Help with computer ...

[Toni100]

:D Hi!
I am suppose to buy new computer soon! I would like to know what computer do you use?
How much memory, how big screen, PC or MAC, Loptop or desktop....???
Also, what software do you use to work with images???
Any info is welcome!
Thank you for your time!
Toni

[Curtis N]

Toni,
That's sort of like asking, "What car should I buy?"
Without knowing anything about your budget or how you intend to use it, it's difficult to recommend anything.

[weemannie]

Wow that's a question and a half :lol:

I can't speak about Macs' as I've always used PCs

So... (deep breath)

As fast a processor as possible (3Ghz or above.)
At least 512Mb DDR Ram (1Gb+ better)
A huge hard drive particularly if you shoot RAW. 250GB is great
I have a laptop and a Desktop PC and for photo editing the desktop is best. I also use 2 19" CRT monitors. There can be a lot of clutter with photo editing software!:)

Desktop PCs' are also easier to upgrade.
Some form of backup for your files. THIS IS ESSENTIAL. I have a 120GB firewire hard drive and dual layer DVD rewriter. I can't stress enough how important it is to back up regularly.
I use Photoshop CS2 which is excellent software, but many people use PaintShop Pro, which is a lot cheaper. Never used it myself, so cannot comment.
Good luck:)

[dphotomania]

This is what I have, you can use it as an example. I do some post processing to my 20D photos. Sometimes opens multiple pictures to work on.

We have 2 Dell (1 laptop, 1 desktop) 3.2 ghz, 2 GB memory. 2 80GB to install softwares, 2 250GB for photo storage, and 1 300GB for backups. And 2 20" Monitor so we can see our big photos.

And sometimes I still think I need a faster PC 3.2 is a bit slow when you need to apply a filter to a file thats over 300MB!!

We use PS CS2.

Hahhaaaa
hope this helps

[etaf]

as has been said - difficult question
I have 1 destop PC a 1700+ athlon which runs at about 1.4Ghz, 512MB, 3 drives all 120GB, a DVD writer. a matrox graphics 2Dcard cant remember the number 550 i think - i use PSCS and it works fine.
I also have laptops for family and work
I laptop is about a 1.8, 512MB memory and CDwriter

so i can only restate the above.
make sure you have storage, a good 2D graphics card for photos or 3D if you want to play games at the very minimum 512Mb memory

elements 3 is very good and quite cheap
of course photoshop, 7, cs, cs2 or even 6 would be OK
Paint Shop Pro - you can get old versions for free
the gimp is free and also very good

whats you budget and will the PC be used for anything other than photos, bit of surfing etc.

[Camo 757]

Easy, get a Mac. Always works, plugs in right away. Never reboot. Best OS out there, very intuitive.

Hard Core PhotoShop - get a G5, whatever you can afford
mid - Imac G5
need portability - 15" Powerbook

I have them all and they are all great. Really are.

[Andrew Pratt]

As the others have pointed out this is a difficult question to answer without more information from yourself. What else besides photo editing do you see yourself doing with it? Are games important? What about portability vs speed and storage space?

For what its worth I'm using a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop using the 1.6 Ghz chip, 60 gig 7200 RPM drive, dual layer DVD burner with 2 gigs of DDR2 ram running XP Pro, PaintShop Pro and a suite of other software.

[ghocking]

I have a desktop and a laptop, and as weemannie states I also find it easier editing on a desktop, can never seem to get screen at correct angle on laptop.

[DavidEB]

Read this thread (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=80449). If you enjoy tinkering with stuff like that, get a PC. If you value your sanity and want a machine that works for you instead of against you, get a mac. like Camo said.

[canonrick]

Get a Mac. I have a powerbook and a G5. If you want to spend your time away from photography, then get a PC. Depending on where you live you can get support in an Apple store. PCs are for people who want to become computer experts.

[Pekka]

Get a Mac. I have a powerbook and a G5. If you want to spend your time away from photography, then get a PC. Depending on where you live you can get support in an Apple store. PCs are for people who want to become computer experts.

Ok, Mac evangelists please stop this nonsense.

[canonrick]

Sorry, your right. Momentary loss of control.

[MTalley]

For serious photo editing, a desktop monitor (LCD or CRT) can't be beat. Laptop screens typically suffer from severe gamma shift (lighter/darker) depending on angle. Lots of disk space, lots of RAM, fast processor, some form of permanent backup capabilities (CR-RW or DVD-RW drive).

