Advice Request- Upgrading to a Mac

[Tom Monego]

I don't think you can upgrade from CS to CS5, I believe CS4 is your max upgrade path and then you do have to switch your version from PC to Mac and upgrade from the switch. This is two steps, shouldn't be a problem except Adobe can be slow on the platform switch. CS5 is coming out and you don't want to get stuck not being able to upgrade.
I bought a cheap Dell Studio last summer so for $500, Quad core processor, 8 gigs of RAM, 2 650mb SATA drives in a RAID configuration, 64bit system (VISTA, yuck), USBII and firewire. The only problem was only one expansion slot, and I can't get my 2940 SCSI card to load.

Tom

[Steve Sample]

If you really have a Dimension 8400 you need, I believe, 1 gig DDR2 sticks for it. They are about $40 apiece. A 1 Terra hard drive is $80 with 500 Gig drives at $50.

Buy 2 1 Gig sticks and put them in properly so they run in tandem. Read your manual. Get an internal SATA hard drive for your scratch disc. they just plug in it's pretty simple. A new one will be fast.

Thanks a million. When I get this done I will report back on this forum. Steve

[Preston]

Steve,

Check the Dell support site to be sure you have the most recent vesion of the BIOS for the 8400. If not, you'll need to download and install it. Follow the directions to the letter!

When you install the new memory, boot into the BIOS to be sure it's being recognized properly.

When you install the new SATA HD, you'll need to access the BIOS again to enable the new drive--it will be set to OFF as the default.

--P

[Steve Sample]

Steve,

Check the Dell support site to be sure you have the most recent vesion of the BIOS for the 8400. If not, you'll need to download and install it. Follow the directions to the letter!

When you install the new memory, boot into the BIOS to be sure it's being recognized properly.

When you install the new SATA HD, you'll need to access the BIOS again to enable the new drive--it will be set to OFF as the default.

--P

Thanks a million for the follow up. Steve

[Steve Sample]

If you really have a Dimension 8400 you need, I believe, 1 gig DDR2 sticks for it. They are about $40 apiece. A 1 Terra hard drive is $80 with 500 Gig drives at $50.

Buy 2 1 Gig sticks and put them in properly so they run in tandem. Read your manual. Get an internal SATA hard drive for your scratch disc. they just plug in it's pretty simple. A new one will be fast.

I successfully installed 2 more Gigs of memory and second SATA internal hard drive. I also just installed my new Photoshop CS-5 program. My old Dell 8400 really runs fast now, not just in Photoshop, but for everything. Thanks for the advice that assisted me. Steve