Samantha Vivenzio

I am open to both Mac and Windows whichever is going to make my life easiest in the long run. I am versed in both, though I have been using windows for my editing since 2018 so any new issues with Mac compatibility I’ll need to educate myself on. I hate dealing with the tech side of anything and just want to set something up that is going to last me and give the least amount of headache and can give me at least 5 years. I’ve been looking into the Digital Storm after I saw you recommend it in another forum but after doing some research found that there are a lot of complaints about poor customer service, and receiving broken equipment and being charged shipping fees to return to have it fixed etc. Sounds like I’m going to have to just take the plunge and buy something that meets the specs and stop looking for the better option. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good right? Thanks for the advice! Cheers!

Hi Brian, Drop me a link so I can buy you a beer- I owe you one! As fate would have it my car started having issues shortly after we configured the XPS special Edition to what I needed. I put the computer on hold, got a new car, had my daughter and replenished my computer budget to $3500 (ideally still like to keep it to 3k). Of course, I go to Dell today just to find the XPS special edition is no longer available! 😟 Now what? Is there a comparable desktop to the XPS special edition? I plan to get the thunderbolt you mention above too because I am pretty terrible at cleaning out those annoying PS temp files that buildup, and I do save a ton of photos. Additionally, I was saving my photos to external seagates and am pretty sure one of them failed on me, so I'd like to dump them and push everything over to the thunderbolt once I get it all setup. Thanks, Samantha

Thanks so much for your help!

Alright so I’m going to get this desktop (with your blessing prior to purchasing of course) and I’m going to get a laptop for my birthday in a few months (though not as much if a workhorse to focus more on portability and education vs photo editing) because my brain hurts from trying to decide what I need more. As my husband likes to say I’m all or nothing. 🥴 How does this look? Thanks again Brian!

Hey Brian, thanks again for your advice a few weeks ago. I really appreciate your time and expertise on the matter. I just can’t seem to pull the trigger on the desktop. I want to but I’m afraid if I lose portability I’ll never find the time to plug into the computer. I’m a hobbyist hoping to gain enough education and experience to turn this into a business but right now I find myself needing the portability of a laptop while I’m caring for 3 kids (5 and under) who cannot be unsupervised while I stow myself away in my office to take classes or practice photoshop tutorials. Once I start a business I intend to have a desktop and dedicated work station but for now I think I’d need a laptop with an additional larger screen I can plug into in my home office as needed. I saw you mentioned in another post that you would recommend these specs for the new Mac (see image) Earlier you recommended 2T with the Dell desktop to me but here with the MacBook Pro Max you recommended just the 1T. My biggest problem has always been running out of memory on the hard drives. Should I bump to 2T? Or look into external drives to store anything outside of the apps I’m running? $4200 for the 2T is really the upper limits of my budget, but if it’s going to give me 4 yrs of fast and efficient work I can say that for a little over 1k a year it would be worth it. Thanks again for your wisdom and advice!

I need something that’s going to last me at LEAST 4-5 years if possible and I need to purchase ASAP- I’ve gone all of 2021 without a computer and haven’t been able to edit while I waited for prices to stabilize but I can’t wait any longer. I’m not a tech person though I’ve read your posts multiple times to better understand what I need vs what to avoid. How is this for an investment? Dell XPS desktop (specs in photo attached) with this monitor recommended in one of your other posts: Dell U2722D - 27-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) 16:9 UltraSharp Monitor with Comfortview Plus, 60Hz Refresh Rate, 100% sRGB, 1.07 Billion Colors, Platinum Silver