pr26
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- Dec 15, 2008
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I know, I know, another one of these "I'm worthless and can't make my own decisions" thread. Honestly though, I have no idea what I'm doing and don't have a ton of money to blow on something that isn't going to fit my needs.
So I have recently landed a new job (which I'm 100% stoked about), and it will involve most of my work hours being done from home. On top of this, my wife's photography has been taking off with more serious jobs and she also is starting up a small Etsy business on the side. With all of this work being done from home, we are looking to build up our office. Yes we both have laptops (me some lower end gateway and her an older macbook pro), but I need an office set up since the freedom of a laptop allows me to indulge my ADD. We both agreed a workspace is needed for us and this desktop would be the center of that workspace for us. We discussed going Apple because my wife loves her Macbook and she does like the Apple interface for photo editing. However I have talked her into a PC because I believe we can get a lot more for our money and have more flexibility to upgrade our PC when it starts showing its age.
Here's the main things we need from the Desktop:
- The ability to multitask. A lot of my wife's photo programs suck up a lot of memory and she needs to be able to use multiple programs at once seamlessly.
- A decent sized hard drive to store RAW images, tons of music, etc. I'm thinking at least 1TB.
- I'm going to be doing a lot of word processing and online work, so speed and minimal stuttering is important.
- I'm assuming a good GFX card would be important for high quality photo editing?
- A touch screen would be cool, but not necessary. A nice size bright screen, perhaps 24" or larger would be preferable. We don't need 2 screens as of now, but the ability to upgrade to that in the future would be nice.
- Gaming would be nice since I'm a huge stupid nerd and have never owned a PC capable of high quality gaming, but it's not needed since this desktop should be for WORK.
- I listen to a lot of music while I work through headphones, so decent sound would be nice.
- Needs Wireless connectivity (I'm assuming most computers that's not an issue these days)
To be honest, I just have no idea how much power I need to do this. For example, I was looking at this tower: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B006VG0HXC/improvphotog-20
An 8 core processor and 10 GB or Ram sounds like a lot of power for the money, but I have no idea if that GFX card is adequate for what I need. I saw a photo website was pimping it, but I didn't find a ton of feedback on it.
Or hell, do I ever need that much power? Would I be better served with one of the newer "all in one" packages? Something like this: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5618902&Sku=V03-27004 (or I could even get the 24" version for 200 bucks cheaper). Would something like this be enough for me? Are these all-in-one packages open for customization down the road?
And before you ask, I WILL NOT build a PC. I know that I could save a ton of money doing it and make something baller. I get it. But seriously, I'm pretty tech retarded and I'm terrible with any type of electronic work. I'm terrible with my hands (insert sex joke here).
I really don't want to spend more than $1000, including the screen. I'm stupid, help me.
So I have recently landed a new job (which I'm 100% stoked about), and it will involve most of my work hours being done from home. On top of this, my wife's photography has been taking off with more serious jobs and she also is starting up a small Etsy business on the side. With all of this work being done from home, we are looking to build up our office. Yes we both have laptops (me some lower end gateway and her an older macbook pro), but I need an office set up since the freedom of a laptop allows me to indulge my ADD. We both agreed a workspace is needed for us and this desktop would be the center of that workspace for us. We discussed going Apple because my wife loves her Macbook and she does like the Apple interface for photo editing. However I have talked her into a PC because I believe we can get a lot more for our money and have more flexibility to upgrade our PC when it starts showing its age.
Here's the main things we need from the Desktop:
- The ability to multitask. A lot of my wife's photo programs suck up a lot of memory and she needs to be able to use multiple programs at once seamlessly.
- A decent sized hard drive to store RAW images, tons of music, etc. I'm thinking at least 1TB.
- I'm going to be doing a lot of word processing and online work, so speed and minimal stuttering is important.
- I'm assuming a good GFX card would be important for high quality photo editing?
- A touch screen would be cool, but not necessary. A nice size bright screen, perhaps 24" or larger would be preferable. We don't need 2 screens as of now, but the ability to upgrade to that in the future would be nice.
- Gaming would be nice since I'm a huge stupid nerd and have never owned a PC capable of high quality gaming, but it's not needed since this desktop should be for WORK.
- I listen to a lot of music while I work through headphones, so decent sound would be nice.
- Needs Wireless connectivity (I'm assuming most computers that's not an issue these days)
To be honest, I just have no idea how much power I need to do this. For example, I was looking at this tower: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B006VG0HXC/improvphotog-20
An 8 core processor and 10 GB or Ram sounds like a lot of power for the money, but I have no idea if that GFX card is adequate for what I need. I saw a photo website was pimping it, but I didn't find a ton of feedback on it.
Or hell, do I ever need that much power? Would I be better served with one of the newer "all in one" packages? Something like this: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5618902&Sku=V03-27004 (or I could even get the 24" version for 200 bucks cheaper). Would something like this be enough for me? Are these all-in-one packages open for customization down the road?
And before you ask, I WILL NOT build a PC. I know that I could save a ton of money doing it and make something baller. I get it. But seriously, I'm pretty tech retarded and I'm terrible with any type of electronic work. I'm terrible with my hands (insert sex joke here).
I really don't want to spend more than $1000, including the screen. I'm stupid, help me.