Buying advice for my final computer: laptop, all-in-one desktop, or what?

Search all the stores' web sites of the ones closest to your home and look for a Quad Core based machine that will have a good quantity of RAM. 8 Gigabite should suffice for quite some time. At least 6 years long.

Go for stores that offer an in-home installation and configuration to your own specifications. Therefore, a Desktop machine of no more than a price tag of 1,250$ + taxes, delivery and on site installation costs. Should not pass the 1,600$ overall cost. Do not forget that you will need to buy the latest in internet security software and, quite possibly, one of your favorite, every day game for outside the usual hobby of yours.

Retirement offers a lot of time to yourself and, the days are quite long, now. The whole 24 hours a day, every day, for the rest of your remaining life. 6 years will become an eternity and, you will get to forget the days you worked like a horse for the monies needed for those darn bills.

Enjoy shopping!

Brian, unless you plan to move about a lot, opt for the best desktop and largest monitor you can accommodate in your new lifestyle. I am 78 years old and have just bought my third "Final Computer" When you retire the computer will be more and more important to you and since you are obviously experienced get something that will meet all your needs. The computer will keep you connected and involved. Keep stretching your mind and live longer.
JEB

Most laptops (of any brand) or even the mac Mini will have a decent amount of memory: I recommend at least 4 gig and dual processors to handle your picture processing. (Aperture 3 works fine for me with this configuration.) But what I found absolutely necessary and useful is attaching a large display/monitor to your laptop. This will facilitate the manipulation of your pics when you enhance and post-process. This way you can carry the laptop wherever you go locally or on trips, but you have the luxury of the large display in the office, thereby negating the need to buy an all-in-one desktop. I am 79, and started into photography 10 years ago and eventually found this to be my best arrangement. Skip processing at Wal-mart. Spend some of your budget on a quality printer and do your own printing.
Jimcur

Well, Brian, congratulations on retirement! Hope I can provide some assistance.
Your budget is a sizeable one, and in my experience, there is a primary area to invest your money: the processor. RAM can be upgraded, different programs can be added / deleted, but the processor is forever. If you are intending to do photo and video editing, I recommend at least an Intel i5 or an AMD Phenom II X4. Both would be adequate for video / photo work.

As you have stated that you would be working with photo / video editing, a large hard-drive would be desireable (500 GB or larger - preferably larger). Given those two points, the only laptops which would suit your purpose would be large and rather heavy, making their portability of moderate value. They would also be rather pricey in comparison to a similarly-equipped desktop or all-in-one, in addition to usually having much smaller hard-drives.

If not a laptop, the then question becomes, desktop or all-in-one? I'm with you on the debate about wires all over the place - what a mess that can be. If you are a rather neat, tidy person, the all-in-one would probably be preferable: few wires to connect or set up - just plug it in and begin. Among the all-in-one manufacturers that I would recommend: Apple (an iMac), Lenovo (IdeaCentre A700 - 40244JU) and Hewlet Packard (200xt or 200t models). All offer Intel i-series processors (the HP and the iMac offer Intel i5, while the Lenovo offers an Intel i7), large Ram (6 GB +), and large hard-drives of 750 GB or more. Dedicated graphics are preferable, but not necessary (only the HP offers dedicated graphics as an option).

At this point the question becomes: do you know what software you want to use for your video / photo editing? Some software will only work on a Windows platform, some will only work on an Apple platform. If you have not made a decision on this point, you don't need to do so right away. There is a lot of superb software available for both Mac and Windows for photo / and video editing (though it may take a sizeable portion of your budget to get professional-level software).

The cheapest way to go about buying a computer to do what you want would be to just get a desktop tower, and buy any peripherals you need (like a monitor!). But if style and space are an issue, the all-in-one is probably more your ticket.

Best wishes for your retirement and computer search!

