AIO to Run Lightroom Classic, Photoshop and Luminar AI?

It is possible to achieve that with an all-in-one, just as it is possible to do that using a laptop (as many do, including myself) which is a form of all-in-one. In both cases the key is to spec it properly for your use case. (I don’t know what Luminar needs for performance, by the way.)

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@johnjmurphyiii wrote:

handle multitasking - running Lightroom Classic, Photoshop and Luminar AI at the same time without slowing down the photo editing process to a crawl (or a crash).

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The most important feature that allows that is RAM. For example, Lightroom Classic runs best if it has 12GB or more to itself. (It can run on much less, but the 12GB lets it build a bigger performance-enhancing RAM cache.) If your computer has 16GB RAM, that’s enough to run Lightroom Classic and the OS; run more applications alongside and now RAM usage and performance start to be compromised.

To run the three applications you mentioned, it would be good to buy a computer with 32GB RAM, or more if the budget allows.

The other important feature is a lot of unused fast storage, because Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, and modern operating systems take advantage of that to do storage-based performance caching. It has to be fast, so do not order an AIO that uses a hard drive as the system volume, only an SSD. If you can afford it, specify an NVMe SSD (the fastest kind) for the system volume. Aim for an amount of fast storage big enough to leave at least a couple hundred GB free at all times to account for those constantly expanding/contracting system and application caches and swap files. Because a full SSD is a slow SSD.

Source photo files don’t need to be on a fast SSD; those can be on a hard drive. But the Lightroom Classic folder containing the catalog and previews should be on an SSD.

A fast multi-core CPU is important, such as an Intel Core i7/i9 or the AMD equivalent. But the AIO must have effective cooling to allow the CPU to run at top speed for as long as possible. Cooling effectiveness might be something you have to learn from review sites. Better cooling is one reason some go to tower cases.

The AIO should have a decent GPU that meets the Recommended system requirements for all your photo applications. The two things to avoid are the extremes: Cheap integrated graphics, because they are too weak; and top-of-the-line GPUs for gaming/video editing because photo applications won’t use all their power, and they are too expensive.

An AIO might fall short if the images you edit are large file sizes or pixel dimensions, like more than 24 megapixels and lots of Photoshop layers. That may require a level of RAM, CPU, graphics, and cooling you get from a good modular desktop computer.

Unfortunately I use a Mac so I don’t have opinions about specific PC AIO models, but the discussion above applies to PC or Mac. (If this had been a Mac discussion, the M1 iMac and higher-spec Intel iMac are AIOs that could potentially handle that workload.)

iMac.

This link may be out of date, and is not nessacarily directed towards high performance users, but appears helpfull

https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-all-in-one-computers

One item, I noticed in that link, Avoid AIO with CPU's meant for Mobile

You have a Dell, I assume you like Dell, good company, good products. My first glance at current Dell AIO brought up Inspiron units. Apparently not configurable in terms of alternate CPU, RAM, GPU, etc, and using 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-1165G7 Processor, Note the  G in that Processor nomenclature, not what I would be looking for.

Optiplex on the other hand, better, can "Build Your Own" i.e. select components/options. Including better CPU. Nore RAM, larger HD, additional HD, the GPU improvement apparently a new option on some, watch out on that.

/EDITED/added a link relating to Windows High Performance Power plan/

AIO as in All in One?

1. CPU

Typically they use Low Power CPU's

Some may now use Power Efficient CPU's

This is more a non Apple issue.

The former prevents increasing power consumption by the CPU via OS settings (power)

The latter, I do not know if that is an issue.

refering to high performance plan as shown in: https://www.howtogeek.com/240840/should-you-use-the-balanced-power-saver-or-high-performance-power-plan-on-windows/

Running on lower power settings (default in Windows) can degrade LrC performance even before adding additional programs in the background.

2. GPU

Pay attention to the GPU. does it even have a descreate GPU, or just an integrated Video controller? Does that GPU have at least 2 Gb VRAM, more would be helpful.

Can you change the GPU?