Railfan Technology > Computer recommendation

Hi.  I need to purchase a windows based laptop and need some recommendations for photo storage.  What is a reasonable number for  GB or Memory and SSD storage for managing several thousand digital images?

Thanks for any help.

Dave

ACER, 8 or 16 gig ram, 500 minimum storage.
I have a 16G ram, 400 gig storage, Windows 10 Acer laptop.
Originally it had a 1 terabyte hard drive, Windows 11.
The HD got fried, and it had Windows 11, which I didn't like,
so when it was repaired W10 was OK.
Price from Staples about $800 Canadian.

I have had good luck with HP and Asus.  Avoid Dell.

radar Wrote:
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> I have had good luck with HP and Asus.  Avoid
> Dell.

Hmmm... My Dell laptops have been rock solid.  Note that Dell makes several grades of laptops, from dirt cheap to premium.  All makers probably do the same thing.  I buy towards the high end -- one of mine is described as a "mobile workstation" and it's the most solid machine I've ever used, personal or corporate, laptop or desktop.  My wife's Alien Ware (a Dell label) desk top has also been rock solid.

Come to think of it, I haven't bought a Dell in a few years, because the ones we have are so solid.  Maybe the newer ones aren't as good.

sf1010 Wrote:
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> radar Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I have had good luck with HP and Asus.  Avoid
> > Dell.
>
> Hmmm... My Dell laptops have been rock solid. 
> Note that Dell makes several grades of laptops,
> from dirt cheap to premium.  All makers probably
> do the same thing.  I buy towards the high end --
> one of mine is described as a "mobile workstation"
> and it's the most solid machine I've ever used,
> personal or corporate, laptop or desktop.  My
> wife's Alien Ware (a Dell label) desk top has also
> been rock solid.
>
> Come to think of it, I haven't bought a Dell in a
> few years, because the ones we have are so
> solid.  Maybe the newer ones aren't as good.

If I need a non Mac laptop....to run Linux perhaps....I would choose Dell....they still give great bang for the buck. 

sf1010 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> radar Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I have had good luck with HP and Asus.  Avoid
> > Dell.
>
> Hmmm... My Dell laptops have been rock solid. 
> Note that Dell makes several grades of laptops,
> from dirt cheap to premium.  All makers probably
> do the same thing.  I buy towards the high end --
> one of mine is described as a "mobile workstation"
> and it's the most solid machine I've ever used,
> personal or corporate, laptop or desktop.  My
> wife's Alien Ware (a Dell label) desk top has also
> been rock solid.
>
> Come to think of it, I haven't bought a Dell in a
> few years, because the ones we have are so
> solid.  Maybe the newer ones aren't as good.

Dells are reliable enough.  My complaint about Dells is that they don't follow industry standards.  For example, you can't use another brand of headset because the computer won't recognize it.  And they force sound effects like reverb that turns on when headphones are used.  It can be defeated, but they hide those controls very well.  Frustrating stuff if you use it for anything creative.

Dell's 17" Precision line of laptop "workstations" are marvelous.  Quiet, quick and made for do-it-yourself repairs, replacements, extra drive space, etc. You will need a bit more heft than most of the cheaper alternatives mentioned above if you want to use Photoshop, Topaz, etc., for photo processing.  If you are going to be editing and saving pics, I suggest that you use a 1 TB Samsung SSD 980 PRO (for speed) and a Western Digital / WD Black 1 TB SATA 7200 RPM PC hard drive for backup of your images.  RAM should be 32 MB or more, with at least 8 MB of GDDR for your graphics card.  If you are buying a used unit, check to see if it is compatible with WIN 11, as 10 is due to be phased-out over the next couple of years.  I prefer WIN 10, too, but Microsoft seems to want to make it difficult to keep it alive on your computer into the future.

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ

A couple of years ago, I purchased a reconditioned Dell 7720 Precision 17" laptop.  Came with 32GB RAM and 476 GB SSD.  Run Win 11 as well as Ubuntu 23.10.  I got it from TigerDirect.

John

I've done business with Tiger Direct in the past, but apparantly they don't exist anymore.
Sold to Insight.com
 

radar Wrote:
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> Dells are reliable enough.  My complaint about
> Dells is that they don't follow industry
> standards.

Back in the day, once Dell established good market share with tech geeks, they started to boast about using "superior" components on their PCs and laptops. Retail version of Microsoft Windows would install and run OK, but the specific Dell edition of Windows made the computers run "better" with device drivers specific to those "superior" components. Looks like the problems you ran into was from that philosophy.

Off topic, but once Linux became very popular, Dell went out of their way to provide device drivers so that it would install "easily."

Anyway, don't know how things are today, but I toured a laptop factory in Hsinchu (Taiwan) about 2 decades ago and watched laptops of different makes (HP, Gateway, Acer, etc.) roll off the same assembly line. Dell and IBM (later Lenovo) weren't in there, so that confirmed the "Dell being a little different" observations that I and others have made at the time.
 

sf1010 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Come to think of it, I haven't bought a Dell in a
> few years, because the ones we have are so
> solid.  Maybe the newer ones aren't as good.

I've used (and still use) Lenovo (IBM), HP, Dell, and others as part of my retro-computing hobby. Dell has given me the least problems in terms of build quality, like trackpad buttons that feel the same more than a decade later, keyboards that don't stick, etc. I almost always buy secondhand (dirt cheap), and only "new" PC I have is an older model HP laptop on clearance, just under $200, specifically to avoid forced obsolescence (Win 10 installed, Win 11 ready). Anyway, my ~15 year old Dell is still running good, and I bought that off of eBay for under $100.

My previous HP (Windows XP) had trackpad buttons wearing out, so I had to press it at the right spot or it didn't feel right.

I did have one Dell go bad, a Windows 2000 era mini-tower and the power supply went bad. Seemed to have been a known problem from that era.

> ...made the computers run "better" with device drivers specific to those "superior" components.

So, just download the specific drivers for "those superior components".

> I did have one Dell go bad, a Windows 2000 era mini-tower and the power supply went bad...

So, just replace the power supply...