best desktop for adobe creative cloud

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Create all the things

Best PCs for Adobe Creative Cloud 2021

Photoshop on Surface Source: Windows Central

Best PCs for Adobe Creative Cloud Windows Central 2021

If you're a creator of any kind, you're probably using Adobe Creative Cloud. Love Adobe or not, programs like Photoshop, Lightroom, and Premiere Pro have become industry standards for photography, digital art, and video production. There's also no one single type of PC that best suits Creative Cloud since the nature of the work creators using it will vary. Nevertheless, these are some of the best laptops and best desktops to get your work done.

Best All-in-One: HP ENVY 32 All-in-One
Best laptop: Dell XPS 15
Best desktop: Dell XPS Tower 8940 Special Edition
Best 2-in-1: Surface Pro 8
Ultimate laptop: Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition

Best All-in-One: HP ENVY 32

HP ENVY 32 AIO Source: Daniel Rubino/Windows Central

Sometimes with an All-in-One PC, you have to compromise, but with the HP ENVY 32, you genuinely do not. Its size helps a little, but you can have pretty much everything you could ever want from a PC all in this single unit.

That includes a full-fat 65W Intel Core i7 CPU, not the slimmed-down versions you often find inside an All-in-One or a laptop, and it's paired with either NVIDIA GTX or RTX dedicated graphics. You might not be buying one of these as a gaming rig, but you bet it can tear up the latest titles.

The ENVY 32 also boasts a massive 32-inch display, with both 4K resolution and HDR and a neat anti-reflective finish, making it so much nicer to sit in front of for long periods.

Pros:

32-inch 4K anti-reflective HDR display.
GTX or RTX graphics
65W Core i7 CPU
Pop-up Windows Hello 5MP camera
Display input/output

Cons:

No Wi-Fi 6
Display limited to 60Hz
SSD is just OK

Best All-in-One

HP ENVY 32 AIO

HP ENVY 32 All-in-One

Real CPU, powerful GPU, and 4K

HP's ENVY 32 AIO sets the bar for AIO PCs in 2021. It blows away the Apple iMac 27, and it can act as your TV, computer for work, and a gaming rig.

Best laptop: Dell XPS 15

Dell XPS 15 Source: Windows Central

Photographers and videographers need to see what they're working with. In that case, the gorgeous 4K display on the Dell XPS 15 just makes sense. However, the 1080p version is still pretty good. But the XPS 15 is an easy recommendation for a laptop buyer who wants style and performance.

The latest model now comes with Intel's 11th Gen H-Series processors, combined with an NVIDIA RTX 3050 or 3050 Ti GPU with 4GB of VRAM. This produces a laptop that can handle some serious design and editing work. The battery is also pretty massive, given the size of the laptop, for all-day life.

The XPS 15 also now has a redesigned 16:10 display with almost no bezels while still being wrapped up inside a beautifully designed and expertly constructed chassis. There's even an element of upgradeability, and while there's no official pen support, this still makes one incredible, highly portable editing machine.

Pros:

Optional 4K display
Dedicated NVIDIA graphics
11th Gen H-Series Intel processors
Thunderbolt 3

Cons:

No official pen support
Can get expensive

Best laptop

Dell XPS 15 9500

Dell XPS 15

Latest and greatest 15-inch laptop

Dell's iconic XPS 15 received a spec bump for 2021 with NVIDIA RTX Ti graphics and a new 11th Gen Intel H-Series processor.

Best desktop: Dell XPS Tower 8940 Special Edition

Dell Xps 8940 Front Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central

Dell's XPS Tower 8940 Special Edition is easy to recommend thanks to a ton of configuration options that suit various budgets. And also a lot of ports. On the front are USB-C, USB-A, and 3.5mm audio ports that are easy to reach for common accessories alongside an SD card slot. You even get an optical drive and a heap of ports on the rear to connect pretty much everything you could want.

The entry model is worth avoiding if you're going to be getting into intensive work such as Premiere Pro editing. While it has dedicated graphics, you're not saving much, and the performance will be lacking. The sweet spot is the mid-tier Intel Core i7 model paired with the AMD Radeon RX 5700 or NVIDIA RTX 3060.

