I'm buying a new rig shortly. I don't know a whole lot about this stuff, but I do know my current system isn't near big enough to do the things I need to do with my nature photography. I'll be running PS6, so I'm wondering how much RAM I should look into. I have a $1500 budget.
And what about monitors? The flat screens I've used on other people's computers kinda sucked for color since it changes with the viewing angle. Are you guys still using the big old monitors?
I am assuming you are using a Windoze PC. A 32 bit PC running WinXP will only recognize 3GB of RAM. So, I suggest that, again assuming you are running WinXP (which I recommend) buy a machine with 1 GB of RAM and then buy an additional 2GB and install it yourself. Check the specs of the mother board in the system you want to buy and ensure it can handle the extra memory boards. Dell, Gateway, HP, etc. really hammer you money-wise for RAM. It is much less expensive to buy something like Crucial, or Kingston memory after you get your machine.
I just put 2 more GB of RAM in my machine and the performance with PS-CS2 (along with my other programs) is greatly improved.
Also, go for the fastest CPU you can afford, and also get a second hard drive to use for your PhotoShop Scratch disk. This will really help performance of PS.
I am using a 19" CRT monitor (a Dell), which I like a lot. There are some very nice LCD flat screen monitors out there that will do the job, but I am not up on them. Hopefully some of the others will weigh in on this.
Like you, I was recently in the market for a new computer. I pieced it together myself by shopping online and actually ended up with a refurb HP CPU. This was only b/c it is very difficult to find a PC with WinXP preinstalled on it anymore. Everything is Vista - and it may have new parts that are not backward compatible to XP.
So you may have a hard time finding that, but I went with PCConnection.com and got a manufactured refurbed "old" HP m7667c PC (by 9 months - sheesh) with 2 GB RAM, dual 300 GB HD, and all the other bells and whistles (TV card, dual DVI video card, etc) for a song - $650. So if you go for at least a dual core Intel chip and not the absolute latest one, you'll save big. I went with this option, also, b/c I know my way around a computer so if anything goes bad, I know how to fix it.
Most importantly, a dual HD and extra RAM will give you a better performance boost. Any Dual Core Intel chip would run your PS just fine as I have CS2 and it's just great.
For the monitor, I decided to go with LCD this time with a Samsung Syncmaster 226BW which is a wide screen 22" and it really is outstanding when hooked up to a DVI video card. At least, it's better than my old Dell CRT.
So your budget sounds good for what you want, just remember that you pay the most for the latest and most people don't need the absolute latest. My last computer was purchased in 2001 so I don't upgrade often. BTW, my total price of the computer, monitor, and backup HD (coupons included) - $750.
As a last note, save a little in your budget for some kind of backup system. I have an external HD to back up all files on the HD that I bring out once a month to prepare for the inevitable catastrophic HD failure.
Hope this helps,
Kevin
Posted by David Bostedo on December 7, 2007 at 9:39 AM
I haven't bought a desktop in a long time, so I don't have much advice there, but there are tons of people on here, including pros, that use LCD panels rather than CRT. (It might be the majority by now.) I think if you run a search for monitors on here, you'll find some threads. Some LCDs are very very good, and some are pretty crappy. Good ones should show very little change for slight head movements - although you won't see accuracy at 45 degrees or anything.
I can also add that the HP 2465 (available on HP's site under the small business area, and not the home area) is a 24" LCD that is
1) reasonably priced (less than Apple, lots less than Eizo) and is
2) HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommended by quite a few people in another forum.
It calibrates very well, and is very sharp apparently. If you want to read more, you can look here.
Posted by Jim DeWitt on December 7, 2007 at 5:54 PM
I'm a serious Apple fan, and it is a little spendier, but in my experience it's a lot more stable in the long run. Regardless, invest your money in the highest quality LCD display you can afford. If you are doing photo work, you can live with a slower processor, and even being a little tight with RAM, but you cannot live with bad color. Don't get a huge, off-brand CRT. You often can't find color profiles for them and it's nearly impossible to get consistent color across the entire CRT.
Serious Mac fan here, too. Mo bux for their monitors, but we've had great luck with them. In the studio clients make print orders right off the monitor, and we noticed an immediate jump in sales volume and in size of individual prints ordered when we switched from CRT to the LCD monitors. They paid for themselves very quickly in increased sales. Our rep at the principal lab we use for prints complimented my wife recently on color: "We have never once had to do any color correction on your orders!" How can you beat that?
Thanks a lot for all the replies...I'm still processing it all. That's good news about the referb HP. With that price range I can go a little crazy on an LCD. Also, I'll keep my old hard drive for some storage and scratch disc. I'm down to 14% free space on that, (I have an mp3 addiction). Are there any objections to using this with the new system because of it's age? I got this one around 2001. I'm worried about this one crashing on me, though there have been no signs of that. And if I do use this one, how do you connect the two? What's the best way?
Thanks again for all the info! It's helping a lot.
I have CS3 and 4 gb of RAM on my desktop, up from 2 gb. I bought a 1 gb chip from Dell. I bought the second IDENTICAL chip from Kingston at half the price.
I wanted to upgrade my laptop to 4 gb of RAM, up from 3 gb. They (Dell) list the chip at $165.99. I called Dell to see if they had a cheaper chip. I had previously checked the manufacturer's part number and found out it was a Kingston Technology chip, which Dell's representative confirmed, after a period of quite a few minutes of waiting. He informed me, in ever so polite fashion, that "No, he was so sorry, but those were the prices, but thank you so very much for choosing Dell." He then requested my phone # and email address so he could send me a case #, should I be interested in pursuing the purchase at a later date. I gave him the information he requested, thanked him, and hung up.
