Over-the-counter phto editing PC

I see many tech savy folks in this room who know how to buy all the parts and build your PC from scratch.

That is not me.

I realize that nothing sold over-the-counter will be as good as a custom built machine. However, does anyone know of a PC that is fairly good for photo edting just as it comes from Dell, HP, etc?

I would like to spend less than $800. Does such an animal exist?

guntoter wrote in post #11411092
I see many tech savy folks in this room who know how to buy all the parts and build your PC from scratch.

That is not me.

I realize that nothing sold over-the-counter will be as good as a custom built machine. However, does anyone know of a PC that is fairly good for photo edting just as it comes from Dell, HP, etc?

I would like to spend less than $800. Does such an animal exist?

Of course! Are you dead set on Dell and HP, or are you willing to look at other companies?

If you can get past the chassis, one of the ones I like is this one.

Core i5 quad core CPU, 4GB of RAM for your editing, 1TB HDD for your pictures; I think it suits media editing well given your budget.

r31ncarnat3d wrote in post #11411140
Of course! Are you dead set on Dell and HP, or are you willing to look at other companies?

If you can get past the chassis, one of the ones I like is this one.

Core i5 quad core CPU, 4GB of RAM for your editing, 1TB HDD for your pictures; I think it suits media editing well given your budget.

Thank you for the advice. So a gaming computer also meets the specs. for Photo editing. Didn't know that.

guntoter wrote in post #11411336
Thank you for the advice. So a gaming computer also meets the specs. for Photo editing. Didn't know that.

Truth be told, this isn't really a gaming PC, but an editing PC in a gaming chassis. Gaming PCs need strong GPUs, which are often the most expensive part of the PC, while the GPU included here is ill-suited for gaming. It'd handle your needs just fine, but it won't be able to play Battlefield BC2 on high settings.

Editing PCs on the other hand have more RAM, stronger CPUs, and larger hard drives, which generally are cheaper than GPUs. Since photo editing programs are CPU intensive, they benefit much more from a strong CPU and don't really require a strong GPU to perform well.

So, essentially, what you have here is a pretty great media PC and a pretty bad gaming PC put in a fancy case with a good price. Lucky you!

guntoter wrote in post #11411336
Thank you for the advice. So a gaming computer also meets the specs. for Photo editing. Didn't know that.

One difference is, the graphic card demands are much higher for video gaming than photo editing. And, you don't need a sound card for photo editing either. Onboard audio is more than enough. Otherwise, you need plenty of HD capacity on multiple HDs, a powerful multi-core processor, adequate cooling, and as much memory as the motherboard/OS can handle.

The PC recommended looks great to me... I would just double the memory.

There is no such thing as too much memory. After working in IT for years, I find this to be true everywhere. Get as much as the operating system/hardware can handle.

LiberationFrequency wrote in post #11411625
There is no such thing as too much memory. After working in IT for years, I find this to be true everywhere. Get as much as the operating system/hardware can handle.

Yup. I've got 24GB in my desktop at home.

While that (or even the 12GB I've got at work) may be overkill for most, I wouldn't give a 4GB system to my Mom (and in fact, I believe her current system, a Dell Vostro something-or-other, has 6GB).

While I've bought a TON of stuff from NewEgg, I've never bought a full system and I'm not sure about the warranty coverage on that box if you run into troubles.

My suggestion would be to keep an eye on the links below. Some killer deals show up in there all the time.

http://www.dell.com/us​/p/popular-desktop-deals
http://www.dell.com …performance-desktop-deals

The Inspiron 580 in the second link isn't half bad. You'll come in at $819 by upgrading to the i5-760, 8GB RAM, and from the 2-year to 3-year in-home warranty.

You could get an extra 2% back with Mr. Rebates as well.

r31ncarnat3d wrote in post #11411140
Of course! Are you dead set on Dell and HP, or are you willing to look at other companies?

If you can get past the chassis, one of the ones I like is this one.

Core i5 quad core CPU, 4GB of RAM for your editing, 1TB HDD for your pictures; I think it suits media editing well given your budget.

As we discussed last week that one isn't bad. The only problem seems to be the memory, which only has two slots on the motherboard so in order to upgrade one has to REPLACE the existing RAM. By the time you do that you could easily buy a Dell XPS8100 with an i7 and 8GB of RAM.

OP, you want something similar to what was linked above, but try to see if you can get 8GB of RAM instead of 4GB. Dell often runs deals on their XPS8100 for around $800-$900 for an i7 quad core with 6-8GB of RAM, and similar specs for the rest as above. You just have to sit back and wait for them to run the deal.

If you are looking for New i cannot help you.. HOwever, i did buy a refurbished HP xw6400 on Ebay with a single Xeon dual Core 2.6gig proc adn 6gigs of ram for 300 dollars. Then found another Proc for 150 bucks and now have Two Dual core Xeon CPU's. Such a beaut.

suggest reading the computer reviews on Maximum PC, PC World, CNET, and other computer oriented sites. Look for a computer for average computing needs, not gaming...unless you also want to do gaming and/or video editing.

I have a playstation to do gaming. I don't do much of it. However, Photo editing is something I am very interested in doing a lot of.

Thank all of you for the good advice you are giving.