What's a good computer for a photographer to get this Xmas?

[edbermac]

I got a cheapo Emachine 5 years ago and it keeps turning itself off after a few hours; hard drive is dying or the motherboard is overheating...I'll probably go as high as $1500 pricewise.

I am getting back into photography again so I want a machine with good graphics or whatever I need to run Photoshop easily and make good prints; finally, laptop or desktop? Or just name whatever components in the machine that you'd think I might need, hard drive, memory, graphics card etc.

Any pro photogs out there?

:argh:

:hi:

[Wonk]

1. iMac

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa

17" screen, 1.8ghz G5 processor, $1499

I'd recommend upgrading to a gig of ram, too. That'll run ya another $225 if you do it from apple, maybe a bit less if you get the ram 3rd party.

I'm quite happy with mine that I got just over 2 weeks ago.

[Florida_Geek]

2. Pros like Apples

and their low end eMac is like 799.

I have an Apple Powermac (laptop) and soon very soon a Nikon D2H :) $#^^#$ lens is $1300. But I like it.

Good site for Howtos and pictures is http://www.moose395.net/

[amber dog democrat]

3. Any Macintosh

Powerbook, iBook or G 5. Especially if you are into media production.

[davidwparker]

4. Definitely the new iMac G5, 20" display.

There's a lot of smart people at this site. I was thrilled to see those before me voting for Mac.

[Wonk]

7. Welcome to DU. I went with the 17" because

the 20" is $400 more for the larger screen and bigger HD (I already have a 250GB external firewire drive) but the rest of the computer is exactly the same.

[susanna]

5. Get a Mac!

I'm with the rest of the posters. It's the best graphics platform, easy. I'm an amateur photographer, but a prolific one, and it is the only logical choice for me.

Hope this helps!

[neohippie]

6. as an IT person, and a PC guy at that I say get a MAC

They are superior, preferred by artists and professionals everywhere.

[NV Whino]

8. Mac is the answer

Get the newest, fastest, most RAM, biggest hard drive you can afford. If you want to do serious work, you probably want to get a tower rather than an iBook. PhotoShop 7 is great. Epson printers will probably give you the best printed results. And buy Spider Pro calibration software to get accurate results from screen to printer.

All the above is not cheap, but it is cost-effective, and you will love it in the long run.

[emulatorloo]

9. Here are places that track best deals on macs

Lowend Mac:

http://www.lowendmac.com/imac/deals.html
http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/g5deals.html
http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/deals.html
http://www.lowendmac.com/imac/edeals.html

This is another good shopping site that tracks sales, deals etc:

http://dealmac.com/

[REP]

10. Mac G5

[billyoc]

11. I'm a 20 year x86 veteran,

Mac's the move. Hands down.

[chiburb]

12. Please peruse the DU "Mac Users" Group...

Lots of good info here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=233

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

13. A dual 2.5 Ghz G5