Computer for Photography: Fall 2009 Recommendations
Lots of folks ask us for advice on purchasing the “right computer” for digital photography. This a complicated question though since the products change all the time. Right now, I believe that the appropriate computer for a serious photographer must have three things:
- Room for lots of Ram.
- A 64-bit Operating System.
- Fast external hard drive connectors– either a Firewire 800 or an eSATA port.
Before we get into my specific recommendations, let me make it clear that my advice is a: for photographers who are working in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom everyday; and b: for an audience who is not comfortable building their own machine from scratch.
For my own equipment, I have chosen to go Mac. Currently, I own a MacBook Pro, but this computer is just one link in the whole digital photography hardware chain. While I am certainly endorsing the Mac operating system, I have no particular love for Apple monitors, keyboards, mice, and other peripherals.
At home, I use a 15″ MacBook Pro with a calibrated Dell 2408 WFP monitor, a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic keyboard
Here now are my recommendations for laptops and desktop systems. I tried to keep the cost reasonable and to emphasize only the parts that really matter for photographers.
Laptops
Apple MacBook Pro
- 15″ 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
- 4GB (2×2GB) RAM*
- 320GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
Dell Mobile Precision M4400
- 3.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9000 Processor
- Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Edition
- 4GB (2×2GB) RAM*
- 320GB Hard Drive @ 7200 rpm
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 770M, 512MB Video Card
- UltraSharp WUXGA (1920×1200) CCFL Display
- 8X DVD +/-RW Drive
Desktops
Apple iMac
- 27″ 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
- 4GB (2×2GB) RAM*
- 1TB Serial ATA Drive
Apple Mac Pro Tower
- 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor
- 6GB (3×2GB) RAM*
- 640GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
- For monitor advice to go with this system please click here.
Dell Precision T3500 64bit
- 2.26GHZ Intel Quad Core Xeon E5520 Processor
- Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Edition
- 6GB (3×2GB) 1066MHz DDR3 EEC SDRAM*
- 500GB Hard Drive
- ATI FirePro V3750 256MB Video Card
- Mini-Tower or Desktop Chassis with 1394 Card
- 16X DVD +/-RW Drive
- For monitor advice to go with this system please click here.
Need more advice:
- Read Scott Rouse’s in-depth review of the new Mac Laptop line.
- Our advice on external hard drives.
- Lloyd Chambers on how to choose the right Mac.
- Jeffery Friedl, the Lightroom Plug-in King, posted this article recently on his move to a Mac.
- Adobe engineer Scott Byer’s advice on the advantages of a 64-bit Windows operating system.
Please leave us comments if you have questions or suggestions!
________
*Save a bundle by installing more RAM yourself. It’s easy! I buy RAM from Crucial.com
About the Author: David’s sports and landscape images are often used on the web and in outdoor sports publications. He has an extensive knowledge of digital photography and is an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. David is a talented instructor and his entertaining teaching style works for students of all skill levels.
In 2009, David Marx led digital photography programs for the 
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Nothing there!?!?!?
Dear Dan and Cauley,
Digital gremlins ate the text but put up the announcement. Sorry. Its up now and thanks for checking on us.
David
There is one laptop that you did not discuss but is was designed specifically for photographers and graphic artists.
The ThinkPad W700ds:
Up to 8GB RAM, Quad core chip, Vista 64, two solid state hard drives (128GB each), 17in screen with second 10 in screen pull out for tool pallets, built-in screen calibration, and a small Wacom table built in to wrist rest.
FYI: At least in the UK, I can’t configure the two Dell systems you propose. For the M4400, the larget 7200rpm disk I can get is the 250GB with the 320GB only available at 5400rpm. For the T3500, the memory options from Dell jump from 4GB to 12GB as the 6GB is only available in 1333MHz and hence not usable with this processor.
Dear David,
You are right. The Dell options for laptops in the UK are different. Nonetheless I would still look a machine with a 64-bit OS, room for lots of ram, and fast external drive connections. I wonder why the models differ from country to country.
–David
Dear Bob,
Thanks for the info on the Lenovo ThinkPad. For those who are interested here is a review of this monster laptop and
a link to this product from B&H Photo.
