Best computer for picture/video editing?

Apple has "all but abandoned the professional market"? In my experience, all of the graphic designer/photographers I know are on a Mac.

I will give you that most designers I know still favor macs, but a large chunk of photographers, most video and motion graphics guys, and certainly almost every 3d artist I know now uses a PC. Granted motion graphics and 3d work requires a lot of raw power and we don't have the luxury of sitting around for 5 years waiting for Apple to maybe release something marginally better for twice the price.
 
One thing that is missing from the whole cost discussion is resale value. My previous computer was a Mac mini 2012 that I bought in 2013 and sold in 2016 for about $100 less than I paid for it. The equivalent PC would have had nowhere that kind of resale value. Think of it like a Toyota, overpriced to start but it’s worth it because it retains so much more value.

Also, lots of people mentioning importance of RAM, but just want to stress again that for hoot and especially video work, having your OS and working files/library on an SSD is a must. You can have all the RAM in the world but working on editing video from a regular hard drive will be very frustrating.
 
Thanks for sharing.[/QUOTE]
Nick said:
With AppleCare+ you don't pay more than $300 for even the worst incident of any type of accidental damage. Quite different than the old AppleCare that didn't cover accidental damage at all. From their website:
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I reversed that. With AppleCare+ $300 plus tax is what you'll pay for suspected liquid damage. SquareTrade is $0 or $75 depending on the plan. Amazon has better SquareTrade rates than you can get on the website, btw, but I've been able to negotiate with other distributors to comp the difference.

Adding that I took a Macbook to an authorized Apple repair place after spilling liquid on the keyboard and they were able to spot replace components for <$300 versus the mandatory $700 full gutting the Apple "Genius" Bar would have forced me to do.
 
Brendan S said:
Also, lots of people mentioning importance of RAM, but just want to stress again that for hoot and especially video work, having your OS and working files/library on an SSD is a must. You can have all the RAM in the world but working on editing video from a regular hard drive will be very frustrating.
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Very true. That's a solid downside to buying a Mac. Most, if not all current Macs are difficult or impossible to swap out the drives on and Apple charges ridiculous prices to upgrade to a big SSD. iMacs come with a sort of hybrid called Fusion drive that utilizes a small SSD in combination with a spinning drive to boost speed, but it's definitely not the same. If you get a MacBook, you'll have an SSD but if you need a really big one, it'll still cost you. For really big photo libraries there are still good options for external, especially with the high speed Thunderbolt 3 connection available. But drives that run TB3 are also pretty expensive. I keep my current library on my SSD and move the older ones onto external.
 
fossana said:
Adding that I took a Macbook to an authorized Apple repair place after spilling liquid on the keyboard and they were able to spot replace components for <$300 versus the mandatory $700 full gutting the Apple "Genius" Bar would have forced me to do.
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Nice. I'd always opt for an authorized Apple repair shop over the Apple store directly if I were paying for repairs. Even the one warranty claim I've had on a Mac I went to them rather than go through the hoopla of the genius bar.
 
I don't do video or photo editing, but I have two MacBook airs that I love. Also a Powerbook from 2003 that is still running strong (when I pull it out to look at when I did do some video editing). I still have a 2007 MacMini that gets used once in a while also but it runs really slow--installed a new hard drive and didn't do a clean install but a clone. That maybe the reason it isn't working that great. Got into Macs with an iMac SE (circa ~2000) which I don't own any more.
 
It's much scarier when there are problems with file transfer. To get your old photos back from a malfunctioning phone, you must first restore them. You need to contact salvagedata.com, fix your phone, and restore the data. When I had this problem, it seemed like I would have to give away a lot of money. But no, as it turns out, it's an easy fix if you do it from good professionals.
 
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