But you can really beef up the hardware inside, too, and you can also opt for a 10th Gen Intel Core i9-11900K CPU, 64GB of DDR4 RAM, up to 4TB of storage, and a beefy NVIDIA RTX 3070 with 8GB of VRAM if you so wish. This box looks like it belongs in an office, but it's capable of scorching performance, and even if you do opt to get one of the lower-tier configurations, it's a simple task to upgrade the internals down the road.

Pros:

Plenty of spec options
Good port selection
Amazing performance potential
Easy upgradeability

Cons:

Entry model is a little weak
Some finishing issues on the case

Best desktop

Xps 8940

Dell XPS Tower 8940 Special Edition

Great for most people

With a wide variety of hardware options and easy upgrades, the XPS Tower 8930 Special Edition should be a good fit.

Best 2-in-1: Surface Pro 8

Surface Pro 8 Hero Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central

Sporting a glorious 13-inch 2880x1920 3:2 display which also has a 120Hz option, 11th Gen Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, up to 32GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD, you can't go wrong with the Surface Pro 8 for photo editing and more Creative Cloud-based work. It's also a great 2-in-1 for web browsing on the sofa as a tablet, video editing, and productivity work if you buy the optional keyboard and pen as well.

The Surface Pro 8 uses the same flagship 2-in-1 form factor that was first popularized by Microsoft back in 2012. It features a kickstand around the back and a separate keyboard accessory that also adds trackpad, turning the Surface Pro into a convertible PC. For creators using the Adobe Suite, the Slim Pen pen and optional Surface Dial are essential accessories to use with the Surface Pro 8.

It also has a USB-C Thunderbolt 4 port, USB-A port, Surface Connect port, and a microSD card expansion slot for additional storage if required. The design has also been updated for the latest generation with slimmer bezels and a larger display. The Surface Pro 8 epitomizes the idea of a powerful laptop inside a tablet's body.

Pros:

Great design
Stunning touch display
Pen support
Thunderbolt
Good battery life

Cons:

Higher spec models are pricey
No keyboard included

Best 2-in-1

Surface Pro 8 Reco

Surface Pro 8

The best Windows tablet ever made

The Surface Pro 8 is the best Windows tablet there has ever been, and that's just fact.

Ultimate laptop: Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition

Razer Blade Studio Front Source: Windows Central

If there's a god-tier laptop out there right now for creators, this is it. The regular Razer Blade 15 is exceptional, but this Studio Edition, developed to meet strict guidelines set by NVIDIA, is absolutely mind-blowing.

It keeps the 9th Gen Intel Core i7 6-core processor from the previous generation gaming version of the Blade 15 but pairs it with a monstrous Quadro RTX 5000 16GB GPU. This is one of the most powerful laptop GPUs on the planet for creators and remains quiet during most operations.

The Blade 15 Studio also boasts 32GB of RAM, a 1TB PCIe SSD, and out front an absolutely stunning 4K OLED touch display. It's the kind of display that makes anything you look at afterward feel really underwhelming; it's that good and perfect for those interested in color accuracy with its DCI-P3 calibration. The Studio Edition is also optimized to work with Creative Cloud for the absolute best performance.

Pros:

4K OLED display
RTX Quadro graphics
32GB of RAM
Thunderbolt 3

Cons:

High price
Average battery life

Ultimate laptop

The Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition

Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition

All the power you need

Between the killer hardware specs and the stunning 4K display, the Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition is an out-of-this-world choice.

The bottom line

Adobe Creative Cloud runs well on a wide range of Windows 10 PCs, but if you're specifically looking for something with it in mind, then you're obviously going to want something that will really get the most from it. Generally, that means looking towards the higher end of the market where the more powerful hardware lies.

If you're shopping for a desktop machine, though, the superb HP ENVY 32 is a beast of a machine for all purposes, with high-end hardware inside and a high-end design on the outside, it's truly a pleasure to spend the day in front of. Likewise, if you're looking for a capable laptop to take with you, the Dell XPS 15 is a fine choice to make.

Creative Cloud casts a wide net, and all of these machines will be a fine companion. Generally, you're looking to get as much horsepower as your budget allows, especially if you're diving into apps like Premiere Pro, because in those cases, the more grunt you have, the better your time will be.

Credits — The team that worked on this guide

Richard Devine is an Editor at Windows Central. A former Project Manager and long-term tech addict, he joined Mobile Nations in 2011 and has been found on Android Central and iMore as well as Windows Central. Currently, you'll find him covering all manner of PC hardware and gaming, and you can follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

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