Not that hard of a switch to manage…and there are plenty of people here including me who can offer step by step suggestions. As others noted…unless you are using Google services, probably better to export and import calendar, contacts and such…but moving LR and images or any of the other PP packages is pretty cookbook. If you decide to migrate…let’s chat either here or via PM on what you have and what you want and we can assist with advice.
Laptop recommendation needed
- Thread starter KimH
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believe it or not, it is usually safer to store your files on the external drive. You can back them up to another external drive, the cloud or back to the internal drive. The reason a lot of us store on external drives is they are a fraction of the cost of getting bigger internal drives and they are no more or less likely to give out than the solid state drives in today's computers. Solid state drives regardless of if inside the computer or external connected via USB-c cords are reliable and far less likely to crash & burn than the old spinning hard drives of ears past. Nothing is foolproof which is why any drive being used, inside or external, needs to be backed up so that if the drive decides to die, you can continue without interruption.
Hope this helps.
ps, Kim, For what you are needing for the next 4-5 years, a M3 chip is more than sufficient. The difference between M3 and M4, while notable, is not something that would make a direct impact on your daily computing needs. Think of it as a "MkII" camera coming out, there are improvements but many times the improvements are not all that great and the old version is more than sufficient. For what it's worth, I'm still running a MacBook Pro, 13" with an M1 chip and use a 27" 4K monitor and only use the laptop's screen when I'm traveling. This setup, including monitor, was less expensive than the 16" laptop and the smaller one is easier when traveling. Today, it is a 14" I don't think they have a 13" any more. Someone else suggested the MacBook Air. That is a very valid suggestion. They are great machines for all but the most advanced video creators.
Jeff
RikWriter
Well-known member
With what? You simply can't get the hard drive size, memory, etc... in a Mac for less than that. Not if you're buying new. It's not a matter of opinion or preference, it's the prices I found when I was looking not that long ago.
To get an MBP to 4000…you need the high end 16 inch with 48GB and large SSD…and maybe 1 person in a thousand actually needs the incremental performance that has over the 2000 equivalent. I just checked the prices. You need to learn how unified memory works on a Mac…PCs don’t have it. It is faster than normal RAM and macOS and silicon use it much more efficiently. Very few uses require more than 16GB on Apple hardware…and those are pretty much limited to 8K video or where time is money…and those apply to a very small percentage of users. Yes…the 4000 will run a noise reduction faster than the 2000 one…but cutting it from 20 to 15 seconds isn’t really relevant.
The point remains…you are chasing specs…and that’s the wrong metric…and let’s take that 2000 MBP. You claim that an equivalent Windows machine would be 1000…and that machine simply won’t outperform or even equal the MBP. There are videos all over YouTube..
My experience is that a top of the line Razer Blade with i9 processor could not outperform a refurbished base level MacBook Pro 16 with an M1 chip when it came to photo processing. The Razer Blade cost $4k while the refurbished MacBook Pro was $1400. The MacBook Pro significantly outperformed the Razer in photo processing.
I agree with Anjin San that the base model silicone chip MACS (M1 to M4) have built in enhancements even at the base level that significantly enhance memory handling. they also offer very fast data transfer speeds and are compatible with and able to handle multiple monitors including 5k, 6k and even an 8k monitor.
You do not need the high end Macs and if you buy them for photo processing you are wasting your money.
I did not come to this understanding with any prior bias. I was a lifetime PC user and did not use Apple until last year. I decided to try Mac based on recommendations I saw on this site. I am simply sharing my experience. At the time I was looking the MAC solution was actually less expensive for me than the PC alternative.
I agree with Anjin San that the base model silicone chip MACS (M1 to M4) have built in enhancements even at the base level that significantly enhance memory handling. they also offer very fast data transfer speeds and are compatible with and able to handle multiple monitors including 5k, 6k and even an 8k monitor.
You do not need the high end Macs and if you buy them for photo processing you are wasting your money.
I did not come to this understanding with any prior bias. I was a lifetime PC user and did not use Apple until last year. I decided to try Mac based on recommendations I saw on this site. I am simply sharing my experience. At the time I was looking the MAC solution was actually less expensive for me than the PC alternative.
