- Joined
- Mar 29, 2015
- Messages
- 1,202
- Lightroom Experience
- Intermediate
- Lightroom Version
- Classic
- Lightroom Version Number
- LR Classic 9.2
- Operating System
- Windows 10
Even though my Dell XPS 8700 was running Windows 7 very nicely, like many, I was forced to upgrade to Windows 10. After frequent crashes, it would not come back nor will accept a new install (very long story with multiple attempts and needing to use the Intel Rapid Storage Tech built on the system board). Consequently, I am in the market for a new desktop computer.
I am now grappling between MAC and PC. The former locks you into a single HW+SW provider. The later means I need to deal with a bloated Windows 10 but have choices in HW. I'm also sensitive to some of the issues I've read here on LR on Catalina.
I've looked through the forums on this but all the topics seem to be dated. So, I'm looking for some suggestions. My old system was a gaming system with Intel i7 and 16GB memory. The drive setup had RAID capabilities with a 32GB SSD cache drive in front of a 2TB SATA drive. I used LR Classic 9.2 and Topaz Sharpen and Denoise. It uses a nVIDIA Geforce GT card. The computer itself is from 2004. I also have an ASUS Pro Art monitor I want to continue to use.
So, here are my initial thoughts I'm looking for some comments on:
I am now grappling between MAC and PC. The former locks you into a single HW+SW provider. The later means I need to deal with a bloated Windows 10 but have choices in HW. I'm also sensitive to some of the issues I've read here on LR on Catalina.
I've looked through the forums on this but all the topics seem to be dated. So, I'm looking for some suggestions. My old system was a gaming system with Intel i7 and 16GB memory. The drive setup had RAID capabilities with a 32GB SSD cache drive in front of a 2TB SATA drive. I used LR Classic 9.2 and Topaz Sharpen and Denoise. It uses a nVIDIA Geforce GT card. The computer itself is from 2004. I also have an ASUS Pro Art monitor I want to continue to use.
So, here are my initial thoughts I'm looking for some comments on:
- Not sure about MAC or PC as there seems to be a premium on MAC but all HW vendors now seem to have a premature EOL on equipment as new HW comes out and the SW makes use of the new features. I have a perfectly working Macbook from 2009 but I can't upgrade to OS to upgrade it from LR 6 to LR Classic.
- Looking at Intel i5 or i7 chips. i9 seems a lot more expensive.
- Stay with a minimum of 16GB memory which is recommended for the Topaz apps.
- I'm thinking of getting a system with a 128GB SSD drive for OS and LR Catalog then moving my existing 2TB over for documents and pictures.
- I'm confused about what I really need in a video card. My original system was sold as a gaming system. Postings here seem to indicate LR itself does not use the GPU much. Topaz calls for GPU VRAM of 4GB abd GTX of 970 or higher (need to look up what this later spec is). I know from the LR System Requirements I need Directx 12 and/or OpenGL 3.3 support.
- Retain my ASUS monitor plus a 2nd and 3rd monitor connected using USB.