computer specifications

[Nathaniel Paust]

For basic scanning and editing work, I'd really look at an iMac.

They have a few things going for them. 1) Small desktop space, small power requirements, and low noise. (Although this might just be my pet peave.) 2) Decently fast. In everyday work, it's not going to be a 3 GHz Pentium 4, but photoshop can take advantage of altavec for a lot of stuff which brings image editing up to speed. (for example my 400 MHz G4 laptop lets me work about as fast as my 2200 Athlon XP for imaging work) 3) Decently priced... around $1800 for a 17 inch screen and a DVD burner. 4) And then there are all the advantages of MacOS X. I won't try to preach too much, but my laptop has crashed twice in the 2 or so years that I've been using OS X, I've never gotten a virus, and the built in spam filter works pretty well.

Of course, if I had the money, I'd immediately get a G5. The real problem is that my laptop still does everything I need it to do with speed that puts other 3 year-old machines to shame.

[Frank Petronio]

While the general concensus is pro-Mac, don't go into it thinking they are perfect by any means. I'll admit to being a Mac zealot for over 15 years but even Macs have their issues. My wife's 12-inch Powerbook has been back to Apple four times now for two warranty protected problems. But having bought dozen of Macs ove the years, in general I think they are more reliable and better engineered than the generic PCs from Dell, Gateway, etc.

All the more reason to buy from a reliable reseller like smalldog and seriously considering the AppleCare option.

[Michael Chmilar]

You can get the bottom-end G5 1.6GHz suitably configured for ~$1600 (upgraded video card, downgrade the SuperDrive to a CD-RW, remove modem). This is with the minimum amount of RAM than Apple will ship. Don't buy extra RAM from Apple - they charge 2x (or more) than what you will pay from a third-party.

One nice thing on this machine is you can increase the RAM to 4GB. Very useful for LF-sized files in Photoshop. The memory for the G5 1.6 is also cheaper than the memory for the top-end machine (which can hold 8GB).

[James Driscoll]

For working at home a G4 is all you really need....and they can be bought LOADED for under a $1000...I bought mine used off of EBAY and it arrived fine and is used for Photo and Graphic Design work.

Do your homework (www.lowendmac.com-great site about doing this on the cheap, www.xlr8yourmac.com-great site about hardware) and you won't get burned buying a new machine.

Depending on what OS you will be running (9.2 vs the various OS X's) will help determine what machine to buy. As was proven...the dual processor machines where worthless with OS 9...the system couldn't take advantage of the two processors...but OS X can.

I feel you can get away with an "older" (2001-2002 made) G4 or if you want to splurge and be good for a while...a mirrored drive door G4 (late 2002-2003) will suit you fine. We are currently using a 533 and it isn't "slow" by any means. We also use an older beige G3 for internet and scanning usage...so we don't tie up the main machine with downloads and such. When you upgrade...you can always use the older machine as a scanning mule or an internet machine.

Remember you don't have the requirments that retouching pros have...3 minutes to process a file vs. 2.5 minutes or even 2 minutes (for arguement sake) isn't going to make a difference to you...but does for someone who earns their living doing this. So an older model computer is going to be OK for what you need it for...and remember there are ENTIRE retouching studios and pre press houses still using "old" G4's as we speak.

Everyone keeps babbling about machines.....you also need a top notch monitor. Not exactly a cheap item....the 17" Apple LCD is a bargain at under $700 new...if you really want to cheap out you can do what we did...the 17" FLAT CRT Apple monitor (it has a clear case where as the older one is either graphite colored or blue and the screen isn't flat) for $160.00 of off EBAY- also arrived free of problems. Easy to calibrate....

If you really want to get fancy....two monitors. All of the retouching pros drop the palatte/toolbars on one screen and the image on the other.

The bottom line is I can retouch at home and my soon to be wife can do (who is a graphic designer) can work from home when she has to. If the machine is good enough for pre press work....it should be good enough for what you need it for.

Treat computer equipment like LF equipment...you start with (enter low end camera here....) move on to (enter mid range camera here) and end up with (enter paragraph of equipment here)....

There is plenty of information on the web....it will surpase anything almost any of us can tell you, afterall we are photographers not computer geeks.

But we are still geeks.....