I called Kingston, after doing a search on their website for the same chip by computer manufacturer and model. I had gotten a price quote of $59, and I wanted to verify that very unbelievable info. I got a representative immediately, who informed me it was the identical chip they sell to Dell, and yes the price was correct!
Talk about a ripoff!!
Posted by Janet Bentley on December 9, 2007 at 7:59 AM
I have been building my own computers with good success for many years. Don't know if you're up to it, but if you don't mind shopping online and at your local computer stores, you can build a pretty good system at a reasonable price. I just purchased an AMD dualcore + CPU, MSI MB, 4 GB of Kingston RAM, 2 ea 500 GB SATA drives, an excellent new Video card and hi-watt power supply. My keyboard, mouse, wacom and other peripherals stay. For about $850-900-ish I've got a smokin' hot puter on my desk. It takes a little time to sniff out the good buys, and I recommend that you buy from reputable sellers.
Don't believe those silly MAC adds. PC's aren't difficult
Now I'm starting to look into building it myself. You people opened me up to a new world. Do you recommend a certain website or book that deals with building PC's?
My brother keeps asking me if I'm going to switch to Mac. I don't think so.
Posted by Gene Lugo on December 10, 2007 at 1:14 AM
The LCD is the trickiest item, since the specs are not represented in consistent fashion from mfgr to mfgr. What you you should be looking for is an 8 bit S-IPS monitor. Eight bit minimum is essential to avoid dithered colors and grays, S-IPS technology for best color and widest viewing angles. The LaCie 130732 is a 19" version of one of these, available for slightly over $600.
Discussion
10 repliesAnd what about monitors? The flat screens I've used on other people's computers kinda sucked for color since it changes with the viewing angle. Are you guys still using the big old monitors?
Thanks for any advice.
I am assuming you are using a Windoze PC. A 32 bit PC running WinXP will only recognize 3GB of RAM. So, I suggest that, again assuming you are running WinXP (which I recommend) buy a machine with 1 GB of RAM and then buy an additional 2GB and install it yourself. Check the specs of the mother board in the system you want to buy and ensure it can handle the extra memory boards. Dell, Gateway, HP, etc. really hammer you money-wise for RAM. It is much less expensive to buy something like Crucial, or Kingston memory after you get your machine.
I just put 2 more GB of RAM in my machine and the performance with PS-CS2 (along with my other programs) is greatly improved.
Also, go for the fastest CPU you can afford, and also get a second hard drive to use for your PhotoShop Scratch disk. This will really help performance of PS.
I am using a 19" CRT monitor (a Dell), which I like a lot. There are some very nice LCD flat screen monitors out there that will do the job, but I am not up on them. Hopefully some of the others will weigh in on this.
-PB
Like you, I was recently in the market for a new computer. I pieced it together myself by shopping online and actually ended up with a refurb HP CPU. This was only b/c it is very difficult to find a PC with WinXP preinstalled on it anymore. Everything is Vista - and it may have new parts that are not backward compatible to XP.
So you may have a hard time finding that, but I went with PCConnection.com and got a manufactured refurbed "old" HP m7667c PC (by 9 months - sheesh) with 2 GB RAM, dual 300 GB HD, and all the other bells and whistles (TV card, dual DVI video card, etc) for a song - $650. So if you go for at least a dual core Intel chip and not the absolute latest one, you'll save big. I went with this option, also, b/c I know my way around a computer so if anything goes bad, I know how to fix it.
Most importantly, a dual HD and extra RAM will give you a better performance boost. Any Dual Core Intel chip would run your PS just fine as I have CS2 and it's just great.
For the monitor, I decided to go with LCD this time with a Samsung Syncmaster 226BW which is a wide screen 22" and it really is outstanding when hooked up to a DVI video card. At least, it's better than my old Dell CRT.
So your budget sounds good for what you want, just remember that you pay the most for the latest and most people don't need the absolute latest. My last computer was purchased in 2001 so I don't upgrade often. BTW, my total price of the computer, monitor, and backup HD (coupons included) - $750.
As a last note, save a little in your budget for some kind of backup system. I have an external HD to back up all files on the HD that I bring out once a month to prepare for the inevitable catastrophic HD failure.
Hope this helps,
Kevin
I can also add that the HP 2465 (available on HP's site under the small business area, and not the home area) is a 24" LCD that is
1) reasonably priced (less than Apple, lots less than Eizo) and is
2) HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommended by quite a few people in another forum.
It calibrates very well, and is very sharp apparently. If you want to read more, you can look here.
Just my $0.02...
Thanks again for all the info! It's helping a lot.
I wanted to upgrade my laptop to 4 gb of RAM, up from 3 gb. They (Dell) list the chip at $165.99. I called Dell to see if they had a cheaper chip. I had previously checked the manufacturer's part number and found out it was a Kingston Technology chip, which Dell's representative confirmed, after a period of quite a few minutes of waiting. He informed me, in ever so polite fashion, that "No, he was so sorry, but those were the prices, but thank you so very much for choosing Dell." He then requested my phone # and email address so he could send me a case #, should I be interested in pursuing the purchase at a later date. I gave him the information he requested, thanked him, and hung up.
I called Kingston, after doing a search on their website for the same chip by computer manufacturer and model. I had gotten a price quote of $59, and I wanted to verify that very unbelievable info. I got a representative immediately, who informed me it was the identical chip they sell to Dell, and yes the price was correct!
Talk about a ripoff!!
Don't believe those silly MAC adds. PC's aren't difficult
My brother keeps asking me if I'm going to switch to Mac. I don't think so.