Which Laptop or Desktop for Photo Editing

kevinp

kevinp

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kevin
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Hello Everyone. Looking for a decent PC for photos. something preferably around the 5 hundred pound mark. Gonna get it on Finance from Currys / PC World.
I am by no means a professional, but want something to edit my photos and make them better etc. so just looking at something that has enough memory, graphics etc that will meet my needs.
Can only get on finance from above shop. So could anyone recommend any of them.
Thanks Kevin
 
Don't buy from them! Loads of places offer finance, even the Apple Store.

What about PayPal? They do PayPal credit which is interest free for 4 months I believe if you spend more than £150. Then you can buy from anywhere that accepts PayPal.

Honestly, currys, dixons, PC world is the last place you should buy something.

I personally love scan.co.uk they do finance too.

I can't suggest what to buy other than get a decent screen and as much ram as you can get. You can always upgrade storage at a later date.
 
I'd echo that except to say that unless you are doing mega video editing or having lots of massive TIFFs open then 8gb of RAM is actually plenty and RAM is much easier than a hard drive to upgrade (although it is very easy to add an HD).

A good screen is vital.
 
gremlin16 said:
I personally love scan.co.uk they do finance too.
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Until something goes wrong and they tell you to stick it. I was warned, I did not heed the advice and learned the lesson many years ago, Never again.
 
I've never had any trouble with them and I have bought LOADS of gear from them over the years.

I have to agree with your comment though as I have heard they can be fussy with returns.
 
I bought loads of stuff too (probably back in the 1990s now) till the one time it went wrong. Since then I would rather pay a bit more. It was not a big expense the item(s) that were in dispute, no dent to me but a lesson all the same.
 
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I would generally agree PC world etc are not the place for a bargain. However, every now and again they put something decent in a sale so don't write them off 100%, but probably only buy from them if you know exactly what you're doing and what your getting.

I would say though, RAM is useful but cheap to buy and easy to upgrade, a good processor is pretty vital as you're stuck with it and matched with a good Graphics card will give you the best results in PS.

This sort of thing would get you through for under £400:
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/hewl...6-15.6-inch-windows-10-la-x0p69es/version.asp

if you could stretch to £600 this would work well for photoshop
http://www.ebuyer.com/748760-msi-gl62-6qd-gaming-laptop-9s7-16j612-409

This would also be reasonable and within budget
http://www.very.co.uk/hp-15-ba010na...rosoft-office-365-ndash-silver/1600128527.prd

It's all about comparing and comparing. It's a long job to find the absolute best laptop for your money but that should give you a good idea.

Desktops are much easier:

Buy a desktop with an i5 or i7 processor for around £300 (similar to this http://www.ebuyer.com/735873-zoostorm-origin-desktop-pc-7260-3046)
buy a graphics card for £150 (like this one http://www.ebuyer.com/761924-gigabyte-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-ti-windforce-oc-4gb-gv-n105twf2oc-4gd)
Buy extra ram if needed with the remaining £50 (http://www.ebuyer.com/633804-hyperx-fury-white-8gb-1866mhz-ddr3-cl10-dimm-memory-hx318c10fw-8)

Note: If you aren't a techy - I haven't sense checked the above components for compatibility so please don't just buy the above and put them together, they might not work or fit.

Or if your not a PC builder, you could buy a ready to go pc ... http://www.ebuyer.com/744466-acer-aspire-tc-220-desktop-dt-sxrek-035

An SSD would make things load quicker so if you can find a machine with that too thats an improvement. But the Processor and graphics card are what will allow Photoshop to run smoothly, especially when zooming/panning around/etc.
Obviously a good screen is important, they are easy to come by and ANY flatscreen monitor will run at 1080p minimum so don't be fooled by the expensive HD screens, unless your aiming for 4k resolution.
 
Thanks Very Much for info, still baffled by all the different models.
Only thing is that it has to be PC World/ Currys as I don't have the cash to go and spend elswhere, and cant get fianace anywhere else for some reason or another.
Surely they will have something that will suit my needs.
 
ancient_mariner said:
Given the PCWorld constraint, I'd choose these:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/compu...-ideacentre-510s-desktop-pc-10146072-pdt.html

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/compu...23-ips-led-monitor-with-mhl-21408588-pdt.html

That will give you a quadcore i5 processor and 8GB RAM, which will be good enough to manage all normal photo editing. The screen is a 23" IPS model, which will give better viewing angles than a cheaper panel, and more consistent tones. Total cost around £550.
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Thanks do you think Desktop would be better, or should I try for a laptop with same spec?
 
I could not recommend a budget laptop, and that Lenovo i5 laptop is dual core - not quad - and not the same spec. Yes, I think a desktop will be better, because it has not been designed for lower weigh & compact size at the cost of performance & poor screen.
 
A laptop will definitely cost more for the equivalent power. Lenovo idea pads aren't amazing for photo editing. That desktop was pretty good, if you find it's not quite enough you can easily pop a graphics card in at a later date. That screen looks nice too! A desktop will always be cheaper but you lose the portability, it depends how important that is to you.
 
Nawty said:
Pretty sure most people here (myself included) would say neither but of the two I would go with the 700 series as it has a faster and bigger HD and quad core CPU.
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Could you recommend an all in one better around the same price range, Thanks
 
kevinp said:
Could you recommend an all in one better around the same price range, Thanks
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Afraid, not. I'm not very up to date on these things but all in ones are always a compromise. I say this as an iMac owner who spent a silly amount of money getting performance I could have got for half the price if I wanted, if performance was the only factor.