Hello there

I actually own a computer consultancy business in the United Kingdom and we do lots of computer call out jobs in London and various parts of the UK. I would have to say that with your budget you could buy a decent computer system for your needs (desktop computer) for no more than $700 or $800 US. Be very careful if choosing an all in one PC as if one component fails you will have to have this fixed if the guarantee runs out and this can take time since various parts if they've burnt out have to be ordered and this could takes weeks, not days to fix the problem should your all in one desktop's component(s) fail. Be very careful when buying a laptop since many of my clients buy laptops and then they use the laptop charger to power up the laptop for hours and hours and hours and in the end they end up damaging the laptop after 2 years since they should really charge up the batter of the laptop and use the laptop independently off the battery. In other words, if you intend on buying a laptop, make sure you purchase a laptop with at least between 5 to 8 hours of battery life so you can use the laptop for quite a few hours. Laptops when they we're first introduced on to the computer market we're seen by many as a replacement of a desktop PC, but there are drawbacks to laptops (i.e. if you buy a laptop and the guarantee has run out then there's a high price to pay when you want to get it fixed). For example, I've just completed a laptop repair job which involved me stripping down the laptop (HP Pavillion DV6000). The problem with this laptop was that it started cutting out every few seconds after being turned on. I had to eliminate several possibilities as to what was causing the fault. Finally I found what the fault was. The Nvidia graphics chip started to overheat and the heatsink wasn't keeping the Nvidia chip from over heating so I had to use a cleaning solution (cleaning solution for removing old thermal conducting liquid on both CPU and Graphcs chip) and then afterwards, placing a silver compound over both the Nvida chip and CPU chip and then replacing the heatsink. Once this was done, the laptop worked like a dream but this was only a tempoary fix as the problem can start all over again after a few months so be very careful when purchasing a laptop. If cost is a problem then there are some good deals available (desktop) from HP and Dell. Don't buy HP Laptops though since you will have problems with over heating. Hp Desktops are good but don't go for a slimline HP go for a Full tower since slimline cases can overheat since there is no room for other fans to cool down the system. You could also opt for building a PC or getting a friend or family to build you a PC for a fraction of the price your looking to pay and it can also come with an Intel i5 processor.

Brian, I was Fr**s Electronics and spoke with a Lieutenant who was deploying to Afghanistan and wanted to make Documentaries to be sent back home. For convenience, he wanted a Laptop (easier to transport) that needed to deal with the heat, dust, but needed to process HD video files. We settled on 3 different machines that he needed to check with manufacturers about support in Afghanistan. These three were the Panasonic Touchbook, Dell Latitude XFR, or HP Rugged (i3 or i5 based)with as much storage and RAM you can handle. Remember that your editing programs run in the RAM and your files will be quite large. We decided on Intel-based since Technical Service will be limited out there (I don't know about how Riyadh is). Because of the Windows OS, there should a lot of people to help if you run across a problem. Apple is great, BUT if you crash, break, or otherwise screw up, you might be on your own in Saudi Arabia.

When I need a computer and want the best deal for the money I go to techforless.com Let's face it times are not getting any easier and the more you can save the better off you are.
I have bought 4 laptops and 5 desktops from them. If I had bought them in a store I would have only been able to afford 1 or 2. In 6months their outdated anyways. Their tech support is great and so are their warranties. You can call them and they will help you with your budget and needs.
five0_five0@yahoo.com

You don't need to spend the entire $2,000 right now. Technology prices are rock bottom, so I'd go with current needs and figure on replacing it with a newer machine in ~5 yrs when your needs/wants change. I'm also a retired photographer and now spend our winters in AZ. I have a Lenovo all-in-one at one place where space is an issue, a HP desktop at the other where space is not an issue, and a laptop for travel. When traveling, I move my photos off the camera, caption if necessary, and organize them on a hard drive each night. For all 3 machines, the total bill would be around $2,000, Minimum ram running on each is about 4GB and I'm happy with the performance. They are running Windows7, XP and Vista respectively, and they seem to all be talking nice to each other! Welcome to retirement! You'll never know how you had time to work.

When cleaning out one day, I found the receipt for our first computer, an AppleIIc, and it was right around $3,000! Our second computer had a DOS OS and a whopping big 40MB HD and cost right around the same amount!

Don't even think about a 'last' computer. Computers do not last for ever and even if they did design and technology moves so fast that trying to keep any machine for long is a false economy. I retired four years ago, have replaced my machine once and expect to need to do so a few more times yet.

My advice is buy a machine (laptops are the way to go for most of us) that is running the previous release of Windows (Vista) not quite the latest chipset but with a fast 'bus' and more RAM and hard disc than you think you need. As you want to edit video get the premium version of Windows and a good LCD screen. In the UK you could get this for about half your budget, put the rest away for your next upgrade. Also make sure you invest in good backup, an external hard disc or online service.

Ken

I've read a lot of the posts,and must say-I don't agree with quite a few.I have a Toshiba Satellite Media Center laptop that I bought 5 years ago,has all of the slots and programs you could possibly need for any media, x-tra memory slots,can plug in your camera,SSD slot,and more that I still haven't used. As far as over-heating, my husband bought me this flatboard that has 2 cooling fans that you can rest your laptop onto,and it plugs into your usb port. My laptop has 4 of them (usb ports), so it doesn't matter.The cooling board cost under $20 at Walmart. My computer costs almost $1500 fully loaded - and I mean loaded.You would love it!! If I were you, I would check online,and buy direct from the company. They have good deals from all manufacturers.Can't hurt.

Hi Brian, a laptop provides great flexibility and would be my recommendation based upon your fairly high budget. I have used a few laptops over the years and in the PC world I would not hesitate to highly recommend a Lenovo Laptop. Lenovo makes very COOL running laptops that you can actually place on your lap without getting hot. They are also an extremely well built laptop for the money. For a piece of mind you are likely able to get an extended warranty for that budget as well. Happy hunting!

