[MarkJerling]

Wow, can you share a spec for that machine? I'm curious, with the recent (last 2 years) jump in computational power, why would it cost more to outperform an older machine?

I currently have a Elitebook 8760W i7 2.3GHz 32GB ram, fingerprint reader, HDMI, 5 USB slots, which was modded at the time with much higher than spec Nvidea graphics, lots of ram and two drives, one SSD, the other not. Most of the additional cost 7 years ago went into the Nvidea graphics card which runs 3-D CAD work really well. Added to that, the problem that new laptops with 17" screens are few and far between. Almost everything now is 15".

So new machine quote: HP ZBook 17G6, 64GB RAM in 4 memory slots, Windows 10 Pro, 2.3GHz Core i9 Octacore, Intel with NVidea RTX 5000 graphics, fingerprint reader, 2TB SSD, HDMI, network and 5x USB 3.1 type C ports, 17" screen.
Price for this here is: $11,000 + GST = $12,650

[MarkJerling]

Imo the best solution for a home computer is building a desktop PC, dollar per dollar there's no comparison in terms of performance and flexibility.

Except no-one wants top be chained to a desk anymore. So, with a desktop machine, there's no flexibility as to where you work.

[PDL]

You know, it is kind of hard to have 1TB and 6TB mirrored program/data disks inside a laptop. Or even more than one drive. Things that require Dongles and cables do not count.

Desktops have their place. Buy the biggest (figuratively), fastest, maxed out memory, biggest Disk, best graphics card and the largest monitor that you can afford. Keep in mind that after you buy it, build it and get everything installed it will be obsolete. I remember one guy I knew who bought all the software he could, but not a computer. He waited until he had the money and bought a machine for his family. Literally, the day after he got it all put together Intel came out with a new CPU (Pentium II) he was so mad he almost went home to throw the computer out. We talked him out of it, then shook our heads at him as he went out to the parking lot to go home. Get the best you can afford at the time and move on.

[MarkJerling]

You know, it is kind of hard to have 1TB and 6TB mirrored program/data disks inside a laptop. Or even more than one drive. Things that require Dongles and cables do not count.

My last 3 laptops both have / had two (internal) drives. But, I don't use them for mirroring anymore. With SSD drives drive failure rate is so low it's not necessary and with cloud based storage, it's really convenient to be able to work anywhere. I use the SSD drive for the operating system and the other drive for storage.

This week, for instance, I worked at the office, at home and at a client's place of work, all on the same laptop. A few weeks back I worked at the military base where my son did his physical and aptitude assessments for applying for the Army. When my dad was dying in South Africa I worked in his hospital room during the times he was asleep and I worked during the 14h Johannesburg / Sydney flights. You can't do that with a desktop PC.

[lesmore49]

This week, for instance, I worked at the office, at home and at a client's place of work, all on the same laptop. A few weeks back I worked at the military base where my son did his physical and aptitude assessments for applying for the Army.

Good luck to your son. I believe I mentioned quite awhile ago that my son took a trip to NZ a couple of years ago. He rented a motorcycle (BMW G/S) and toured much of your wonderful country.

While he was there, New Zealand was hit by massive wildfires . He wanted to see as much of the country as he could and sometimes that would involve traveling by night. He told us of one instance where the traffic...very light at the time (effects of fire and late night)... was escorted through a town that was empty (residents had been evacuated) by NZ military personnel. Think in this instance there was just him and a few commercial trucks. I recall him saying it was an eerie occasion...dark, deserted town.....military escort....a couple of trucks and him, on his rented BMW motorcycle. It felt as if it was a scene out of a action/adventure movie.

BTW, thx again for your input regarding our computer selection. We bought one that has a Windows 10 Pro operating system, as per your advice.

Les

[awscreo]

I currently have a Elitebook 8760W i7 2.3GHz 32GB ram, fingerprint reader, HDMI, 5 USB slots, which was modded at the time with much higher than spec Nvidea graphics, lots of ram and two drives, one SSD, the other not. Most of the additional cost 7 years ago went into the Nvidea graphics card which runs 3-D CAD work really well. Added to that, the problem that new laptops with 17" screens are few and far between. Almost everything now is 15".