I suppose a question for you is whether or not you're set on an all in one and if you are happy with the compromises that entails?
 
kevinp said:
Could you recommend an all in one better around the same price range, Thanks
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All-in-ones are possibly the very worst design of computer: they use laptop components ensuring that performance is lower than the equivalent spec'd desktop model, yet are not portable and require the user to sit up like any conventional desktop. On top of that upgrading is more difficult/impossible and when the machine becomes too slow or the screen fails then the whole thing goes in the bin. I could never recommend such a device, but of the 2 you asked about the one I indicated is the least bad, and no worse than plugging the equivalent spec laptop into that screen.
 
This comment comes from ignorance as I have never used a touchscreen PC but I don't think a screen that is going to get fingerprint smears on it is a good idea for editing, if only from the angle that it will need frequent cleaning.

Dave
 
Tringa said:
This comment comes from ignorance as I have never used a touchscreen PC but I don't think a screen that is going to get fingerprint smears on it is a good idea for editing, if only from the angle that it will need frequent cleaning.

Dave
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I have a touch screen laptop, but TBH if you have a mouse & keyboard then touch is *almost* always going to be inferior.
 
Whatever you do, don't buy a computer with a 5400rpm HDD (the first link of the two you decided on has one of these). Get a computer with a 7200rpm HDD (your budget will preclude an SSD).

I had a lot of problems editing with my Lenovo Y50, with i7, 8gb of RAM and a high-end graphics card. It kept freezing up and crashing when editing, especially if anything else was runnining. I eventually worked out it was the 5400 rpm HDD; it just can't read and write fast enough. I've now put in a 1tb SSD and it's a completely different machine. I can now edit 8 shot panoramas from the A7rii with ease, when before it often crashed while editing a single shot.
 
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aliengrove said:
Whatever you do, don't buy a computer with a 5400rpm HDD (the first link of the two you decided on has one of these). I had a lot of problems editing with my Lenovo Y50, with i7, 8gb of RAM and a high-end graphics card. It kept freezing up and crashing when editing, especially if anything else was runnining. I eventually worked out it was the 5400 rpm HDD; it just can't read and write fast enough. I've now put in a 1tb SSD and it's a completely different machine.
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With respect, it's most likely that freezing/crashing was due to something unconnected with the drive: although they can't deliver data as quickly as a SSD, the data does still get reliably delivered. However if you're handling enormous amounts of data (i.e. video editing) then it may be much slower than is desirable.
 
ancient_mariner said:
With respect, it's most likely that freezing/crashing was due to something unconnected with the drive: although they can't deliver data as quickly as a SSD, the data does still get reliably delivered. However if you're handling enormous amounts of data (i.e. video editing) then it may be much slower than is desirable.
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Uh, no, it was the HDD.....this was confirmed by a friend who builds computers for a living, after he ran some diagnostics. He also told me that 5400rpm HDD's are known to cause a bottleneck when carrying out tasks that use the other components to their full potential. His company won't install them in any computers.
 
aliengrove said:
Uh, no, it was the HDD.....this was confirmed by a friend who builds computers for a living, after he ran some diagnostics. He also told me that 5400rpm HDD's are known to cause a bottleneck when carrying out tasks that use the other components to their full potential. His company won't install them in any computers.
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Bottleneck, yes, crashes and freezes, no - waiting for the drive while it is loading data isn't a crash/freeze in the traditional sense (where a program has a fault and stopped working). Any kind of hard drive will be a bottleneck compared to SSD when a significant amount of data is required, because of the nature of the storage. Many laptops are still sold with 5400rpm drives, and they don't all freeze or crash because the drive is a bottleneck, but they will operate less quickly than the same machine with a SSD.
 
Whatever. My last laptop was an i5 with 8gb of RAM and a 7200rpm HDD. This one was an i7 with 8gb RAM and a 5400rpm HDD. The i7 ran far slower in spite of having a better gtaphics card. Now I have changed the drive it's the fastest laptop I have ever owned. Just put another 8gb RAM too.
 
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ancient_mariner said:
Bottleneck, yes, crashes and freezes, no - waiting for the drive while it is loading data isn't a crash/freeze in the traditional sense (where a program has a fault and stopped working). Any kind of hard drive will be a bottleneck compared to SSD when a significant amount of data is required, because of the nature of the storage. Many laptops are still sold with 5400rpm drives, and they don't all freeze or crash because the drive is a bottleneck, but they will operate less quickly than the same machine with a SSD.
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aliengrove said:
Whatever. My last laptop was an i5 with 8gb of RAM and a 7200rpm HDD. This one was an i7 with 8gb RAM and a 5400rpm HDD. The i7 ran far slower in spite of having a better gtaphics card. Now I have changed the drive it's the fastest laptop I have ever owned. Just put another 8gb RAM too.
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as AM said, a 5.4k drive wont be fast but it wouldn't cause crashes unless faulty. and the GPU wont make it run faster unless you're running plenty of GPU accelerated tasks with hardware supported by the apps.

don't suppose your PC guy did any actual diagnostics and benchmarking?

edit - just seen this is nearly a week old. don't venture out of the computers and tech section too often..
 
neil_g said:
as AM said, a 5.4k drive wont be fast but it wouldn't cause crashes unless faulty. and the GPU wont make it run faster unless you're running plenty of GPU accelerated tasks with hardware supported by the apps.

don't suppose your PC guy did any actual diagnostics and benchmarking?

edit - just seen this is nearly a week old. don't venture out of the computers and tech section too often..
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No, he didn't do any diagnostics; I didn't ask him to. Before upgrading to an SSD, Lightroom would hang up frequently or stop responding, especially if Photoshop was open too. I ran some diagnostics myself, including chdsk, and found that the hard-drive was working flat out all the time if I had any photo editing programs open. Since changing the drive it runs much faster and I don't get any hang ups. My PC guy, who builds PC's for schools, told me he has sen this before with 5400rpm drives, and wasn't surprised at all when I contacted him to change the drive.
 
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