Best PC for Illustrator/Photoshop??

visiontshirts

Greetings all,

My wife is the graphics designer and I'm the PC guy. I'm not a MAC guy, but from what I read it seems the MAC is the best platform for Photoshop and Illustrator work, especially for having multiple files open and such. She complains that with her Intel P4 3.0ghz and 2GB of RAM using Adobe CS2, it chokes, and has many other issues causing loss of files, abnormal file closure, etc.

The machine has 3 hard drives all over 500GB each. I just changed the scratch drive from the C drive to the F drive last night to see if that helps. The machine also has a an Nvidia GeForce 7950GT video card with 512MB of ram on it. I would think this PC is plenty powerful enough to run these programs, however maybe a PC with the newer core duo processor will work better or should I just look for a MAC?

Thanks in advance!!!

Stage2

Agree with Evo.

I do a fair bit of design work. One thing thats left out and is really important is monitor size. I'm rocking an asus laptop with an i5 rpocess and 8gig of ram, but the monitor size is 15.1" if you're doing some complex designing I would also recommend a output monitor as well so you can run dual or single and atleast 20" and up the more the better.

So laptop should run you $800 (depending) and a 22" could run you $200 or less so price that out. Another thing to note is the black color ratio refresh rate on your monitor. Some laptops and monitors the blacks are not vibrants its still good though but if you're a picking a certain type of color always good to check both monitors (laptop and and external) to see how it turns up.

tompainesbones

What's your budget?

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Dave UK imagesetters and Wasatch RIP

visiontshirts

Thank you all for that information, very helpful. I can go up to $1k for the right equipment. I'll be checking around on craigslist for it.

I upgraded the P4 3.0Ghz with 4 GB Ram (sees only 3.25GB) with XP Pro and put in an GeForce 8500GT with 512mb/ram and it seems to be working alot better. I would imagine the core duo processors will certainly be better but how do you address 4GB or more or RAM without a 64 bit OS?

Thanks in advance.

tompainesbones

i5 is very good value at the moment. If you need two screens a laptop with a separate monitor works well. $1000 will get a really good system, go for the best processor you can afford and sacrifice the 'extras', bluetooth etc.

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Dave UK imagesetters and Wasatch RIP

Ink Guy

To get the best out of your computer
Drive 1 -C drive - 500 GB - Use this drive for programs only.
Drive 2 -500 GB -or 1 TB internal for files
Drive 3 - Internal if possible..if not....use as external.

Scratch disk is Drive 2 - Don't use the c drive or an external for scratch disk.

Never place files on your desktop, because that is your c drive.

The only files I would place on your c drive if you really need to are files that you use to print and hardly change...such as price sheets.


If you keep your C drive clean, it will always run as fast as the day you got it and you will never have to defragment.

People wonder why their computers slow down, when they load them up.

Keep in mind..... when you add a file it works like this

z X C V B are different files

ZZZXXXXXXXXXXXCCCCCCCCVVVVVVVVBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

Later you delete file VVVVVVVV but add file MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM


ZZZXXXXXXXXXXXCCCCCCCCMMMMMMMMBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBMMMMMMMMMMMM

File M was larger than file V

So...part of file M fills up where file V was....then the left over got to another area that is available.

That is why deleting files over and over, leave small spaces, which files have to break apart to fit on the drive

If you do this enough times it slows the computer down so much. to solve this you defragement the drive.

If you only use programs on your c drive, you never have to defragment and you run full speed all the time

Rodney Byars

tigerdirect also has some great deals on computers and accessories

jonathan at Spencer Print

Just go buy a refirb mac at the apple store. max the ram and buy a external hard drive.
it will save you a lot of headache. there is a reason the apple products are not cheap. They are the Mercedes of computers. also you can get cs cloud for $35 a month thats a lot cheaper than $900.

claybrick

Hi, according to my husband, there is no such thing as the best PC for that. I agree, he's right with it because it will really depend on ones budget to spend either on a branded PC or laptop or a custom built version. But, most users suggest a customized one. However, you may try and read on this: Best For Creatives Chosen By Community. I presumed that this could give us an idea.

claybrick

In my opinion, the bias towards using Macs today is based on the long-standing history and tradition of Graphic Designers using Macs. It has no technical basis.

Adobe has gone on record via their Adobe Hardware Performance Whitepaper to point out that the performance of their software comes down to specs, not operating system.