Lots of valid statements to sort through Brian. I decided on getting my 1st laptop in 06'. I just wanted to see if I would like that format from a desktop. I got the cheapest one I could find. A new Compaq that had a keyboard issue and they replaced the machine with a better one. It was weak in the CPU and Ram to run Vista Ultimate and I broke down and got the biggest CPU and most ram I could put in it. I still use it now. I bought another Compaq but this one with an AND, Nvida setup. It died last year with the solder issue stated earlier. I replaced the mother board and it runs now. Another friend has a HP AMD/Nvida with the same problem. There is a class action suite taking care of these issues. Laptop replacement and repair costs will be covered. I advised my Sister to get the best and it came bummed but they replaced it. All my issues with hardware have been resolved. Is HP better than others? I can't say. And the PC/APPLE debate is alive and well. I'm no tech but after looking inside these devices they are pretty robust. Can handle shock and knocking around to a point. I take mine on my motorcycle and on trips. I do it all on here. TV, movies, et all. It ain't no Timex but it's still rocking better than new. Good luck

macs are expensive to replace parts on,and often are more fragile. pcs have easily replacables parts and aren't as flakey. macs when runiing well are great, but once problems develop, it becomes a great white brick. I'd run a Linux for the OS on a intel system , max out the memory and if you run in a dirty enviroment look into ruggedized
laptop, Panasonic is one company that offers them, they have parts that make them less fragile. police often use them. Linux: most are no cost, open source
you can try several our via a live boot CD. I'd suggest Mint, Ubuntu, or another Debian flavor. if you absolutely have to have Windoze, go for Win 7 and max out your memory. uSoft has a XP Mode which works well, so make sure the Win 7 version you get can run that downloadable option if you need to run XP apps still.don't even listen to the weenies who says 3 GB memory is enough, 12 or more Gb better and do the 64 bit instruction set, your graphics and you will run better. anyone who doesn't suggest thatlose them and find someone who won't jerk ypou around. one site found to start if you need it
http://ruggednotebooks.com/

This relates to and is the original article where I learned about the newer lead-free solder problem..

http://www.militaryaerospace.com/index/display/article-display/238657/articles/military-aerospace-electronics/volume-16/issue-10/news/trends/lead-free-solder-a-train-wreck-in-the-making.html

You don't really need a laptop by what you have stated, however, you must have some consideration for portability for having at least thought it. So, my recommendation - buy an all-in-one 21.5" (or a discounted 27") quad core iMac with a target limit of $1500, and you'll be able to do all you want with your photos. Then, buy a $499 16GB iPad, and you'll be able to really ENJOY them, and show them to your friends. If you don't want to pay for MobileMe, you can also download Dropbox and sign up for a 2GB account for free.

This is the best advice out of all of them! Just go to the Apple store (or Best Buy, etc.) and try this before making a different (bad) decision. You won't regret it.

I switched to a Mac a year ago (I'm 47, and have been on PCs for about 20 years).

Good luck!

deinitively go for a desktop replacement. The heat generation is not a problem. In fact there tons of laptops stands with heat dissipation. A super Dell media center will do well for your editing hobby. Asus also sells some excellent Quad core units (i7) that handle anything. Make sure you get a hard drive of 500 gigs or more.
bpadilla

However, the manufacturers and software vendors have a different agenda...

Good day Sir,
I just purchased my first Mac, It is an IMac 27 inch all in one desktop.
The purchase of this computer was mainly done based on the same reasons you mentioned regarding photo and video editing.
As I am starting my new photography business, I need a very repayable machine that can deliver, and an operating system that doesn't crash on me all the time. From a photographer prospective, I kick my self in the bombom for not buying the Mac long time ago, it would've saved me allot of time. I bought it one month a go and yet to see a single crash.

One big plus for you would be a big wonderful 27 screen, now I process my pictures zooming in 400% to 800% without any problems, the screen only would be enough reason to buy it.

I got the i7 quad core to carry me through my work load, with 4GB of RAM, the machine is a monster that never complain of work, but I will be pumping the RAM to 12GB, I have the Canon 5D MKII, and I tried opening 20 RAW file at the same time, no problem, heavy process them, no problem.

I am so happy with it and as a photographer, Mac is the number 1 choice.

Another thing regarding the IMac 27inch, it comes with a wonderful wireless magic mouse and a wireless keyboard, the only cable on my desk now is the camera cable to connect to my keyboard's USB port.

All the best with your choice and I wish you a happy retirement,

The only disadvantage of buying a Laptop for you final PC is that at this time they are set up for being good for about 3.5 years. Really!! I just purchased a desktop that will last me for what should be about 6-7 years!! I have 8 gb of RAM and a TB of HD memory plus an external had as well.
My Mother is 83 and has a Laptop and a Desktop but never ever any longer use anythign but her new desktop.
Good Luck&God Bless!!