What is needed most in a computer?

vonBaloney · 08-30-2016, 07:22 AM

Seems to me when I was trying to track down a problem recently, I read something about a lot of people needing new video drivers for Win10 to fix some Photoshop crash. That's the other side of all this of course -- Adobe stuff tends to be buggy, and any specific set-up even if great on paper may be a problem area for some random/unknown reason. (And one reason I stress lots of RAM -- some random crashes seem to go away if they aren't bumping into a RAM limit. They shouldn't happen, but they do.)

kadajawi · 09-04-2016, 04:43 AM

Originally posted by vonBaloney

You really should have a monitor, but maybe laptop screens are really good these days.

Some are:
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga (OLED) Convertible Review - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

On the higher end, and especially in tablets (unfortunately) there are some really good screens these days. Something like the Surface series of tablets, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro S (Windows tablet with Core M, a reasonable-ish price tag and an OLED (!) display... it is gorgeous. Like, it can even come quite close to my plasma levels of gorgeousness). Ultrabooks also tend to have great displays, but the remaining specs aren't ideal for heavy lifting (same with tablets). In general the Surface series of tablets could be a viable choice, they come with somewhat decent processors (at least Surface Pro), they have good (albeit a bit small) displays, and price may still fit within the budget. Add a good Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and you're set. Don't bother with the optional keyboard.

Soon I'll get to use my mothers Core M tablet for my Lightroom etc. needs, we'll see how it does. Integrated graphics, but newer generation, and what is essentially a Core i3 CPU without active cooling, so it won't run at full speed for long.

I've got a relatively beefy computer... 4.5 GHz Intel quadcore (albeit an older generation, but it should still be very fast), 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD and another 14 TB of storage. I still have performance issues, and I assume it is because I lack dedicated graphics. But that very much depends on your software... Adobe software seems to make some use of the GPU... but only in some situations.

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08-30-2016, 07:22 AM	#46
vonBaloney Pentaxian Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Albuquerque, NM Posts: 6,029	Seems to me when I was trying to track down a problem recently, I read something about a lot of people needing new video drivers for Win10 to fix some Photoshop crash. That's the other side of all this of course -- Adobe stuff tends to be buggy, and any specific set-up even if great on paper may be a problem area for some random/unknown reason. (And one reason I stress lots of RAM -- some random crashes seem to go away if they aren't bumping into a RAM limit. They shouldn't happen, but they do.)

09-04-2016, 04:43 AM	#47
kadajawi Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 2,799	Originally posted by vonBaloney You really should have a monitor, but maybe laptop screens are really good these days. Some are: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga (OLED) Convertible Review - NotebookCheck.net Reviews On the higher end, and especially in tablets (unfortunately) there are some really good screens these days. Something like the Surface series of tablets, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro S (Windows tablet with Core M, a reasonable-ish price tag and an OLED (!) display... it is gorgeous. Like, it can even come quite close to my plasma levels of gorgeousness). Ultrabooks also tend to have great displays, but the remaining specs aren't ideal for heavy lifting (same with tablets). In general the Surface series of tablets could be a viable choice, they come with somewhat decent processors (at least Surface Pro), they have good (albeit a bit small) displays, and price may still fit within the budget. Add a good Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and you're set. Don't bother with the optional keyboard. Soon I'll get to use my mothers Core M tablet for my Lightroom etc. needs, we'll see how it does. Integrated graphics, but newer generation, and what is essentially a Core i3 CPU without active cooling, so it won't run at full speed for long. I've got a relatively beefy computer... 4.5 GHz Intel quadcore (albeit an older generation, but it should still be very fast), 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD and another 14 TB of storage. I still have performance issues, and I assume it is because I lack dedicated graphics. But that very much depends on your software... Adobe software seems to make some use of the GPU... but only in some situations.