What are you currently working with, and what upgrades are already in place? (as I type this on a 2011 15" MBP)
What types or sizes of files are you working with? What do you notice to be slowing you down?
What other photo gear are you looking at adding in the next 24 months?
Do you currently have a laptop for field work or is this never a concern for you?
I'm looking to replace 3 tower PCs. Over many years, I've kept the same cases and swapped/upgraded motherboards, added RAM, replaced failing power supplies, and added storage capacity.
The most current system is:
Intel core i3 @3.07GHz, 8 GB RAM.
Graphics card - AMD Radeon HD 5700 Series.
Monitor - ancient Dell 2405FPW 24" 1920x1200.
Another one has:
Intel core 2 duo E6750 @2.66GHz, 8GB RAM. Graphics card - NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT, Monitor - ASUS VS248 24" 1920x1080.
The 3rd:
AMD Athlon 64 x2 dual core 3800+ @2.01GHz, 4GB RAM.
For storage, they all have a variety of hard drives. None have SSDs. All of these are running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.
I use the first for editing my photos, primarily with Lightroom and occasionally Photoshop. The 2nd is an all purpose PC used for general apps and surfing the web. It's also connected to a whole house audio system for playing music. The first PC is located in a home office on our 2nd floor. The 2nd and 3rd are in the family room in our basement. I have to spend a lot of time in the family room watching our 2 puppies, so it isn't easy to work upstairs.
None of these systems are very stable. The office PC crashes if I try to export more than 16 photos at a time from Lightroom. The 2nd PC is also crashing randomly (about once every couple weeks). They all are fairly slow and take quite awhile to boot up, so I basically leave them on.
Ideally, I'd like to replace these with a single more portable solution. If it's a desktop PC, them I'm interested in a form factor that's easy to move. I'd like it to have a decent processor - Intel Core i7-7700, 16GB RAM, a 512GB SSD and I'll just migrate whatever hard drives I need from the old systems. Eventually I need to upgrade my graphics. I could start with the integrated graphics and upgrade to an NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti later. If the ViewSonic VP2785-4K 27" IPS UHD monitor is to expensive, I might consider the Dell Ultra HD 4K P2715Q 27" monitor.
As for the photography questions, I shoot RAW with my Canon 5D Mark III. The file sizes are typically 27MB per image. Over the past year, I sold my 7D and a couple EF-S lenses to upgrade to the 5D and a EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens. Eventually, I'd like to buy a nice 200 or 300mm lens but it's not a huge priority because I do a lot of street photography and the 24-105 is excellent for that. I also have a EF 50mm f/1.8 STM, which I'm satisfied with but would be nice to upgrade to the 1.4L. I use to think a really wide angle lens that goes down to 16mm was essential, but not so much any more.
At this point, I don't need a laptop for field work because I don't go off on any professional assignments. The portability of the laptop around the home is appealing, though.
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