David – doesn’t look like Dell’s site has Windows 7 64 bit edition as an option for the Precision desktop, just Vista 64 bit or Win 7 32 bit . . . Do you know what’s up with this?
Dear Deb,
I didn’t have any trouble finding Precision Desktops with Windows 7 64 bit this evening. Couple of things to check though:
1. Are you shopping in the online store for US customers?
2. Are you shopping in the small business (not the home) store?
3. In the search help box on the left hand side of their website, did you click the 64-bit OS option?
Here’s another hyperlink that might help.
Dell Precision Workstations
Please write back if you are still having trouble finding them.
David
Dear Deb,
I was able to find the Precision workstations with 64-bit Windows 7 this evening. Here’s another hyperlink that might help.
Dell Precision Workstations
Couple of things to check:
1. Are in the US customer’s online store?
2. Are you shopping in the small business section (avoid the home user area?)
3. Did you try selecting the 64-bit OS option from the panel on the far left-hand side of the screen?
Please let us know if you are still having troubles.
David
Deb-
Check three things.
1. Are you in the US customer store?
2. Are you in the small business store? Beware of the “home / home office” section!
3. Did you try clicking on the 64-bit OS button on the far left dropdown menu?
Hope this helps.
David
For a PC built from the ground-up for Photoshop & LR give a read. They are workstations with ‘Enterprise’ components made to your specifications.
I have one on order, hopefully to be shipped soon.
oldcootneil
My above post had the URL deleted.
Please check out Cerise Computers
oldcootneil
If you are shopping for a Mac Pro, I strongly suggest reading Lloyd Chambers new Step-by-Step Buyers Guide. This article might save you some money and it will definitely help you get the most out of your new machine.
–
David
Interesting article comparing the new iMac to the Mac Pro.
Why Go Pro?
–
David
i have a few questions –
when you write `room for lots of ram` , can 8Gb be considered enough ? will a board with 4 slots for ram suffice ?
and also in your spring recomedation you also had `256MB of Video RAM ` – is that an attribute of the graphic card , or does that reffer to a seperate designated video card ? will i need a seperate video card if i want to edit video shot with the 5D2 ?
Dear Hill,
For serious digital photographers like you 8GB of Ram will be a great help. In the long run, the more RAM that you have the better.
Buying a system with 4 slots (DIMMs technically) is a good choice since it leaves plenty of room for you to add more ram in when the price is reasonable or when you have a need for the additional power. Video encoding is a prime example of a place where the “additional processing power” really pays off.
So far though I have been talking about the computer’s internal ram. Video Ram is different. Decent video cards have their own Ram chips. Back in the spring I recommended 256MB of Video Ram minimum, but I didn’t worry about listing it this time because even the lowest end MacBook now meets this standard.
Hope this helps. Happy Thanksgiving,
David
hi david,
thank you for the answers. i`m still a bit confused , maybe we are using different terms in israel . are `video card` and `graphic card` the same thing ?
Hill,
Yes, “Video Card” and “Graphics Card” should be referring to the same thing.
-Scott
i finally bought my computer yesterday . i got an i5 , a board with both esata and firewire connection, 8 GB DDR3 ram, and 1T external HD . thanks again for puting up this article and for all the helpful information .
Thanks for all of the information. So, if I buy the iMac, Which photography editing program would be the best to have installed on the computer? Aperture 2 is offered as an add on.
Dear Dotpixels,
I would put Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 on your new machine. Aperture is a nice program but it has failed to capture a significant portion of the digital asset management market.
–
David
What about Photoshop CS4 ? Is this an older program than Lightroom? Do they do the same things? I see that Lightroom 3 is available as a public beta test until April 30th 2010. Maybe I could try that? Thank you!
Dear Dotty,
Lightroom and Photoshop share some capabilities. Both can be used for image enhancement– you can remove dust spots or change the color (white balance) of an image in either program. But Photoshop is not an image management program. Photoshop is the world’s best image enhancer but it is not an efficient tool for searching or sorting through a large volume of digital images. For more info on the strengths of each program please check out this Introduction to Lightroom tutorial.
–
David