Which PC / laptop / Mac?

AlexStirrup

AlexStirrup

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58
Name
Alex
Edit My Images
Yes
What do you edit your photographs on?

Looking at replacing a windows PC which is knackered and want something snappy and won't need replacing for a few years.

Are Macs worth their price or are you paying for the logo?

Cheers, Alex.
 
I wouldn't go back to Windows if you paid me!

Are Macs worth it? I think so but I use mine for work and I use a Macbook Pro, iMac, iPhone and iPad and everything is integrated with very little effort - I'm sure I could do it with PC and Android if I wanted to but it was REALLY easy with Apple products)

The do a really good job of editing photos as well ;)
 
it doesn't really matter which platform you use as the editing programmes work on both so that's personal choice.

The Apple tax gets you high quality hardware and design, it doesn't give you better performance so its up to you whether or not that's worth the extra.

For me it would boil down to what phone you use, if you have an iPhone then a Mac makes a sensible choice, if you're Android then a nice Windows machine would be my preference.
 
I have 5k 2015 27" mac and a fairly up to date pc, and I have to say I hardly use my pc any more. I decided to reload my mac over the weekend purely because I'd filled it with rubbish. 20 minutes for a full OS reload and 20 minutes for all my apps. It took me a full day to do my pc which is all SSD drives a few weeks ago.

I'm down to thinking pc for games and word processing MAC for photo, sound and video editing.
 
I've got a MacBook Air and used to edit photos in Lightroom on it, but now pretty much do all of my editing in Snapseed on my iPhone. Prefer Snapseed over Lightroom, and I find the touch interface easier to edit photos with over mouse/keyboard.

I'm seriously thinking of going tablet for my next 'computer' when the MacBook Air gives up the ghost, probably a iPad Pro
 
I edit on a custom built PC. Works perfectly for my needs.
I still dont under stand this Windows Vs Apple thing.
Both share similar hardware platforms and run the same software thus both will do what you want them to do.

Two things to note -
All computers slow down over time as hardware and software advances.

Apple computers can also get bloated with rubbish and need a spring clean.........its not just a windows thing.

If you look after a Windows PC it will look after you.
 
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I've been using a late 2012 27" iMac since 2013 for photography, music, office, etc.

For most of my web browsing, forum chats, Facebook etc. I've been using an iPad 4 since 2014.

Prior to that, used, built, played and worked with PCs from mid 80's onwards. Other half has a Windows 10 laptop, I have her old Windows 7 laptop, which I've updated to Windows 10. Compared to the Mac, I find these machines to be really clunky, but sometimes it's handy to have a laptop. I'd like to get a MacBook, but don't want or have the need to spend the money on one right now.
 
GeeJay57 said:
Compared to the Mac, I find these machines to be really clunky, but sometimes it's handy to have a laptop. I'd like to get a MacBook, but don't want or have the need to spend the money on one right now.
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I am in the very same boat r.e. getting a nice MacBook.

For this reason - and since I have wanted to go Mac since forever - I took a 2011 21" iMac off the hands of a mate when he upgraded and that was the best thing i could have done. The first few hours were frustrating because you have to leave all your Windblows experience at the door but if you can push through you will probably never look back either!
 
Not Mac, but I have gone full blown Linux Mint. Will never go back to Windoz
 
In 2010 I spent stupid money (Nearly Mac money) in building PC and it is still running everything fantastically well and without problems. A good PC is never cheap.
The main problem with PC's is not the hardware or Operating system it is fault of greedy manufacturers and reseller who stuff new PC's gills with tons of crapware and bloatware and all set to run at start up, so when they leave the shop they are only able to run at half their potential speed.
 
I've owned windows, Macs and Linux machines, and chose a Dell XPS over a Mac last time because the performance is every bit as good as an equivalent spec Macbook, but the machine can be upgraded while a Mac cannot, and the initial purchase price was significantly lower at the given spec. I also find the OSX interface poorly designed and the underlying processes of the operating system annoying at best. I would recommend a Mac with caveats for someone who is not very able with computers, but otherwise would suggest avoidance, especially with the current lack of upgrade path for hardware.

Lightroom, photoshop etc work exactly the same on both platforms - for editing photos neither has any advantage.
 
ancient_mariner said:
I've owned windows, Macs and Linux machines, and chose a Dell XPS over a Mac last time because the performance is every bit as good as an equivalent spec Macbook, but the machine can be upgraded while a Mac cannot, and the initial purchase price was significantly lower at the given spec. I also find the OSX interface poorly designed and the underlying processes of the operating system annoying at best. I would recommend a Mac with caveats for someone who is not very able with computers, but otherwise would suggest avoidance, especially with the current lack of upgrade path for hardware.

