My current computer was custom made by Cerise in Maryland. They specialize in computers for photography and related fields and offer a number of options ranging from basic to ones with extra horsepower and options. I pretty much specified the design of my current one using information given on their website. Not long ago, I decided to get a new one and emailed the owner of the company with general information about what I wanted to do with it. He replied with what I feel is a very reasonable design without extras I wouldn't need. The actual build -- once the design is specified -- goes very quickly.
Greetings. I also buy custom built PCs, usually one every 3-4 years. There is probably a computer parts/repair store in your area that will build a machine to your needs for you (for about 1/2 the price of a Dell in my experience with high end configurations). It's nice to have a store that will service your machine as necessary nearby. The store I buy from is Central Computers online at www.centralcomputers.com (but I have no experience with the online services).
One equipment recommendation is for a SSD for your system disk (in Windows your C: drive). Makes everything run faster. Really.
Thank you, Dennis and Michael, for your responses. I hadn't thought of having one custom built, though my current ailing computer was custom built by my son, which is why I credit it with being serviceable for so many years. He has since moved on to using Mac computers.
Would either of you be willing to tell me approximately how much the computers you have cost? Also, why get a new one every 4 or so years instead of just upgrading specific parts? I want this new computer of mine to last 7 - 10 years.
The computer I use will be seven years old in a couple weeks, and it's running just fine. (The reason I'm planning to get a new one has nothing to do with the performance of this one.) The cost depends, of course, on the specified components. I'll hunt up the quote for the new one, which is actually still a work-in-progress, and send it along to you.
Sometime between when I posted the comment last night and now, I thought of a couple other things worth mentioning. If I opted for an off-the-shelf model, I'd not have enough knowledge to know if it was optimized for my needs. Do I probably need a higher end model? Yes, but I don't want to be paying for things that gamers need and I don't. And I want to be sure I have what I do need. That's why it makes sense to me to have one custom built by someone who understands what's needed. The cost may seem higher, but it's for what is needed and things like a high-end card reader that might otherwise be a peripheral are included. That's one of the things.
The other is monitors. I specifically made that plural. Back in my working days, for some reason I was visiting a department in which the workers (designers???) were using two monitors. It was something I'd not seen before, but I immediately realized the benefit. Hours later, I'd scrounged through the depths of the unused computer hardware storage area and latched on to a second monitor. When I confirmed the advantages at work, I opted to do the same thing at home. There's no comparison. In Photoshop, one monitor has the menu and options bars at the top. The rest, though, is nothing but the image. All the palettes I use are on the second monitor, and there's lots of real estate to allow large thumbnails and to show many history states and layers. In addition, I can follow a written tutorial in a reduced size on the second monitor while doing the work.
The monitor on which I have the image is a Wacom Cintiq which is essentially an upright tablet that can be easily tilted temporarily so it's not perfectly horizontal. All the work I do on selections and finessing masks is with a stylus, and that works so much better than a mouse or trackball.
The downside of two monitors is the extra real estate that's needed. There's a bit more cost, too -- especially with the Cintiq -- but I work on images nearly every day.
Last edited by Dennis Bishop; 07-02-2016 at 08:35 AM.
Greetings. I do some gaming so I maintain a high end machine that has undoubtedly more bells and whistles than what you need. The cost is driven by those features. What Central Computers charges is the discount retail cost of parts plus $90 for assembly and testing. I bought my most recent machine for a little less than $5K but I think one could get a computer to support photography (and general office work) for between $900 and $1800 largely depending on how much disk space you want. That $5K supports 32TB of HDD and a TB of SSD for about half the cost of the system.
I also use two monitors (a 24" and a 27" high gamut). Pricey option.
Why a new machine every 4 years?
- Everything gets better, faster processors, faster, higher capacity memory and storage, higher interface speeds to the internet, and external devices. Same or lower price.
- Hard disks fail.
- New technology emerges requiring new hardware
- New Software is designed for up to date hardware
None of this may matter to you (except the hard disk failure). If I were to plan to keep a machine for 10 years, I would:
- Buy a higher end machine than what I need today (a little faster processor, more memory (think 16GB), an additional hard drive)
- Plan to replace hard drives in 5 years, even though they are working well. Think of it as a solid backup ;-) and doubling of your capacity at less cost than the originals.
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