So new machine quote: HP ZBook 17G6, 64GB RAM in 4 memory slots, Windows 10 Pro, 2.3GHz Core i9 Octacore, Intel with NVidea RTX 5000 graphics, fingerprint reader, 2TB SSD, HDMI, network and 5x USB 3.1 type C ports, 17" screen.
Price for this here is: $11,000 + GST = $12,650

I'm curious, is the laptop absolutely necessary for the workflow? Seems you'd save about 5k building a PC with better spec (say, Threadripper 3960x - 24 cores, 48 threads), same GPU, more ram and storage, plus a huge 32" screen or two
If you require to work at the location, then yeah I guess I see where the cost is adding up to. Although similar laptops cost about a third of the price, I wonder if it's possible to just add more ram into this one (SSD's and ram are dirt cheap these days):
Acer Store: ConceptD 7 Pro - CN715-71P-770L | Acer

Nonetheless, you're shopping for a very high end machines! I just gave up on laptops because desktops are just so much faster and more affordable, plus a lot of fun to build)

---------- Post added 09-17-20 at 11:05 PM ----------

Except no-one wants top be chained to a desk anymore. So, with a desktop machine, there's no flexibility as to where you work.

There's always... THIS:

You Tube

You Tube

---------- Post added 09-17-20 at 11:09 PM ----------

I want to thank all the posters who have provided such valuable information to my wife and I, while we make our decision regarding the purchase of a computer. I was mentioning to my wife this morning after we reviewed all the posts, that for people like us, who are not technologically savvy, we've received a wealth of info and had a thorough education on what type of computer is best for our needs, through the input we've received on this thread on the PF.

The stage we are at, right now is that we are hopefully near the final decision and when we make that decision I will post on this thread.

Thanks to all who have participated in this thread and if you think of anything else, please post.

---------- Post added 09-17-20 at 04:49 PM ----------

[/COLOR]We have ordered our new computer. Here it is.

https://www.costco.ca/asus-rog-zephyrus-g15-ga502iu-xs74-gaming-laptop%2c-am...100659825.html

Should be here in 4 to 10 days.

It has Windows 10 Pro .

What would you suggest for a browser for this system ?

Question, is the Edge Chromium browser pretty good, or glitchy ?

Thanks to all for your help. With your input we were able to make an informed decision.


We may be asking questions again, once it arrives.

We're senior learners.

Les and Mrs. Les [COLOR="Silver"]

No problem, glad I could help

for browsers - I personally switched to the Brave browser. It's based on chrome, but with more privacy. If you want a more mainstream option, Firefox is pretty decent these days. I stopped using chrome, and have never used IE/Edge personally (they feel too clunky). Best of luck with a new machine!
Maybe you should load up some games, the gaming tech have progressed at insane rates, there's a game out there for everyone to enjoy

[MarkJerling]

Good luck to your son. I believe I mentioned quite awhile ago that my son took a trip to NZ a couple of years ago. He rented a motorcycle (BMW G/S) and toured much of your wonderful country.

While he was there, New Zealand was hit by massive wildfires . He wanted to see as much of the country as he could and sometimes that would involve traveling by night. He told us of one instance where the traffic...very light at the time (effects of fire and late night)... was escorted through a town that was empty (residents had been evacuated) by NZ military personnel. Think in this instance there was just him and a few commercial trucks. I recall him saying it was an eerie occasion...dark, deserted town.....military escort....a couple of trucks and him, on his rented BMW motorcycle. It felt as if it was a scene out of a action/adventure movie.

BTW, thx again for your input regarding our computer selection. We bought one that has a Windows 10 Pro operating system, as per your advice.

Les

Thank you.
Good to hear Les. I hope the machine works well for you.
Where in NZ was this? I don't recall any such massive wild fires here.

---

Last edited by MarkJerling; 09-17-2020 at 08:24 PM.