With all that said, I'm working off of a Dell Latitude laptop, vintage 2002 model, with 1.8 GHz mobile P4 processor, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB HD. One thing I do like, though, is the 15" screen running at a native resolution of 1600 x 1200.

For backups, I'm using CD-R discs (700 MB each) for archival storage and an external USB hard disk with 120GB storage. Unfortunately, my laptop has older USB 1.1 ports on it. Therefore, backing up to hard disk, retrieving data from the CF reader, etc. runs at a leisurely 1 MB per second. In other words, backing up 1GB of data from my laptop to the external drive takes 1000 seconds (or about 17 minutes).

Since the laptop is from work, not much I can do right now regarding upgrades. Can't afford my own and, given the price on this one, I'll put up with the overall lethargic nature of my entire setup. We do have a desktop computer running a faster processor, but it only has a 15" LCD monitor and 512 MB RAM.

Unless you are always shooting all of your photos at home, I'd suggest the following:

1. Laptop with 1GB RAM, 60GB hard disk, decent display with at least 1280 x 960 res, DVD-RW drive.
2. External monitor for use at home. High quality LCD (at least 17") or CRT (at least 19").
3. More external storage, preferably with a Firewire port, such as a minimum 120GB hard disk.

Of course, this all presumes a Windows system. You can do similar with a Mac, I'm sure, but I've not been close to Macs for a while.

[jfrancho]

:D Hi!
I am suppose to buy new computer soon! I would like to know what computer do you use?
How much memory, how big screen, PC or MAC, Loptop or desktop....???
Also, what software do you use to work with images???
Any info is welcome!
Thank you for your time!
ToniI don't think this a hard question, Toni is asking what we use.
I have a P4 3.6MHz Dual Core processer with 800MHz FSB and 1MB Cache.
The mainboard has PCI Express and Intel chipset.
I have 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM @ 533MHz.
Video is a GeForce 6600 GT PCI Express 128MB
Hard Drives Serial ATA RAID 1 300GB (2 x 300GB Drives, mirrored)
Dual layer DVD=/-RW Drive
My monitor is a 19" CRT.
I use Windows XP for OS, Norton Internet Security (still getting used to this, former McAfee user)
For photo editing I use Photoshop. I have CS, and CS2 (still haven't figured everything out in CS2, yet).
I also have Macromedia Fireworks, but I use it rarely, mostly for web stuff.
I have a few RAW conversion tools: Rawshooter Essentials, Capture One Pro, the Canon stuff, and Adobe Camera Raw plugin.

I also have an older laptop, a Dell C640, that I use to preview, and sometimes store images onsite. It can barely handle CS2, so I don't use it too much to edit.

Basically, you want memory, harddrive space, FSB speed. I'm not sure that processor helps that much, though it may apply filters faster. A high end video card is not critical either. The only additions that I will be making to this system in the near future are an external hardrive and a graphics tablet. I suppose I should consider a new monitor, as mine is 4 years old. A friend of mine calibrates it for me every couple of months. I may add a Spyder2 Calibration kit to the list of things to get.

[Todd Jacobsen]

:D Hi!
I am suppose to buy new computer soon! I would like to know what computer do you use?
How much memory, how big screen, PC or MAC, Loptop or desktop....???
Also, what software do you use to work with images???
Any info is welcome!
Thank you for your time!
Toni


Buy your system with the intent to expand. This way, your initial costs are affordable but your not trapped in with what you purchased.

Laptops tend to be non-upgradeable, although there are some options. In addition, your HD speeds/sizes/options (RAID) are somewhat limited. There are convenience costs when buying a laptop. Definitely consider buying a docking station for any laptop purchase. In addition, an external monitor is always beneficial, particularly for color management.

Destops on the other hand, are essentially non-portable.

I started out with a laptop and have made the decision to upgrade every three years. I'm due for a laptop upgrade but my desktop is my primary asset now. My laptop is going on 5 years old but still handles CS2 (used infrequently on laptop) as well as PSE3.0. I do download 'in the field" with it. Not the fastest, but it does the job.

I've chewed up a few HD's on the laptop and I'm now sensitive to the issue (thus RAID 5) I also do a Ghost backup every 6 months (external from RAID) on an external 250GB HD (laptop backed up on 120GB external).

I used to be a big Mac guru back in the Mac Plus days but switched once Win95 came out. Couldn't handle the lack of software (Apple/MS fued).

What ever you choose, highly recommend separating your data from your system via separate HD configuations. Software, OS on one HD, data on another.