Lightroom, photoshop etc work exactly the same on both platforms - for editing photos neither has any advantage.
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All I know is that I always had issues trying to use Premiere Pro on a Windblows platform.

On my moderately old Mac it simply works like a charm.
 
Mac every time....for photo editing and video that is. You just FOCUS on creativity - period. Which its all about? No worring about drivers, malware, viruses and crashing. Yes a windows machine is faster, a lot faster in
a lot of ways, but the mac OS is just so good and uncomplicated and just WORKS compared to windows. Yet again i use a windows machine for Virtual reality because there so much more powerful in this field. (plus i don.t have a choice as Apple are not supported) Creative sorts tend not to get bogged down with upgrade paths. This tends to be with Gamers generally who demand the very highest power and speed.
Just get the best you can afford from the off.
Another thing to factor in is resale value. Pc's after 3 years are pretty much worthless compared to macs. You get a LOT of your money back with a Mac. I've done this several times.
 
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Everyone says PCs are unreliable, but my facebook feed is full of people in photography groups continuously having to clear out the "other" stuff from their Mac's storage and running out of space / having to rely on externals.

Get a custom built desktop, it'll be half the price of the equivalent Mac, have better cooling, and you'll be able to have as much storage as you like.

Also loads of people have fallen for the malware ridden version of "CleanMyMac" so hardly malware and virus free. Same as a PC - Don't know where a file is from? Don't open it.
 
apple mac is the way to go you will never go back after owning one
its hard to describe quality but apple are far better quality
 
I use Mac at home and Windows at work - 25 years Mac and 20 years Windows.

Macs allow me to spend more time doing what I want to do and less time faffing or getting into esoteric command line options. My view is hardware quality & software Integration is better but comes at a significant price premium.

That said I don't like the recent direction of flat menus in shades of grey and removing ports on laptops forcing you to carry a bundle of adapters. It's becoming a triumph of style over functionality.

John
 
Macs don't spend hours updating and preventing you from switching off. In the year that I have owned my iMac, I have had two, and only two, operating system updates - my Windows machines had pretty much daily updates.
 
I've always had windows machines and still do for work. But, have been using Macs for 5 years personally and they are just better quality all round IMO. Windows updates are ridiculously tedious! My last Mac was 5 years old, still working like day 1 and sold for the same money (it was a sought after model). I've had to sell a kidney for my new MacBook Pro but it oozes quality. A windows machine will get the job done though and if you invest heavily you'll get a great model to match a Mac.
 
I turn off updates on windows and have never had any problems personally with security.

I actually used Ubuntu which is a free alternative to windows or apple but find windows 7 to my liking.

Apple are more expensive for similar power but reportedly reliable and well good customer service from what I recall
 
GTG said:
I turn off updates on windows and have never had any problems personally with security.

I actually used Ubuntu which is a free alternative to windows or apple but find windows 7 to my liking.

Apple are more expensive for similar power but reportedly reliable and well good customer service from what I recall
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Windows 10 Home Edition doesn't have an option to turn off updates. I think there is a work around for those willing to edit the registery file (good luck with that). So anyone buying a new machine with that OS has to put up with updates happening whenever.

My other half's Win 10 PC laptop can be a pain as it often installs updates on startup, which delays her use of the machine.

So this week, I carried out a clean Win 10 install on her old laptop using Windows Media Creation software and a fresh download of the latest Win 10 ISO file on a USB stick. Used Nirsoft Produkey to retrieve the key code from the machine beforehand. So now, even with only Windows and MS Office 365 on the machine, there are system progams that are continually pushing the hard drive activity to 100%. If I put the machine in airplane mode, the disc activity returns to normal levels based on what I'm doing with the machine. Next time I have a spare evening, I'll dig into this some more.
 
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i wouldn't touch a Mac with a bargepole. wife has had to get new ones as older models can't handle the ugrades. They are over priced for what they are, I can't for the life of me see any justification buying Apple when they charge such exeedingly high price for machines when window ones do the same job and a lot cheaper. You are paying for the name not the product. She also has had trerrible service with a faulty motherboard being replaced with another faulty one overheating so much the fire risk was evident
 
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I got fed up with MS fuffing about with Windows and having to pay such a high premium just to upgrade versions. So I abandoned Ship and went with Linux Mint. It is free and works fine. I have had no problems with it at all. No viruses what so ever. Loads of Free software as well.
 
