Computing Suggestions Aimed at Photographers and Videographers— Macs, Storage, Connectivity
Some brief comments and notes below with each category.
Be sure to check out OWC holiday deals on all things computing and iPhone/iPad, and see OWC early Black Friday Deals...
Hard drives | External SSD | Internal SSD | Docks and Ports | Pre-Owned Macs
Macs
We are in a transition time to the Apple M1 Macs. I expect to receive the Apple MacBook Pro M1 Max for review around December 20.
Apple 16-inch MacBook Pro M1 Max: a Few Things To Note for Photographers
Bang for the Buck: $2899 for a Loaded iMac 5K with Gorgeous Display, or $5K for an Apple MacBook Pro M1X?
Please buy Macs through any link on this site—thanks! And SAVE the sales tax at B&H too!
If you need a powerful Mac now, get the iMac 5K, specifically one of these configurations. Buy it with 8GB memory, then add 128GB of OWC memory. 128GB will serve you exceptionally well for many years to come.
Memory
Load up your iMac with 128GB as 4 X 32GB, or your Mac Pro up to 1536GB!
$1850 SAVE $130 = 6.0% OWC 768.0GB (12 x 64GB) OWC PC23400 DDR4 ECC 2933MHz 288-Pin RDI… in All Other Categories
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$999 SAVE $177 = 15.0% OWC 384.0GB (12 x 32GB) OWC PC23400 DDR4 ECC 2933MHz 288-Pin RDI… in All Other Categories
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$550 SAVE $38 = 6.0% OWC 192.0GB (6 x 32GB) OWC PC23400 DDR4 ECC 2933MHz 288-Pin RDIM… in All Other Categories
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$319 SAVE $21 = 6.0% OWC 128.0GB (4 x 32GB) OWC 2666MHz DDR4 PC4-21300 260-Pin SO-DIM… in All Other Categories
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Big and fast SSDs
Eliminate the 'spinners' for a silent environment where disk speed disappears as a factor.
With high-capacity SSDs, you are bascially paying for the flash modules as the primary cost-driver. While expensive compared to hard drives, they are silent and should deliver years of trouble-free use.
I use one 16TB OWC Accelsior 4M2 as my primary storage on my 2019 Mac Pro.
$1400 SAVE $7600 = 84.0% OWC 8.0TB OWC Accelsior 4M2 PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 SSD Storage Soluti… in Storage: PCI
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$2300 SAVE $6700 = 74.0% OWC 16.0TB OWC Accelsior 4M2 PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 SSD Storage Solut… in Storage: PCI
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$5700 SAVE $3299 = 36.0% OWC 32.0TB OWC Accelsior 8M2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD Storage Solut… in Storage: PCI
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$5580 SAVE $3420 = 38.0% OWC 32.0TB OWC Accelsior 4M2 PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 SSD Storage Solut… in Storage: PCI
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I have two of the 8TB OWC Thunderblades. Outstanding for external fast storag that can be carried to/from job sites or just used daily!
Hard drives
I use 14TB and 18TB Toshiba drives. They are fast, quiet, and I’ve never had a failure.
See: Big and Fast Hard Drive for Photography and Videography
$295 SAVE $404 = 57.0% Toshiba 16.0TB Toshiba MG08 Series 3.5-inch SATA 6.0Gb/s 7200RPM… in Storage: Hard Drives
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$50 SAVE $950 = 95.0% OWC Mercury Elite Pro External Storage Enclosure with USB 3.2 (5… in All Other Categories
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$355 SAVE $25 = 6.0% OWC 12.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro External Storage Solution with… in All Other Categories
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$400 SAVE $30 = 6.0% OWC 18.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro External Storage Solution with… in All Other Categories
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I use five OWC Thunderbay 4 units for backups (now that my main storage is all SSD). Cost aside, no photographer need evert be concered with storage capacity!