I currently have an alienware desktop as my primary PC, 3.2GHz Extreme, RAID 5 (4x250GB), 2GB RAM, GEForce 5650. This is used for video, pictures, music etc...RAID size is for speed (4 drives is a faster RAID configuration than 2 or 3) more than space requirement (I gots lots of leftover space). It does allow me to provide adequate space for all of the above, to include my new interest, web development.

I currently connect the laptop/desktop via KVM switch (and docking station) allowing me to transfer data effortlessly from one location.

[drewmk2]

Honestly, if you're just editing photos, who needs tons of power? I was using a 1.7ghz p4 with PS7 with no problem. You don't necessarily need the newest and most powerful if you're on a budget.

For photo work, i would invest more money in good, fast memory rather than an amazing processor. It will pay off more.

My fathers new PC is an HP with 3.2 ghz, 1gb ram, everything, and im not convinced. My 2.6ghz with 1gb dual channel DDR400 runs far faster than his pc ever will, and i would prefer mine in a second.

A good monitor, somthing which i don't have, is also one of the more important things.

[jfrancho]

Honestly, if you're just editing photos, who needs tons of power? I was using a 1.7ghz p4 with PS7 with no problem. You don't necessarily need the newest and most powerful if you're on a budget.

For photo work, i would invest more money in good, fast memory rather than an amazing processor. It will pay off more.

My fathers new PC is an HP with 3.2 ghz, 1gb ram, everything, and im not convinced. My 2.6ghz with 1gb dual channel DDR400 runs far faster than his pc ever will, and i would prefer mine in a second.

A good monitor, somthing which i don't have, is also one of the more important things.It isn't power we've been preaching, it's storage, memory and throughput. We just happen to also have powerful (for now...) machines.

[lostdoggy]

It all depends on how you plan to use it and how much you willing to spend. Laptops are portable but not very expandable and display is small for post processing. Desktop takes up room but very expandable. Desktop can run you from $300 and on up and Laptop will run you $500 and on up. Memory is the key to post processing then processor. So on a budget spend more money on memory then processor. As far as MAC vs PC that is a personal prefference. Being familiar with PC and not willing to learn MAC I'm bias toward PC. Processor, Intel will be replacing MAC's power something in 2006. The line between Graphic Application in MAC vs PC has more or less eroded especially since PS is the predominate choice application.

[Pekka]

:D Hi!
I am suppose to buy new computer soon! I would like to know what computer do you use?
How much memory, how big screen, PC or MAC, Loptop or desktop....???

This system works fine for me, only thing I'd like to add is more RAM:

- ASUS A7N8X Deluxe motherboard
- AMD Athlon XP 2400+ CPU
- 1GB RAM (266Mhz dual)
- Gigabyte Radeon 9800 Pro display adapter (with Zalman cooler)
- 2 EIDE disks (Windows XP Pro on disk 1)
- Two dual SATA cards
- 6 SATA disks for data (about 1000 Gigabytes of useable space using NTFS file system)
- Sound Blaster Audigy sound card (+ lots of other stuff like RME Hammerfall and MIDI studio)
- Plextor DVD burner
- All of above is in Antec Sonata case (very quiet and cool)
- One external USB SATA drive (200GB)
- Two Eizo L768AS displays, calibrated with Spyder 2 Pro

I also have one older dual P600 SCSI machine with 1GB RAM which is networked and has few more EIDE disks. And Eizo F-78 21" CRT (unused now).

Also, what software do you use to work with images???

RAWshooter Essentials, Photoshop, Capture One Pro.

[felix21685]

hey pekka when you get tired of that machine. lol or any component of it..i'll pay for shipping :) lol jk..nice setup..

mines on a budget but still kicks butt if you ask me;

Asus MB
3.2GHz intel p4 with HT
768MB pc2700
120GB drive getting too small sometimes :)
DVD RW ( a must)
NVIDIA FX 5900 128MB GFX card.
all hte other things you need to complete a computer :)
and im proud to say i built it myself :) easy

[blue_max]

Buy a mid range of any current major computer manufacturer as a pre-built system.

Most pc's these days are up to the job. Ram/Hard drive space/Processor speed are all relevant.

Look at a few companies and compare to see what is current. It's always best to inform yourself before you buy. Just because someone else has one, it doesn't mean it is still current or the best deal.

I have always had macs, but you may bargain a better deal with a pc. If you don't have any experience of either, it's probably best to go pc for compatability.

Dell seem a pretty safe bet, but don't buy their bottom of the range (or their top).

