Computer Attributes for Digital/Photoshop Manipulation

[Paul Schilliger]

Neil, I dont want to repeat the good things that have been said, but I too would strongly advise you to take the Mac option. Here is what I use: Dual processor G4 500 MHz with 1,5 GB Ram (3 x 512) and two ATA Harddisks (40 and 75 GB IBM), Sony W900 24" monitor (Apple Cinema is a nice scre en, still expensive). I would now choose the Pioneer DV-03 (Superdisk) option. It can also be found as externa l FireWire for less than $700 and will allow to save 4,7 GB of data on a $10 DVD-disk in the time required for burning a CD-ROM at 4 x speed (20 min.). It also has the CD-Write and CD-Rewrite features. (I have DVD-Ram but is not a good option as it is very slow). Calibrating the monitor is important. I use the Spyder and OptiCal f rom www.ColorCal.com. Good luck!

[Michael Feldman]

In the origianl post, Neil says: "Processor: It must be Intel".

[Dave Anton]

Neil, I think that there are many good options out there, but I will give some points that helped me.

Consider a custom-built machine over the ready-built ones. This way you will ensure that the components you get are what you wanted.

Consider using two monitors. As someone mentioned, two 19" will serve better than 1 bigger one. My experiance with 21" monitors is that my viewing distance increased to take in the size (to the point where I was virtually observing a 19" monitor). With two monitors, the toolbars are kept on one monitor and the image is kept on the other. Having both monitors from the same manufacturer is helpful as the same setting can apply to both.

Regarding processing power, the key is RAM. RAM is cheap now so get at least 1 GIG for your application. Go with the "faster-speed" RAM.

As for components, it is more important to consider their transfer rates over their size (ie. motherboards, hard-drives and RAM). The motherboard should support about 3 GIG of RAM. For hard-drives, don't look at their rpm's, you want to look at the tranfer rate.

These days, you can get an incredible fast custom-built machine at super prices.

[Donald Brewster]

As mentioned above, and it can't be mentioned enough, as much RAM as the machine can hold, 1-2 gigs, is a necessity. Everything else is icing.

[Michael Chmilar]

If you are prioritizing your budget, you should consider maximum RAM as your top priority. If I recall correctly Adobe recommends 5 or 6 times your file size for RAM. More is even better.

If you are going Intel, some Motherboards offer an onboard ATA RAID controller (rather than a non-RAID). Get it! Then put two 7200 RPM drives in a RAID0 config.

If you go Mac (or get a non-RAID mobo), check out the ACARD ATA RAID card.

Monitors: big is good! Make sure that your monitor has separate controls for adjusting the R, G, and B guns so you can calibrate it. If you cannot calibrate your monitor, it is worthless. Budget in the $225 to buy PhotoCal and the Monitor Spyder. It is essential!

[David R Munson]

I won't claim to have as much experience as others here, but here's my two cents' worth anyway. At school in the computer lab we use Mac G3's with 128 mb ram and who knows what the processor is- they're all a few years old. Anyway, when working on those, I regularly work on files in the range of about 80 MB. Things are kind of slow, but not so much that you're going to be pulling your hair out. Within the last 3 weeks or so, I bought a brand new Mac G4 w/512 MB RAM, 733MHz processor, Zip 250 drive, CDRW/DVD drive, 15" studio display, and an Epson 1280 printer. I bought my computer for doing photographic, web design, and desktop publishing purposes, and I think the system will work out quite well.

All in all spent about $3,700.00 w/ student discount. Software was about another grand. I haven't been doing a whole lot of heavy duty stuff yet, since not all my software is in yet, but even doing the limited amount of things that I'm doing now, I can already see a huge difference in performance from the G3's I'm used to. Those same 80mb files aren't a problem at all, as far as I'm concerned. I can see how some extra RAM and a faster processor would be nice, especially if I start working with larger file sizes, but from a practical standpoint with everything I work with (Photoshop, Illustrator, Golive, Flash, Quark, InDesign, etc), there's no overwhelming reason to go any higher on the specs. My budget is limited as a student- as it is I'll be paying this off for the next 2 years- and if you're budget isn't exactly unlimited, I don't see any reason to go with the absolute max that technology has to offer at this point in time.

I've always found the Mac interface to be a lot easier and more logical than anything Microsoft, but that's largely a matter of personal preference and just the fact that it fits how I think better, if that makes any sense. I'm working on Mac OS X now, and it's different enough from 9 that it took some getting used to, but I still think its great. Before you decide for sure, I would recommend working with X and whatever is Microsoft's most recent offering if at all possible. I know a lot of people tout Macs as being the champions for graphic design and photo work, but if you can't get into the OS, then heresay is a dumb reason to go for Mac.

Good luck with your decision.

[dan nguyen]

Here's my 2 cents... being an art director, photographer and in charge for 30+ mac computers ... All the above opinions are valid...Unless you're already have a set up with Pc, in the graphic and photography field, the Mac are the machines of choice. Below is the description of my set up which I use every day (I also have a Pc which I used to the check the Web Color...) - Mac G4 dual 800Mhz, 1,5Gig of ram - 80Gig ATA-100 hard drive - 2 graphics cards with 16mb of video ram each - 1 Tempo ATA-100 card + two 80Gig hard drives This G4 was bought in basic configuration snd others items was added later. Monitors are twin LaCie 22' (the 2nd monitor could be anything from 17' on...). Also, setting up the scratch disks in Photoshop preferences is important (usually not the one whith applications and system). Another good monitor is the Apple Cinema Display but expensive... I hope this will help...Good luck