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Last night right after I completed working on my portfolio on this site, the strangest and scariest thing happened to me in the realm of computers. I was on a Webpage, not Alamy, when my computer screen went black. I could see the arrow (cursor) but that was it. I could also hear from my 9 year old Mac Pro tower a lot of hard drive noises. It sounded furious. I must have stared at the screen for a good two minutes, thinking only that I just lost my old gal's hard drive for good. I have kind of been expecting it anyway and I was almost ready to say a little prayer over her when, out of the blue, the log-on screen popped up and prompted me to sign in with my password. The computer did not go through the rebooting process, which now takes forever, and I have never had to sign back into my machine since I first set it up in 2009. I'm a huge fan of my Mac Pro, but I think this was a sign. First thing this morning, I ordered a brand new iMac 27" 5k computer, maxed out. I'll now have the pleasure of a 1TB SSD and all the goodies. I have to say though, that I'll miss my old Mac Pro, but it's time. I still have no idea what happened. I hope it doesn't happen again, I can tell you that. I am hopeful that it gets me through the weekend, although the weather has been so bad I haven't been able to get out and shoot. I only need to tag and caption three images. Rick

I'm looking to buy a new desktop PC (definitely PC - although I like Macs as much as PCs, for a number of pragmatic reasons this one has to be a PC, and also not an all-in-one). What is current thinking on specs? My photo workflow mainly involves Lightroom, but I also use Photoshop and various plugins. While working on images, I usually have a considerable number of browser tabs, word docs, etc open at the same time. I already have a screen. In the past, I've always had machines custom-built in local shops. However, due to early problems with my current machine which the shop didn't resolve well, and the fact that such shops seem to be going out of business at a fast rate, I'll probably go with one of the mainstream brands (eg Lenovo, HP, Dell) this time to get a good solid warranty, despite them being more expensive than local builds. I'll spend whatever it takes to get a decent machine and am aiming for something reasonably future-proof without going over the top. I'd love to hear any helpful suggestions, recommendations and/or experiences, but I have some specific questions as well: Are there any pitfalls in buying mainstream brands? For example, do non-standard cases mean that future expansion is more difficult? And would adding an extra HDD or more memory (things I'm used to doing myself) invalidate the warranty anyway? I get the impression that it's a good idea to put the OS, programs and Lightroom catalogue plus previews on an SDD. But do people find 256GB enough, or is it better to go to the (considerable) expense of 512GB? More RAM is better, I know, and I'm thinking of getting at least 24GB, but does the law of diminishing returns kick in beyond that? Is there a noticeable difference between, say 24GB and 32GB? Many thanks in advance!! David.