The more you pay, the more you should expect, but don't fly too close to the flame as it'll burn ya!

Graham

[lostdoggy]

By now your head most be spinning, but here is something that might help.

If you decide to buy PC check out this site regularly for the latest offers:
http://www.techbargains.com/dellcoupons.cfm
I have seen them include 19" LCD display with their systems. and up to $750 of systems.
I just got for my sister the 9300 Inspiron notebook with 1GB Memory for $1300 shipped. Before discount $2000.

My recommendation
at least :
model 4700
min 1GB DDRAM
any processor but Celeron, perferablely 1MB L2 Cache
128MB Video but is not really important, w/ DVI and Analog output video.
largest SATA HDD you can afford. 2 HDD is better then one and so.
Skip the floppy
16X DL DVD burner
Skip the Multimedia and image editing application offer unless it is PSCS2
Skip the printer they offer otherwise you'll be stuck with a crappy Dell printer with very expensive Ink.
Ok that should do it for the PC.

Now if you want a legal copy of the PSCS2 find a teacher or a college student unless you are one and buy the educator/student copy it is allot cheaper I think its less then $300. There is some slight tech support difference as far as know but basicly the same. Look into it if you're looking for legal copy. The other method is buy a copy of PS 7 and upgrade to CS2.

Download a copy of RAW Shooter Essential now for free before they decide to charge.

That is my two cent.

[condyk]

I've ran Mac for most of my adult life but went PC when I started my own business!!!? Why? They're very cheap and fast/easy to fix, more people have one (all my past customers except one!), more software. Simple business decision. At home a Mac is nice, but I have a PC desktop and laptop. I mainly use the laptop, but use the desktop if I'm getting serious.

Whatever ... LOTS of memory, min. 17" good quality monitor, 1GB RAM, anything 1.5mhz and over processor wise from AMD or Intel (not Celeron!) fastest video card you can afford, large firewire or USB2 external harddrive for backup and almost as large internal for applications and documents (say 250/160mb or whatever you fancy).

Software XP Pro, Photoshop CS, Norton Systemworks Premier, and Handy Backup will be a good start. PS Elements is also very good and free with a Canon body I think!?

Build your own ... best thing to do if you can be bothered to learn. Then if anything goes wrong just replace the component. Truly modular and cost effective. I've had the same desktop three years and still performs faster than my new laptop as it has huge memory and fast video card ... only same 1.4mhz chip as day I built it. Every now and again I upgrade this or that.

When I buy for clients I just buy from Dell ... watch for special offers and watch the options you choose. You can save £100's on a single purchase. Problem is they're not always too upgradable, so you're lumbered.

[JoshBowers]

My Rig:

Antec NeoPower480 ATX 12V 480W Power Supply
Motherboard: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI Audio/GB-
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 512K 90nm (939)
Memory: Corsair DDR (400) 3200 - 2 GB
Display: 22" Lacie Electron Blue IV
Video: Radeon-MSI X800 256MB
HD 1: 300GB|MAXTOR
HD 2: 250GB|Western Digital
HD 3: 160GB|Seagate Backup
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
Speakers: Logitech Z-5500 5.1
DVD-RW: HP 16X IDE DVD+/-RW LightScribe

I built it myself March... Unfortunately both my hobbies are expensive.... Luckily they compliment each other :)

Not sure on your pc building skills.... But you can buy barebone, or combo, systems from places like monarch. They put together the motherboard, cpu, and memory. Which are usually the most expensive... Then all you have to do is put it in a case, install hardrives, power supply, video and sound card. Connect fans, etc.

If you don't feel safe building a computer, I guess the best option would be dell?

[JoshBowers]

You might want to post exactly what it is your going to use the computer for....

A laptop would be a better choice if you travel a lot.
A desktop if you don't travel a lot.
A CRT instead of LCD if you plan to Proof and print.
What else would the computer be used for?

Bare basic software? Norton antivirus, zonealarm firewall, photoshop, windows XP PRO.

Things I like most about my computer, and I think other people would appreciate? BIG SCREEN, TONS OF HD SPACE. Once you really get into the whole digital media thing, those 60, 80, and even 100gb harddrives fill REALLY FAST.

The most important lesson I have learned about computing... Back-up is a must. I use 4 backup devices.... CD/DVD's (I have dozens of backup discs), I use a seagate backup harddrive, a western digital mobile harddrive, and my website server to get access to certain things no matter where I am as long as I can connect to the internet.

What kind of computer do you have right now?