As a “non-essential” photography business, I’ve had almost no paid work this whole year.

Unfortunately, my editing workstation PC (which is my only computer) is coming up on 7 years old, and I’m getting really worried lately. Updating my OS will resolve software compatibility issues, but driver support for specialized enthusiast-edition PC hardware from 2013 and 14 is as good as non-existent.

For some reason that I can’t explain after months of troubleshooting, my GPU can no longer be used for parallel-processing. I’m not a gamer, I just need GPU acceleration for editing; especially video rendering for when I work on local film productions. I’m also running low on storage. Worst of all, on many days, (like today-

-as you can see) programs keep going unresponsive. This lasts for 5 to 20 seconds and occurs about a dozen times an hour. I have no viruses, It’s just time to upgrade before this system gets any less stable and causes me more stress; but I’m not making enough to pay bills on time without help from family, much less to save up for anything like building a new computer… which my business -that I rely on for money- is no good without.

Like I said, I’m not even a gamer. (The only video game I’ve purchased in the past 10? years is Minecraft.) I would not ask for support for recreational activities, but the PC specs are similarly demanding to high-end gaming. To put it in perspective, I’ve spent ~$4000 building/maintaining this current system, but money goes farther each year in computer tech; so I’m setting my goal at half that to build a new system that should hopefully at least match the performance of my current workstation back when I first built it.

If you are in a position to support others, and would like to donate something to my ko-fi to help support my small business in this hell of a year, I will be extremely grateful!

If not, I’d appreciate a reblog to get the word out!