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I tried to piggyback onto an older thread but that didn't really work, so here's my query regarding upgrading my computer to deal with the 42MP Sony RAW files and the latest versions of LR & PS CC. I have a late 2013 13" MacBook Pro Retina, 512GB SSD with an Intel i7 processor and 8GB RAM (not upgradeable) and a late 2011 iMac (128GB SSD & 1TB HD), with an Intel i5 (I think) and 4GB RAM upgradeable to 16GB. My iMac is still working well enough, though it's slow, but my MacBook Pro is just limping along. I can't replace them both at once so I am going to replace that laptop since using one on my lap is easier on my neck and back than sitting at a desk with my iMac. I also travel fairly often and I like to be able to work at a local coffee shop for a change of scene. I'm headed to the Apple Store to look at laptops tonight - I've done some research online and they cost nearly twice as much as I thought they would (hopefully the deals available as an ASMP member through their vendors will help) but I really want to see them in action first. I didn't want to succumb to the Black Friday/Cyber Monday madness, but wanted to give it some thought. It's a huge purchase. Probably close to $4,000! (I was thinking $2,300) Hoping if I purchase a new maxed out MacBook Pro with 32GBRAM and a fast processor, it will last me at least another 5 years (or more I hope). I'll keep my iMac since I can add RAM and get a monitor when it dies on me. No way am I buying two computers again, especially since the newest generation of MacBook Pros are nearly as powerful. For those of you with newish Macs, any suggestions on what to look for? Is the upgrade to 32GB RAM rather than 16GB worth the difference, especially as a way to future proof it? I'd love to get a 13" since it weighs a pound less but the processing power does not seem like it will be enough to replace a desktop especially down the line. I hear the 6-core i9's run hot but even my current i7 runs hot - I think that is just a function of these machines. The 13" is a perfect size for travel but the real estate is small for even reviewing photos if it is going to be my main computer - so going back to a 15", even if it weighs more, has other benefits besides speed. So - I'm thinking of getting a 15" with an i9 processor and 32MB RAM and a 2 or 4TB SSD drive, so I can use it on my lap without the need to keep it attached to my backup drive all the time. I have super fast internet but using a networked drive is a non-starter with my lightroom catalog and defeats the purpose of having an SSD drive. At night, I can put it on my desk and back it up to my two large hard drives. What are your thoughts? I have a Sony a7rii - 42MP and an Olympus OM-D 1 - 16MP but with the latest update it lets you stitch a ton of photos together - something my current computers aren't up for. I don't see going beyond the 42MP Sony and over the next five years plan to buy more lenses for both of my mirrorless cameras, so those needs shouldn't change, although I may dabble in video too - not sure. I just bought a new thunderbolt 2/USB-3 6TB G-Tech drive to replace a 4TB drive as my main photo library early last year (which gets backed up to a thunderbolt 1 RAID array and various firewire and usb-3 hard drives) and I know that I will need all kinds of pricey adapters to use with the new laptop. It's part of what kept me from upgrading earlier but I just feel that my current setup is keeping me from working efficiently and I worry every time I see that beach ball of death, babying this thing along as much as I can. Right now I feel stymied since working on my files is so very slow, especially with the latest upgrades to PS and LR. I also constantly find the 512GB SSD filling up and it drives me crazy - the idea of a laptop with enough room to carry around a good chunk of my portfolio no matter where I am is appealing. With my iMac, the 1 TB additional hard drive also fills up too fast. I work on large layered files a lot and also kept so many uncompressed tiffs - many of which I finally deleted just to pare things down. I didn't realize until some time last year that I could losslessly compress the tiff files using zip compression, so I have been going back through them as time permits. I have many old files that need to be worked on and many new ones on my current SD cards, so having a large hard drive on my laptop is worth the cost to me. I find wires attached to my laptop defeat the comfort of working on it. Wim - I saw what you said about Eizo monitors in the "laptop or desktop" thread and I will check them out assuming that they work with Macs and are available here in the US. Thanks again for any advice.

I've got a mid 2011 27" iMac that is still zipping along nicely - since I do just about everything on my laptop other than work requiring a large monitor. It has 8GB RAM 1333 MHz DDR 3 and a 3.4 GHz i7 Intel processor ADM Radeon HD Graphics Card, and dual hard drives, a 251GB Intel 6 SSD and an Intel 6 1TB HDD. That SDD was pricey at the time but best decision I ever made. Anyway, I'm thinking of upgrading to a 24MP camera so much larger RAW files and wondering if I should get two more 4GB RAM cards (or whatever they are called) to fill in the two empty slots and upgrade it to the max 16GB RAM. It looks fairly easy to do. Will I see a big increase in processing speed and is a machine this old worth upgrading? I'd love thoughts from the tech minded and anyone else who has done this sort of thing before. I believe all the other components are conducive to the max speed I can get from this machine, and it was designed to take up to 16GB RAM. I run my LR catalog off the HDD (the SDD is too small) and have a 4TB (soon to be replaced by a 6TB) external drive for my photos attached via thunderbolt cable - v 1.0. Has been fast though working on my 500GB SSD MacBook Pro with 8 GB RAM and a 2.8 GHz Intel i7 is a bit faster - the RAM on that is 1600 MHz - so thinking the SSD and the faster RAM both help but I'm really clueless as to what does what and I read conflicting things on the Internet, so pro advice is welcome. Any thoughts on how I'm running my LR catalog welcome too. Thanks much!