RikWriter
Well-known member
I trust my own experience over YouTube videos on just about everything. Whether or not the Macbook performs acceptably with less memory, I've been able to run Adobe products on $1000 and under PCs for a long time now. Since the first Photoshop that came on a CD. I spent more on this one because I could, but I could have gotten by with an $1100 that I was considering.
Ancient Scottish or Jewish saying "Never Pay Retail"
I got this 16" M1 MBP 16GB Ram with 1 TB SSD for $2200 with tax delivered. Black Friday Approaches Again!
I got this 16" M1 MBP 16GB Ram with 1 TB SSD for $2200 with tax delivered. Black Friday Approaches Again!
$2200 - I would swap the RAM to get 64GB and add a second larger M.2 for a scratch drive (although neither is necessary) but this is a powerhouse with a gorgeous OLED display.
Two thoughts, despite saying we would avoid this thread containing a platform war, it seems to be heading in that direction, and the OP has stated that she is willing to look at Apple products, but prefers to remain in Windows at the moment.
Honoring that, my second suggestion to the OP is to download Belarc Advisor on your current machine and let it take inventory of all your installed software. This will be extremely helpful if you buy a new machine and want to do a fresh install of your software. It should be able to list product keys for installed programs as well so you will not need to look them up.
--Ken
Honoring that, my second suggestion to the OP is to download Belarc Advisor on your current machine and let it take inventory of all your installed software. This will be extremely helpful if you buy a new machine and want to do a fresh install of your software. It should be able to list product keys for installed programs as well so you will not need to look them up.
--Ken
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KimH
Member
Thanks so much. I appreciate the offer. I'm going to take a few days to think about all of this.
KimH
Member
Thank you. I've not heard of Belarc Advisor. I'll check that out.
KimH
Member
Thanks for your comment. I don't think my comment above about hard drives was clear. I do store all of my photos and some docs on my external HDs and I back those up in 2 different places for the reasons you mention. I think I have an idea of what I would need in a mac if I go that direction and this thread as well as a trip to the Apple store yesterday helped me figure that out. Initially I was building a more expensive mac that I now realize I wouldn't need. I would choose the 14" for the same reason as you. I travel and the 14" is more portable than the 16". I have an external monitor too so I only use the laptop's screen when traveling. They are getting ready to release the M4 so I'll watch the price of the M3 Pro to see if it goes down once the M4 is released.
Holy Palomino! I meander on B-H site, they have in stock 168 different M3 Pro notebooks!! Likely find what ya want there, gosh
Kuau
Member
I currently have a Apple M3 Max 16” and I also have the new Asus Pro Art 16 with the latest AMD processor
My baseline test is using one of my Hasselblad X2D100C raw files and run it through ACR Denoise AI here are the results
The Mac does it in 40 seconds and the PC takes 45 seconds
The cost difference is in my case is substantial the MacBook was over $3K and I picked up an open box Pro Art 16 from Bestbuy for $1850
Am I switching to the Asus… no yet it does show in terms of performance there is not a “huge” advantage from the Machook to the ASUS
My baseline test is using one of my Hasselblad X2D100C raw files and run it through ACR Denoise AI here are the results
The Mac does it in 40 seconds and the PC takes 45 seconds
The cost difference is in my case is substantial the MacBook was over $3K and I picked up an open box Pro Art 16 from Bestbuy for $1850
Am I switching to the Asus… no yet it does show in terms of performance there is not a “huge” advantage from the Machook to the ASUS
Whatever…but we have gone far afield of Kim’s original question so let’s not get into a debate where nobody will be convinced.
She’s go plenty of opinions both ways and can ask more questions or decide without all the minutia.**wrote and then deleted a bunch more minutia here**
. Ken is right…we are drifting into platform debate territory and this a friendly place…so I’m all for keeping it that way.xxx
Active member
No chi-com made, non-right-to repair, vanity brands for me.
KimH
Member
Interesting….
I faced similar problem of replacing my windoze laptop this spring. I photograph a 5-day festival every year and the post processing burden was not going to be a happy event with my old computer. After thorough consideration (including switching to Apple) I bought an Asus ProArt Studiobook 16:
Mine is the version with 32 MBytes and RTX4070 graphics accelerator.
