Ditch the Mac, LR5 on a PC

Running Windows 8 on a PC and photo editing with PS, Lightroom 5, plugins and other stand alone editing software programs. Details of My secret workaround.

I choose windows 8 for an OS earlier this year; I had an opportunity to get Win8 Pro for $49 as part of the promotional package Microsoft offered. I’ve not been a fan of the windows platform since about Win98 introduction when at that point it has only been three years since the introduction of 95.

So maybe I refer to this somewhat begrudgingly, as I recall the avid and massive ad campaign those wonderful folks over at Microsoft went on to tell us all why we needed to update our PC’s. I’ve said enough about that. There track record speaks for itself.

Whether or not this was a mistake by Mr. Gates’, it’s my opinion that it’s also this blunder that allowed the Mac to have its’ resurgence.

How I got to this Point

Mostly curiosity. I became intrigued with the re-engineering of the Win OS platform, and I’m looking forward to the future. Competition breeds excellence. Or death… ummm.

Highly doubted this possibility turning out as swell as it has. I Use Manga Studio 5 with my Wacom Tablet, the Intuos 5, and now LR 5. It works brilliantly thus far. But I have a secret to why this works and how I made this possible which is the reason I am writing on this topic.

The Rest of the Story

I’m doing all of this on a PC from 2005 which originally ran windows XP before the services pack came out. The processor is an AMD 64 Athlon x2, I was able to get this PC from work for free, completely clean with the XP service pack 3 pro edition installed. And less than 1GB RAM.

I found this the perfect opportunity to play with an Idea I got from Sony. Ready to release the PS4 gaming console it has been almost 17 years since the PSone hit the market. Sony promised us all that they would allow for one generation of console to have a ten year life cycle. And they’ve stuck to that.

My theory came from the thought that if it’s possible to create a gaming console with this life projection then why not my image editing PC?

So Why Not?

Rebuild. And it works; I had a great motherboard (which is a must have), with lots of space to grow. I added a sound card, Graphics Card, new larger hard drives, more RAM and a new power pack.

Including the OS less than $600 spent. This gives me way more opportunity to spend my dollars on the things that I want, bigger Wacom Tablet for instance. While a lot of people are out there spending money on their Mac’s, probably using a credit card and making monthly payments. I’m enjoying the fruits of my labor; 

I run an HDMI cord from the Graphics card to a 32” LED HDTV by INSIGNIA, not a computer monitor. Editing a photo or creating a painting is made a whole lot better because it is easier and faster. Price for this was around $220. Which is about the price of the cheaper PC monitors at around 24” and they’ll not have the color quality that a TV will.  

I did it So can YOU

Two more years is all I need out of this PC, I’ll be doing my next build from the ground up, I’ve already got my APU an AMD A6, I plan on using SSD’s and running with 32GB RAM and with the new Creative Cloud from Adobe. I think many more years for less happens to be in my future, now that’s a bargain.