Upgrading suggestions for photo-editing

[theLaika]

I'm looking to upgrade my ageing MacBook to a newer machine. Specifically, I use Photoshop/Lightroom as my most intensive applications. Do you think it would be more wise to convert to PC for these needs and get more powerful CPU/RAM/VRAM or save up for a Mac later on. What are the benefits (if any) of editing on Macs vs. Windows?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

That depends on what kind of budget you have and what you do in PS and LR, as even my 2007 iMac with 2GHz and 4GB RAM can handle PS and LR with 12MP RAW photographs. Any current Mac should be able to do the job, just make sure you get plenty of RAM and maybe even an SSD.

And the advantage of Mac OS X over Windows is subjective. I work faster with Mac OS X due to its simple interface and it takes me up to twice as long on a comparable Windows PC to do the same job, as Windows for me is too prominent and has too many colours in its GUI.

 

[balamw]

I'm looking to upgrade my ageing MacBook to a newer machine. Specifically, I use Photoshop/Lightroom as my most intensive applications. Do you think it would be more wise to convert to PC for these needs and get more powerful CPU/RAM/VRAM or save up for a Mac later on. What are the benefits (if any) of editing on Macs vs. Windows?

Might help if you told us more about the Macbook. You might just be able to upgrade it to get what you want done.

EDIT:

make sure you get plenty of RAM and maybe even an SSD.

What I was thinking.

B

 

[nfable]

Stay Mac, but yeah go MBP maybe 13" go refurb and save...
Mac Refurb

Goose the RAM up and have a 7200 Firewire external drive to designate as a scratch disk, this keeps operational writes during PS loading on an external drive, so the OS disk is not dealing with two types of access (reading the App and writing temporary files) I've found a huge increase in performance doing that.

Or go PC if you want to get another one in 3 years and you hate yourself.

nf

 

[snberk103]

Unless you are doing so much LR/PS work professionally that any time savings there are really important, then I would consider the whole system.

That is .... will changing platforms make your entire computing experience more or less efficient. There is no point in changing to a PC to save 30 minutes a day (a lot!) with LR/PS if you spend 45 minutes extra per day doing other things.

On the other hand, if you are spending 20 minutes a day booting back to Boot Camp partition (and back to OS X) because OS X is missing something you need, then there is no point sticking with a Mac just for LR/PS.

Of course, if you are talking about installing OS X on a hackintosh, then that is another discussion altogether. Though the principles still apply... if the hackintosh takes up more admin time than the PS/LR savings....

 

[theLaika]

I think i'll hold off on this until they perhaps announce some new MBPros. I'm still unsure of the benefits I'd gain and my current hardware is working fine, really. Tx

 

[wheezy]

Stick an SSD in the MacBook, speed solved. Max out your RAM too if you haven't already. File access is the bottleneck when working with RAW files, not your CPU.

 

[theLaika]

Stick an SSD in the MacBook, speed solved. Max out your RAM too if you haven't already. File access is the bottleneck when working with RAW files, not your CPU.

This is serendipitous. I just started a thread on this very idea. Is this just for scratch disk, or do you mean for image directory. Obviously, image storage isn't the best idea when using the rather limiting sizes of the SSD I need to get.

 

[wheezy]

This is serendipitous. I just started a thread on this very idea. Is this just for scratch disk, or do you mean for image directory. Obviously, image storage isn't the best idea when using the rather limiting sizes of the SSD I need to get.

Good reply. What about a moderate SSD inside to do the editing, and once you're finished move them off to a FW800 for storage. FW800 will be fast enough for any access you'll need later, but for the initial editing working on the SSD will be faster than an iMac 7200rpm drive.