Wetpixel Live: Computer for Underwater Photographer

@Alex_Mustard and @adamhanlon discuss their computer hardware and which software they use for processing and curating their image libraries. At one time, processing digital images was a resource-intensive process, which necessitated top-end and sometimes bespoke computer power. The general improvement in computer performance and power means that this is largely no longer the case.

I've been a Windows user since I bought my first PC many years back and I've always built my own desktop machines.  Current machine is Gigabyte Z490 motherboard with Intel i7-10700 processor and 4GB Nvidia based graphics card, 32GB RAM.  500GB SSD as system drive with a 4TB storage drive.  I do a bit of focus stacking and it's incredibly quick processing those images.  Down the track I may replace the storage drive with a 4TB SSD which should speed up read/write operations a lot.  Processing is Capture-one pro plus photoshop (still the old CS6).  Monitors are twin 27" Eizos the main screen is a CS2731 and a EV2760 which has the palettes and also acts as a screen for my work laptop. 

The plus of working with windows for me is that I can still run quite old niche software on my machines - it is generally not obsoleted at least so far - a few peripherals have been due to their interface no longer being supported.  If I really wanted I could probably run them on a virtual machine but the effort of doing so hasn't justified this as yet.

These days having a good graphics card is important as Capture one, Photoshop, Lightroom all use the graphics card extensively for processing.  DaVinci resolve also uses the graphics card for a lot of processing.

My philosophy is that I spend all this money on cameras, housing etc and the main way I see the output is on my desktop machine and display - so this is not a place to skimp.  Why spend all that money and process the image on a 13 or 15" laptop screen - I know quite a few people who do this.