Does anyone here use a Surface or other Tablet with Stylus to do editing on, for when they are say away from home or are bored on the train ?
 
I been a pc man for years but last year was in the market for a new laptop and at the time because of the way work had piggybacked there IT with Oxford university I could get the educational discount so got a MacBook Pro. While it's a very nice laptop personally can't see what all the hype is about, if you want a mac buy one but for me the price premium is not worth it.
 
AlexStirrup said:
What do you edit your photographs on?

Looking at replacing a windows PC which is knackered and want something snappy and won't need replacing for a few years.

Are Macs worth their price or are you paying for the logo?

Cheers, Alex.
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I personally use a cheap custom built Windows machine which is fine for the likes of Lightroom and Photoshop (but I mostly use it for office/gaming tasks). I only spent £350 a couple of years back on it but it does the job for now.

The likes of modern PC's should have a SSD which will keep the PC/Mac snappy for years to come. It's by far the biggest general usage speed increase you'll see, while everything else just comes down to what you'll use it for. In terms of Windows, look out for an i5/Ryzen PC with at least 8GB RAM and at least a 256GB SSD with a 1TB secondary storage or external drive and it'll last you a while.

If you're photo editing I can't stress enough that you should go for a good display too, at the very least a 1080p IPS panel. I'll give credit to Apple they do bundle good displays in their iMacs/MacBooks.
 
Here's a story to bore you witless.

For almost 40 years I was an IT professional. Starting on IBM mainframes and working up through mid-range systems to MS/DOS then Windows, ending up as a senior support/strategy manager with a major local authority. During that time I built countless Windows machines for my own use, spending hours configuring, updating, maintaining and generally messing about with them. Always enjoyed it, never had any virus incidents.

But when I retired I decided I was fed up of following the rat race and I wanted something I could just start up and forget. No messing. No acting as support for the local neighbourhood, relatives, and their cats and dogs. I bought a 2012 refurb iMac from the Apple store. I still have that machine, it still runs the latest version of Lightroom at the same speed as when I first got it, I've had no hardware or software issues; it just works. Yes, it was (considerably) more expensive when I bought it but the running costs, in time and money, have been negligible. Oh yes, there's bad software out there. For all systems, not just Windows. And there are viruses for all systems. But if you practice safe hex they shouldn't touch you.

If you're the sort who enjoys tinkering, building, configuring, then by all means go Windows. You'll have fun. Or you could go to one of the many Linux variants. Even more fun. And needing even more expertise. But if you want an easy life, go Apple. Remember, buy cheap, buy many times. Buy expensive, buy once.
 
Thank you to everyone who responded here. I finally took the plunge and got an imac.

Some very early observations:

The sound quality is actually pretty decent for something so flat.

The display is absolutely gorgeous. It's like I've never seen properly before!

Now to get out with my camera again.
 
GeeJay57 said:
So now, even with only Windows and MS Office 365 on the machine, there are system progams that are continually pushing the hard drive activity to 100%. If I put the machine in airplane mode, the disc activity returns to normal levels based on what I'm doing with the machine. Next time I have a spare evening, I'll dig into this some more.
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Something not right there by the sounds of it assuming you are getting 100% disk activity at idle.

I've got windows 10 and a whole host of other apps installed but at idle the disk activity is virtually 0%

upload_2017-11-7_18-5-3.png
 
holty said:
apple mac is the way to go you will never go back after owning one
its hard to describe quality but apple are far better quality
Click to expand...

Quite untrue this seems to be a common misconception. I had macs for many years but last few computers have been windows based purely because performance of the Mac O.S is no longer as quick and polished as it used to be then in terms of the hardware Macs are generally pretty far behind.

Realistically you will always get better specification on a windows desktops or laptop in the same price range as any of the Apple options. What tends to happen is that people compare the performance of a MacBook Pro to a crappy £400 windows laptop then talk about how much better the Mac performs which of course it will. However buy a windows machine at the same price range of any of the Apple hardware and you are guaranteed to get much better hardware for your money.

Unlikely to ever go back to an Apple desktop or laptop would rather pay the same money and have more powerful windows based hardware.
 
Stephen L said:
Here's a story to bore you witless.

For almost 40 years I was an IT professional. Starting on IBM mainframes and working up through mid-range systems to MS/DOS then Windows, ending up as a senior support/strategy manager with a major local authority. During that time I built countless Windows machines for my own use, spending hours configuring, updating, maintaining and generally messing about with them. Always enjoyed it, never had any virus incidents.

