Larry, Have a look at Macsales.com. You can get a used Mac for a fraction of the price of a new one. I and several colleagues have used them, and have been very satisfied.
Rick On Mon, Aug 17, 2020 at 23:19 Larry Colen <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > On Aug 17, 2020, at 7:15 PM, Godfrey DiGiorgi <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > > > I generally don't play with building computers anymore. I don't see the > point when you can buy such amazing performance for so little money > nowadays. > > > > A pretty base level mac would set me back between half a month and a month > of my gross income, before I pay taxes, food, mortgage etc. You’re idea of > “little money” bears little resemblance to the reality that I live in. > > > > > If you like doing it as your hobby or if it's part of the fun you have > in doing image processing, that's fine. But here's my processing upgrade > story: > > > > > > I'd been running on a 2012 edition Mac mini updated with 1T SSD and max > (16G) RAM since it was new until last December. It proved sufficiently > robust performance-wise to satisfy my needs until I started playing with > the Light L16 50Mpixel image files. Since I ordered the Hasselblad 907x > Special Edition last Summer, I figured that these 50Mpixel image files > might be slow processing too much on the old mini for my comfort. So I > upgraded the mini to the 2018-2019 Mac mini outfitted with the 3.2Ghz > 6-core processor, 32G RAM, and 1T internal SSD. I bought a new USB-3.1 > compatible hub for my array of working and archive disks, and reused my > existing keyboard and trackpad (all current edition Apple models), USB-3 > disk enclosures, and my Apple Thunderbolt 27" display. It cost me on the > order of $2000 total. I upgraded to Catalina and moved on to Lightroom > Classic from v6.14 since, after testing five different alternatives, I > haven't found anything that does what I want/need as well just yet … and I > had some work that I wanted to get done. > > > > I may be forced to go to the ransomeware version of lightroom. > > > > > > > > > > > Disk read/write performance has improved by about 25-30% roughly, image > processing throughput with 50Mpixel Hasselblad raw files using LR now > matches the performance I used to see with the old mini and > Olympus/Pentax/Leica 10-16 Mpixel raw files. The Light L16 "Lumen" software > remains a sluggish performer … It's just not written in an optimal way for > macOS, it seems. No big deal. Hasselblad's own Phocus application performs > very well albeit that I'm just learning how to use it (it's not quite as > slick in use as LR Classic, but 15 years of LR experience do weigh in on > that). > > > > > > I've done a couple of small videos with this system now using trial > versions of Final Cut and other software: It's MUCH more facile than the > old mini. Everything else I use the computer for has sped up by a > noticeable increment and remains as reliable as ever. :) > > > > > > Far as I'm concerned, this was a good trade off between time spent > figuring out how to improve my image processing system, how to transition > with minimal disruption to my existing stuff, and overall performance at a > reasonable cost. I'm sure there are other solutions that might fit what you > want better. > > > > > > It's just what I did in the circumstance of needing an upgrade, and it's > worked out very nicely. > > > > I’m glad that it works nicely for you. It’s nice when you can afford to > apply Sam Vimes boots theory to computers. > > > > If you can afford to even consider buying a hasselblad your budget is so > far and above larger than most of ours, that what works for you out of your > pocket change is often beyond the scope of us mere mortals. > > > > If I had $2,000 lying around for a computer upgrade, I’d be taking an > entirely different tack, up to possibly just buying a new computer. > > > > -- > > Larry Colen > > [email protected] > > > > > > > > > > -- > > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > > [email protected] > > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
