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New PC?

wilfredo

By wilfredo
in Digital Forum

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wilfredo

wilfredo

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Just got Adobe Photoshop CS3 and I need to free up 800 mg of space to install it. I really can't do that so it looks like it's time for a new computer. I use PC's, and have had great success with my current DELL Dimensions 8200 (4 years old) which up until now worked fine. Any suggestions as to what I should be looking for in terms of RAM, power, etc?

 

Thanks,

Wilfredo

Benitez-Rivera Photography

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marknorton

marknorton

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Well, you could put a bigger hard drive in your current PC; 800Mb costs less than $1... If you do buy new, don't skimp on RAM, I recommend 2Gb to make things run well. And, for me, Vista is not yet ready for prime time. I hate it.

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lemalk

lemalk

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Agreed. Stay as far away as you can from Vista.

Pretty much any PC with at least 1.5 gigs of RAM should be enough to hold you over.

More if you do a lot of PP or Photoshop.

Storage is cheap - get as much as you can both internally and on external hard drives.

 

I know you're a PC guy, but have you considered a Mac Mini? It's relatively inexpensive compared to other Macs and holds up pretty well.

 

As far as PCs, I'd advise steering away from HP and Sony - Dell's workstations do a good job at a decent price. And IBM has some nice machines as well.

 

But the key is to make the most of the machine you already have. Add a 400 GB external HD for about $100-200 and you're back in the game...

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reven

reven

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INTEL Core2 Duo E6420 150EUR

GIGABYTE GA-P35C-DS3R 120EUR

4GB DDR2 RAM around 150EUR

2*250 GB harddrives 100EUR

1*500 GB harddrive 80EUR

graphic card around 40 EUR

-----------------------------------------

Alltogether: 640EUR

 

This computer would trash your current one in sleep and would also be possible to upgrade in a year to a Quad-Core with DDR3.

 

Don't get any Mac, to expensive and not faster. Stay away from Vista, best use by far right now is Windows XP x64 Prof.

 

 

Any questions just ask.

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stunsworth

stunsworth

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Hi Wilfredo if you were buying your first machine I'd suggest looking at a Mac, but since you already have a machine, and more importantly software, it probably makes sense to stick with PCs.

 

Personally I'd avoid Vista. I've heard too many stories of hardware and software not working to consider it. If you do decide to stick with XP the obvious mainstream choice would be Dell who do supply their PCs with XP if required. Certainly in the UK this isn't an option on all their machines, but you should find a suitable one without too much difficulty.

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Riley

Riley

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one of the key advantages of a pc is that you can access more universal and therefore perhaps more advanced hardware kit. It is true a pc will require more hardware horsepower but OTOH that horsepower is available, and available on a budget in comparison with macs.

 

So Wilfredo if you budget is somewhat sensibly tight i would invest heavily on a fast high ram video card, a dual processor dual pipeline machine with fast capacious hard drives. Even if i had to sacrifice from the biggest/fastest cpu to suffice the remainder of the hardware suite aka video and drives.

 

edit to add: yes XP Pro will be my last incarnation of Windows too, i wont go near Vista

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hankg

hankg

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In your position I would add a hard drive and wait a year to upgrade when Vista was firing on all cylinders. As you will likely use your next new computer for 4 or 5 years I would not want to start with XP and Vista is right now not quite ready.

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reven

reven

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Windows XP X64 is ready know so why wait ? Once a while you always have to put on a new windows system if you want the full speed, so you could change to Windows Vista in a year or so then you decide it is time.

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hankg

hankg

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Windows XP X64 is ready know so why wait ? Once a while you always have to put on a new windows system if you want the full speed, so you could change to Windows Vista in a year or so then you decide it is time.

 

I would wait because Wilfredo is still OK with performance and just short on disc space. I use the old machine until performance starts to be an issue. Another year can really lower your cost of ownership and with digital cameras, software upgrades and computers anything that will make digital cheaper is OK with me.

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Venkman

Venkman

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Whatever you do (all above comments are very valid, except the Mac mini one maybe), do NOT get the idea to recycle your current Dell Case for anything else than Dell hardware.

 

Dell uses propietary PSUs and you will find yourself with something that isn't worth the trouble.

 

CPU wise any Core2 Duo will do - the 6600B is probably the best value for money version.

If you stick to XP (make sure you don't have "only" the castrated Dell version, cause that won't run on anything but a Dell again) the max advisable RAM would be 4GB, which is in any case useful for large graphical files, although 2 GB will do nicely as well.

 

Dirk

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Riley

Riley

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Why the hack should he get a high and fast graphic card ? That is not needed at all.

 

The faster VRam of a graphics card will take the load off the machine Ram when moving a file within a window or other editing procedures or browsing images and more intensive workflow. But no he doesnt need a super fast gamers graphics card. A good choice of card will also allow dual color profiles for dual monitors if he wanted to do that in the future.

 

Photoshop as an application is limited to 3 Gb of Ram, any other Ram input must come from somewhere else.

 

Other considerations that make a speed difference are very fast drives, a system drive and a data drive, and keeping the system drive with a large amount of free space. Alternately take a look at Adobe's Tech notes for the use of scratch disks.

 

Adobe - TechNote : Optimize performance of Photoshop (CS2 on Windows)

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roccoriley

roccoriley

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If your PC is four years old don't bother upgrading it. It will still be slow and fussy and you will have issues with the drivers on the new upgraded parts.

 

Your choices are a new PC or a MAC.

 

If you get a PC, don't get Vista and don't get XP64 bit. XP64 still has driver issues, I know because I have had one since they came out.

 

After 25 years of PC's, I bought a MAC a few months ago and really like it. Most of my software requirements are available on the MAC and the PC only programs run fine on the MAC using Parallels. I have always had fast, high powered PC's but the MAC is faster and it doesnt fall over like the PC's always did. Also, the transition from PC to MAC was easy. These new Intel MACS are very nice and if you haven't seen them, take a look before you make a decision.

 

A MAC will cost more than a PC but that would be my suggestion however a Dell would be the second suggestion. Dell's quality has slipped a lot in the last two years and if you choose Dell be sure to get the at home service for the anticipated life of the computer. I have always bought workstation versions because they are more reliable than home computers but the last one that I bought from Dell had 5 hard drive replacements, one motherboard and one dvd replacement during the first 12 months. And even though it was a four drive RAID setup, I still lost some data.

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MitchoIankov

MitchoIankov

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Maybe the simplest thing to do if you are not using the CD-ROM drive (or have another PC with a CD-ROM in the network) is to open the case and replace the CD-ROM with a hard drive of your choice (must be IDE). That will give you extra disk space until the time (Vista) is right to replace the PC.

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wparsonsgisnet

wparsonsgisnet

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Wilfredo,

 

If your pc is ok (fast enuf, for example), go for an external drive.

 

My plans, for when my current pc is no longer suitable or dies is to get a Power Book Pro, with all the bells and whistles, and use the software that lets windoze programs run on it (there are several versions of this software, one from Apple).

 

I started a thread asking about such a machine and there was a wonderful set of recommendations.

 

You can see that discussion here:

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/digital-forum/23484-seeking-advice-screen-quality-macbook-pro.html

 

I wouldn't go anywhere near Vista until it's a lot older than it is. It's a good thing cars and airplanes are not made the way Microsoft assembles software.

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roccoriley

roccoriley

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perhaps some of you read

as he already has CS3 he is committed to Windows

 

So What!

 

He hasn't installed it and could exchange it for a MAC version or could sell it and buy a MAC version, or he could run in in Parallels, or he could run it in Boot Camp or...

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