4x5: which design of desktop the most suitable ?

[40moses]

Scanning mostly in the order of 500 MB (could be 1 GB) for 5 x 7 LF and having no great market knowlegde I would be very gratefull for advices;

I must buy a new PC system, because my laptop Samsung (Intel Core Duo 1,8 Ghz, 32bit, 1,8 GB RAM) is incapable to work with such 500 MB images. I would loose hours only for opening of some DVD in order to work and view the DVD's.

What specification would be good after your experiences?
I must work with XP prof (scanner not accepting Vista).
I must buy minimal 8 GB RAM, but more would be better (24 GB).
Hence necessarly a 64bit PC.

a) would the freq. be important ?
Or is 1,5-2 Ghz sufficient ?

b) for storage I would buy external hard disks (1-4 TeraB).
Any hints with respect to PC choice ?

c) or other advice for the objective of efficient working for such great data files ?

[Ken Lee]

Scanning is probably not the main concern. It's the photo editing tool which requires abundant computing and storage resources.

You might want to have a look here and on the web for articles that tell you how to optimize your computer for Photoshop (if that's the tool you intend to use). As you suspected, abundant RAM is the most important consideration, and having a separate physical drive for use as a swap drive by Photoshop is the next most important consideration.

However, we don't have to purchase a supercomputer just to do our work - and we don't require a server farm to store our files. You will certainly find it helpful (and economical) to view this brief video from West Coast Imaging on what they call the Guide File Workflow.

In a nutshell, you don't need to perform all your image corrections on the (large) original file. You can apply them to a small copy, a "guide file", as layers. When you're done, you can apply them as layers to a copy of original file, at whatever size you need to print.

I have used that method to work on my 5x7 scans, on my 5-year-old laptop with only 2 GB of RAM.

[40moses]

I thank you very much Mr ken Lee

This advice seems very good for the next step (working on the file, PS etc).


Now I must solve the first step -which is for my aims the most important:
only for viewing the pictures (without touching), I work only with TIFF 8 or 16 bit:

a) for loading only one DVD the Samsung needs some 20 minutes;
after I open one picture I wait some 60sec for enlarging ! Then 30sec for shfting parts of the monitor (cropped part).
b) for chanching to next picture also I wait 60-100sec.
Hence I need hours only to see one DVD (with eg 50 pic à 150 MB) !

My life is not so long, hence I must instantly buy canother solution for this problem (seeing scanned pic on monitors).

[nathanm]

You should first copy the files from DVD to hard disk before opening them in Photoshop. Opening files directly from removable media is generally sluggish.

[Paul Kierstead]

What specification would be good after your experiences?
I must work with XP prof (scanner not accepting Vista).
I must buy minimal 8 GB RAM, but more would be better (24 GB).
Hence necessarly a 64bit PC.

XP-Pro is NOT 64-bit and will not use more the 3 GB of ram. There is a 64-bit version of XP call XP-64, but it is not actually XP at all and XP drivers do not work on it (it is more or less Server 2003).

If you wish to use more then 3 GB or RAM for editing, and also use XP Pro for scanning, you will need 2 machines (*), one for scanning (XP Pro) and one for editing (Vista-64 or Windows 7-64).

PK

(*) If you are familiar with the technology, you could probably use a virtual machine on the "big" machine, but if you are not familiar with the technology, it tends to be a rat hole, and a secondary machine might be the better option. You can use a KVM to share monitors and keyboards.

[40moses]

Thank you much Mr. Kierstad
very important

Solution is now:
For scanning I have no problem: with an old machine XP Pro it works since weeks very good. So I scan with old some 100 pict, than I make copy definitely to external hard disc (more than 1 TeraB)
.
After this I must buy some new PC with Vista (64bit). Also 8 GB RAM or 24 GB.
With the new Vista (or 7) I have no problem than to view with great rapidity (for loading next picture of some 1000) a serie and also to enlarge instantly on the monitors ?
Correct ?

[Bill_1856]

Starting with 5x7, why don't you just print traditionally and forget about the digital stuff? 5x7 is a LOVELY size, even for contacts.

[40moses]

Yes, ths is true with contact prints.
I make contact prints with 8 x10.

But I have very much pictures (also MF files and 6x12 roll) with 250 MB.
I could not pay all printing for some 10.000 -30.000 pictures:
So only solution to revisit on Monitors; with enlarging it is very interesting for me.
So no other solution possible.

It is for me a great passion:
BECAUSE I DETECT always the original mentality when I was on location.
Morever I detect with cropping/enlarging beautifull things (more than on location).
So it is absolutly necessary.

[Brian Ellis]

You haven't said what kind of scanner you're using but have you checked with the manufacturer to see if they have an update to the software that would allow it to work with Vista? When I switched from XP to Vista 64 bit (a very nice change, Vista has gotten a bad rap IMHO from early users I think) every piece of hardware required updated software but all the manufacturers had the updates and installing them was simple.

[40moses]

Yes true.
The scanner is Precision III and t is not possible to go with Vista, becaus the last update for SCSI is XP. With Vista incompatibel !

So the only way woud be to buy a new scanner (for 4x5 better 5x7).
Ths is very costly. I would not work with drum scanner (too much time for working). So I know no other solution for good scanner under 4000 $.
Thank you