But when I retired I decided I was fed up of following the rat race and I wanted something I could just start up and forget. No messing. No acting as support for the local neighbourhood, relatives, and their cats and dogs. I bought a 2012 refurb iMac from the Apple store. I still have that machine, it still runs the latest version of Lightroom at the same speed as when I first got it, I've had no hardware or software issues; it just works. Yes, it was (considerably) more expensive when I bought it but the running costs, in time and money, have been negligible. Oh yes, there's bad software out there. For all systems, not just Windows. And there are viruses for all systems. But if you practice safe hex they shouldn't touch you.

If you're the sort who enjoys tinkering, building, configuring, then by all means go Windows. You'll have fun. Or you could go to one of the many Linux variants. Even more fun. And needing even more expertise. But if you want an easy life, go Apple. Remember, buy cheap, buy many times. Buy expensive, buy once.
Click to expand...


so there you go tommy
 
Stephen L said:
Here's a story to bore you witless.

For almost 40 years I was an IT professional. Starting on IBM mainframes and working up through mid-range systems to MS/DOS then Windows, ending up as a senior support/strategy manager with a major local authority. During that time I built countless Windows machines for my own use, spending hours configuring, updating, maintaining and generally messing about with them. Always enjoyed it, never had any virus incidents.

But when I retired I decided I was fed up of following the rat race and I wanted something I could just start up and forget. No messing. No acting as support for the local neighbourhood, relatives, and their cats and dogs. I bought a 2012 refurb iMac from the Apple store. I still have that machine, it still runs the latest version of Lightroom at the same speed as when I first got it, I've had no hardware or software issues; it just works. Yes, it was (considerably) more expensive when I bought it but the running costs, in time and money, have been negligible. Oh yes, there's bad software out there. For all systems, not just Windows. And there are viruses for all systems. But if you practice safe hex they shouldn't touch you.

If you're the sort who enjoys tinkering, building, configuring, then by all means go Windows. You'll have fun. Or you could go to one of the many Linux variants. Even more fun. And needing even more expertise. But if you want an easy life, go Apple. Remember, buy cheap, buy many times. Buy expensive, buy once.
Click to expand...

I think the key point here is "retired".

Modern Windows machines are every bit as slick as a Mac.

And remember with Apple, Buy Expensive, Buy every 3 years when you run out of storage / want more ram / want a better display.
 
KitsuneAndy said:
I think the key point here is "retired".

Modern Windows machines are every bit as slick as a Mac.

And remember with Apple, Buy Expensive, Buy every 3 years when you run out of storage / want more ram / want a better display.
Click to expand...
Bought mine with 32gb ram and a 3tb fusion drive. Key point “sonny”. But I’m sure windows machines are as slick as Macs. No axe to grind. Windows machines are easier to learn. Because you need to.
 
f/2.8 said:
Quite untrue this seems to be a common misconception. I had macs for many years but last few computers have been windows based purely because performance of the Mac O.S is no longer as quick and polished as it used to be then in terms of the hardware Macs are generally pretty far behind.

Realistically you will always get better specification on a windows desktops or laptop in the same price range as any of the Apple options. What tends to happen is that people compare the performance of a MacBook Pro to a crappy £400 windows laptop then talk about how much better the Mac performs which of course it will. However buy a windows machine at the same price range of any of the Apple hardware and you are guaranteed to get much better hardware for your money.

Unlikely to ever go back to an Apple desktop or laptop would rather pay the same money and have more powerful windows based hardware.
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I'm a big fan of apple computers (have an imac and macbook pro at present) but I would say there is lots of truth in what you say. A few years ago, you couldn't get me near a PC but in the last few years a few interesting things have been happening. Firstly windows itself has got much better. Apple OS is not quite as trouble free and slick as it once was . Apple prices seem to have really sky rocketed. To get a decent imac now, you're well north of £2k. And lastly many manufacturers of PC's are starting to offer stuff that is nicely built rather than the traditional plastic lumps of yesteryear. I'm still a big fan of Apple and am likely to remain that way for some time but it's no longer the no-brainer it once was.
 
I'm using the PC I built myself 3ish years ago, based on an AMD Piledriver 3.8GHz quad-core processor and an NVidia GTX-950, along with 8Gb RAM, all lovingly hand-crafted in a 'Corsair Silent' case .... :D

I cannot stand Apple, but each to his/her own ;)
 
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