[MarkJerling]

I'm curious, is the laptop absolutely necessary for the workflow? Seems you'd save about 5k building a PC with better spec (say, Threadripper 3960x - 24 cores, 48 threads), same GPU, more ram and storage, plus a huge 32" screen or two

As noted above, I like to be able to work anywhere and I don't want to have to go from one machine to another. At work I have an HP docking station so I run large screens. At home, if I need to, I plug in a second screen. Plus, at home I like to work at the Dining Room table rather than in the Study so the laptop is convenient for that. I also use it for Lightroom and like to be able to work with my photography on it when travelling. So, no, a PC has not been an option for some years.

[lesmore49]

Thank you.
Good to hear Les. I hope the machine works well for you.
Where in NZ was this? I don't recall any such massive wild fires here.

Me too. Seems to have good reviews.

Think it was the Nelson wildfires, I believe.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=...IC_o_Z0uFsxQz2

[MarkJerling]

Me too. Seems to have good reviews.

Think it was the Nelson wildfires, I believe.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=...IC_o_Z0uFsxQz2

Aha. Yes, it turned out that those were arson, can you believe it!

[PDL]

My last 3 laptops both have / had two (internal) drives. But, I don't use them for mirroring anymore. With SSD drives drive failure rate is so low it's not necessary and with cloud based storage, it's really convenient to be able to work anywhere. I use the SSD drive for the operating system and the other drive for storage.

This week, for instance, I worked at the office, at home and at a client's place of work, all on the same laptop. A few weeks back I worked at the military base where my son did his physical and aptitude assessments for applying for the Army. When my dad was dying in South Africa I worked in his hospital room during the times he was asleep and I worked during the 14h Johannesburg / Sydney flights. You can't do that with a desktop PC.

I have a total of 7.25TB in my desktop. All of my photographs, edits, software are stored on it. I have three major photo editing systems and a few other tools. The desktop can run Affinity Photo, Lightroom 6.14 and Capture One Pro at the same time - I tried it just to see if I could.

I am not suggesting that desktops are the only solution, but if you need to have a very powerful machine a desktop is a viable option. I too have a reasonably powerful laptop. However, I am not in the mood to carry around 6TB disk drives (yes I have adapters that allow for std 5.25" hard drives to be running off of a USB port. As for "cloud based" storage - it depends on where you are. I am in the US where connection speeds are basically a joke when compared to the rest of the planet. (My house has a 6Mbs DSL line and it would take me weeks of on-line time to upload my images to the cloud). The last time I uploaded images to the cloud it took nearly two hours.

Anyway this is moot for me as I have taken 10 images this year - yeah year. Four with my K-3II and 6 with my crappy phone. So it goes.

It's also very hard to build your own laptop.

Oh - and as for what to get in your system - buy a graphics tablet for both laptops and desktops. Although I have a laptop with built in pen support and touch screen.

[lesmore49]

Aha. Yes, it turned out that those were arson, can you believe it!

I can. A lot of wild fires seem to be started by arsonists. Terrible damage, loss of life....awful stuff and hard for those of us who live normal lives, why someone would with intent, be involved in arson.

[MarkJerling]

I have a total of 7.25TB in my desktop. All of my photographs, edits, software are stored on it.

I hope you have a good backup regime and off-site storage.

[MarkJerling]

I am in the US where connection speeds are basically a joke when compared to the rest of the planet. (My house has a 6Mbs DSL line and it would take me weeks of on-line time to upload my images to the cloud). The last time I uploaded images to the cloud it took nearly two hours.

Sorry to hear that. Ours is running a wee bit slow today, but I suspect your slow and my slow is somewhat different!

[awscreo]

Sorry to hear that. Ours is running a wee bit slow today, but I suspect your slow and my slow is somewhat different!

the ratio is better than mine for sure lol. I get 600m download, but only 20m upload. takes too long to upload anything large-ish in size, but minutes to download..

Maybe it's just me, but I have 3 backups of my work files, and photography stuff lol. One on my desktop HDD that i only use for storage (OS/apps/games running on m.2 ssd's), one on an external hdd, and last one in my 8tb NAS lol. I've lost files before and I really don't want to do that again)