states that he wants one

https://liamalexcolman.net/2020/10/08/analysing-rtx-3080-and-rtx-3090-benchmarks-for-creative-applications/

2. You obviously have no idea the price of graphics cards now, or else you wouldn't say anything...given that you can buy a RTX 3070 laptop for the price of just the graphics card here in Thailand, then a laptop is viable.

3. Most design guys do not use offline storage as the files are simply too large, once you get over 40-50 TB, then offline storage is not viable. So he needs large HDDs...

 

[stacksreg123]

The mobile version of a GPU does not have the same computational capabilities of it's desktop counter parts, so anything I said is still correct.

So because offline storage is not viable he should buy HDDs to use in offline storage? Makes no sense.

HDDs are cheaper then SSDs but without knowing what numbers we're talking about it's irrelevant..

[Atlas]

Thanks guys

I have about 7TB of external hard drives, 2 copies across them

Mostly photos and video 

I have an MSI gamers laptop that has done well but the heat has not been kind to it...

Will have a look at tukcom tomorrow to see what is around 

[w1lly]

Hi Atlas. A lot has happened the last 5 years. I have good news for you. If your main use is photo and video editing the obvious choice is a new Mac laptop with some version of the m1 processor. These machines excel in processing video and photography. They basically work miracles even with modest amounts of ram. No need for the old noisy intel CPU’s with discrete graphics cards that waste most of the power on producing heat. Mac’s are not optimised for gaming though. So if you also use you computer for that you need to look elsewhere. I switched to a MacBook Air m1 last year. That’s the entry level model and it is running rings around even my old desktop pc which cost a fortune just a few years ago. It’s also dead silent due to using a heat sink instead of a fan. You have to experience it to appreciate it I guess. The battery lasts for 15 hours and it does not seem to drop the performance even when unplugged. Best machine I’ve ever had. Just type “photoshop on MacBook Air” in YouTube to get plenty of reviews. The should give you an idea wether you might need the pro version.

Also the resale value on Mac’s is quite good. An old intel laptop you can’t even give away for free.heaps of ram and discrete graphics card is fortunately a thing of the past now. New SOC architectures provide huge advantages in performance.

Edited March 23, 2022 by w1lly

[ChiFlyer]

An alternative view.

What a person needs is very much dependent on what a person needs to address. I speak not against the Apple product line, but I came of age over my 50 year IT career as an MSFT guy. The company I worked for was a business partner with both MSFT and IBM. I have decades of personally developed apps within these product lines that work very well for me.

I am not a gamer, but I carry .5 TB of video files (no not porn, but rather movies and TV shows that I want to see) at any given point of time. I also have a need for high speed internet connections to support my video downloads and uploads, as well as business transactions.

While in the US last October I purchased a light weight (no DVD drive so it weighs about 1 kg (great for travel)) Lenovo with high end CPU power, 32 GB of Memory, and 1 TB of SSD. It cost about $2700 USD. I could not be happier with it given my needs.

@Atlas given your higher end (7 TB I think you said) backup needs, I think you should look at a Cloud backup option, such as Google Drive.

[Atlas]

9 hours ago, w1lly said:

Hi Atlas. A lot has happened the last 5 years. I have good news for you. If your main use is photo and video editing the obvious choice is a new Mac laptop with some version of the m1 processor. These machines excel in processing video and photography. They basically work miracles even with modest amounts of ram. No need for the old noisy intel CPU’s with discrete graphics cards that waste most of the power on producing heat. Mac’s are not optimised for gaming though. So if you also use you computer for that you need to look elsewhere. I switched to a MacBook Air m1 last year. That’s the entry level model and it is running rings around even my old desktop pc which cost a fortune just a few years ago. It’s also dead silent due to using a heat sink instead of a fan. You have to experience it to appreciate it I guess. The battery lasts for 15 hours and it does not seem to drop the performance even when unplugged. Best machine I’ve ever had. Just type “photoshop on MacBook Air” in YouTube to get plenty of reviews. The should give you an idea wether you might need the pro version.

Also the resale value on Mac’s is quite good. An old intel laptop you can’t even give away for free.heaps of ram and discrete graphics card is fortunately a thing of the past now. New SOC architectures provide huge advantages in performance.

Hi Mate,

I have never considered a Mac. I have not kept up with them at all but what I remember was it was always more expensive and limited in software. Of course that was years ago. 

Also, at my age I am not sure I want to learn a whole new system, but never say never. 

I could keep my current machine if I could get it fixed, I was not exaggerating when I said the heat was killing it ! 

[Atlas]

8 hours ago, ChiFlyer said:

given your higher end (7 TB I think you said) backup needs, I think you should look at a Cloud backup option, such as Google Drive.

Do you have a model number and was the RAM and Drive standard or upgrade ? 

 

I have not checked into the price yet mate, but I am thinking that would cost a lot..... 

Was much easier back in the day putting your 6x4s in an album

 

Edited March 24, 2022 by Atlas

[ChiFlyer]

26 minutes ago, Atlas said:

Do you have a model number and was the RAM and Drive standard or upgrade ? 

 

I have not checked into the price yet mate, but I am thinking that would cost a lot..... 

Was much easier back in the day putting your 6x4s in an album

 

It was $2700 USD in the states last October. The Ram and Drive were not upgrades.

The model I purchased is no longer available at the seller site, but this one seems close.

https://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1264422&CatId=11871

The main difference appears to be that this one has a touch screen, which I was not interested in.

[w1lly]

10 hours ago, Atlas said:

Hi Mate,

I have never considered a Mac. I have not kept up with them at all but what I remember was it was always more expensive and limited in software. Of course that was years ago. 

Also, at my age I am not sure I want to learn a whole new system, but never say never. 

I could keep my current machine if I could get it fixed, I was not exaggerating when I said the heat was killing it ! 

After working in IT as a professional for 25 years I thought I’d seen it all. But must admit that fix is a first for me, fantastic stuff 😁. Sure it’s a little work changing from windows. Some things will seem infuriating but once you realise you can get everything done just I sometimes in a different way than what you’re used to you will be ok. With the new architecture on apple silicon they threw out the rule book. No longer can you judge a machine based on a gigantic cpu and huge stacks of ram. They work wonders with even modest machines. I just watched some YouTube videos to get the basics and it did not really take long to figure it out. Also it’s posix compatible so you have a terminal window to perform a multitude of tasks if you are familiar with Linux and such. But I certainly do understand that the path of least resistance would be an already familiar system, also a plethora of decent windows laptops available at good prices.

[Atlas]

1 hour ago, w1lly said:

After working in IT as a professional for 25 years I thought I’d seen it all. But must admit that fix is a first for me, fantastic stuff 😁

Always thinking outside the box 🤣

[w1lly]

4 hours ago, Atlas said:

Always thinking outside the box 🤣

Maybe you could take the screen completely of. And just connect an external screen on the hdmi port. Then your laptop could function as a desktop and a keyboard 🥸

Edited March 24, 2022 by w1lly