This has been a great upgrade. Lightroom and Photoshop now work with no lag. Enhance, which took tens of minutes on the old machine, is now near instantaneous. It has a calibrated OLED screen with near 100% Adobe color and low delta-E.
It includes an active stylus which works both on the (touch) screen and on the track pad, so I no longer need a Wacom pad which took valuable desk space. The pen has no discernable latency and is amazing.
I use Topaz Photo AI on almost every photo now (I usually shoot in low, uneven light) and it takes about 10s to render and output a full-size tiff (Z8/9 sized).
It is supposedly built to near military standards.
Downside is: Performance degrades when unplugged from power; The power BRICK is enormous. Good news is that it comes with a backpack.
There is a new version out called the Asus P16. There are not many reviews of it yet. It uses an AMD processor instead of an Intel i9. Same graphics card available. In early reviews it performs better than the old version when unplugged, but surprisingly is behind the previous version when plugged in.
The transfer from my old computer was easy. I use the internal ssd during processing, external storage for intermediate/long-term storage and backup, and also Backblaze, and have no problems.
I am very happy with this.
Hope this helps.
Mine is the version with 32 MBytes and RTX4070 graphics accelerator.
This has been a great upgrade. Lightroom and Photoshop now work with no lag. Enhance, which took tens of minutes on the old machine, is now near instantaneous. It has a calibrated OLED screen with near 100% Adobe color and low delta-E.
It includes an active stylus which works both on the (touch) screen and on the track pad, so I no longer need a Wacom pad which took valuable desk space. The pen has no discernable latency and is amazing.
I use Topaz Photo AI on almost every photo now (I usually shoot in low, uneven light) and it takes about 10s to render and output a full-size tiff (Z8/9 sized).
It is supposedly built to near military standards.
Downside is: Performance degrades when unplugged from power; The power BRICK is enormous. Good news is that it comes with a backpack.
There is a new version out called the Asus P16. There are not many reviews of it yet. It uses an AMD processor instead of an Intel i9. Same graphics card available. In early reviews it performs better than the old version when unplugged, but surprisingly is behind the previous version when plugged in.
The transfer from my old computer was easy. I use the internal ssd during processing, external storage for intermediate/long-term storage and backup, and also Backblaze, and have no problems.
I am very happy with this.
Hope this helps.
KimH
Member
this helps! thank you
It is my go to when I migrate or set up a new machine. It has a free version and you can find more information here: https://www.belarc.com/products/belarc-advisor .
--Ken
KimH
Member
LOL - I ran it but I'm not sure what the results mean!
There is a lot of information that is generated, but what you want to focus on is the list of the applications and software that are installed on your computer. I print it out and then use it as a "checklist" when I am setting up a new computer. You would be surprised what software gets installed that you may have forgotten about. And, in reviewing the list, it give you a chance to decide if you want to install any of the programs on your new machine. And, as I previously mentioned, it also lists the product keys for any software that require their input when installing software. The security features are interesting to read, but not as necessary for a migration to a new machine.
--Ken
KimH
Member
This is so helpful. Thank you!!!
Calson
Well-known member
I use the pugetsystems.com website where they provide free tests of editors and people upload the results. Provides excellent information on which CPUs and which GPUs provide a significant gain in performance with these applications.
As a rule I buy laptops from Lenovo and Apple as they provide tech support based in the United States by people where English is their native language. The Lenovo trackpoint works so well that I never use a mouse with these laptops.
USB4 with Windows laptops should provide for a great increase in speed with card readers and external drives and this is only provided by Asus at this time.
As a rule I buy laptops from Lenovo and Apple as they provide tech support based in the United States by people where English is their native language. The Lenovo trackpoint works so well that I never use a mouse with these laptops.
USB4 with Windows laptops should provide for a great increase in speed with card readers and external drives and this is only provided by Asus at this time.
wassa1957
Active member
Thanks for this post. I too am looking at a new/er laptop. Mainly for photo tour trips. My PC works well but the laptop hangs continually with PS processing. You people have covered the areas I've looked at with added depth to help me decide which direction to go.