What size/Speed type computer are you using?

Hi,

I have been having problems with running Photoshop lately, as well as making out storage space.

I went to a secondary slave hard drive to store but, It just seems that there is just not enough memory.

The laptop that I currently use only has 256mb, and this seems to be among one of the main problems.

Even using RAM cleaner or "accelerator" type programs as well as increasing the virtual memory is to no avail.

I am going to get a new set up, and most likley a desktop.

What is everyone currently using (speed/size/etc) or anything else I should know. The new system will be just for "photography" and really nothing else.

Also, is there any benefit to waiting for the Vista O/S or, should I think about Mac instead?

Thanks in advance

This is what I bought a few months back. Very good bang per $/£. PS CS likes memory so you need a decent machine. I think you can get a great set up including monitor and external hard drive and OS for around £800 in the UK, cheaper in the US.

i can't tell you mac or pc because that is up to you but i can tell you that whatever you chose, make sure that it has at LEAST 1 GIG ram or even 2 if possible. Photoshop is a memory hog giving it enough ram will really speed it up.

as for what i use, i just finished building my own PC and i am very happy with it for everything from games to photography.

You can naver have too much RAM or too much disk space. I'm not using the fastest machines out there sinc I haven't upgraded recently, but I get reasonable performance with lots of RAM and free disk space.

Jon wrote in post #2615152
You can naver have too much RAM or too much disk space. I'm not using the fastest machines out there sinc I haven't upgraded recently, but I get reasonable performance with lots of RAM and free disk space.

exactly. good fast ram (lots of it) is very important. the good thing is that HD's are so inexpensive right now that you can buy more than you need. i have 3x 320gb in my machine right now and even though i don't have use for so much, it is nice to know that i will not run out any time soon (plus, i back things up on all 3 drives and one external 250gb just in case)

my main PC for processing is : AMD 3000+ 64Bit, RAM 2GB (2 x 1024MB Corsair TwinX), Hard drive 60GB and Extrenal 2 x 250GB Seagate (16mb Cache), 2 x Samsung 204B 20.1 5ms LCD Monitors, i have found that while processing in PSCS2 my RAM wont go over about 1gb BUT my CPU will be at 90%+ most of the time, im not sure if its my windows which is the problem (more than likely) but processor speed seems to be the biggest factor when it comes to my processing, im hoping to get a dual system soon just for my photography work and leave this PC for everything else. But as others have said RAM and HDD space definately help

I'm running PS CS2 on a 3 year old Velocity Micro with Pentium 4 microprocessor running at 3GHz and 2GB of ram. My primary HD has 250gb capacity, as does my secondary HD. I also have a portable Seagate 100gb external HD, and a Seagate 500gb external HD. I am quite satisfied with the work-flow speed, although I am sure that the latest dual core processors (soon to be quad) on the newest PCs will run rings around my machine.

I would think that unless you are a professional photographer, any current standard PC with ample RAM and HD capacity (make sure to get a secondary HD to backup or store your images to) will be sufficient to meet your needs. What I mean is that you don't have to splurge $$$ on the "media-ready" PCs that mfrs try to lure you with.

As between a PC or a MAC, if you are already using a Windows laptop, you may want to stay consistent with a Windows machine, although I understand the MACs will now run Windows too (which to me kind of defeats the purpose). I was once a MAC devotee until I got tired of the price premium, not to mention the limited choices, on software and peripherals. If you are considering a PC, make sure to research customer satisfaction rankings of the mfr you intend to buy from. We have 2 older DELLs, but will buy from Velocity Micro in the future because of their superior customer service.

I'm going to go with a new setup. I'm going to sell my desktop and purchase a dockable laptop with a Core 2 Duo processor 2.0Ghz with 4Gig of Ram. I'm looking to use a 24inch monitor and am leaning towards Gateway's new 24in HD monitor.

Pentium P4 HT 3.0 Ghz overclocked 24/7 @ 3.5 Ghz + 2 x 512MB Corsair PC3200 XMS Ram in Dual Channel + 120 gig SATA HD + 250 gig USB external HD.

I need another gig of Ram but it does pretty good as is as I'll probably wait and use the funds toward putting together another rig later in the year.

The more ram the better! I am currently running 512 on my desktop and my laptop smokes it with a gig... I need to upgrade the memory
Riley

My box is around 3+ yrs old now. But still performs splendidly.
Dual xeon's 3.2ghz 2gb ram, raid 0 (2x raptors), water cooled (the xeon fans can be mad noisey)
I have 2 graphics cards I use depending on what I'm doing, I have a quadro fx4000 for when I'm 'in maya season'
I use a Gainward 7800gs+ (7900 GPU 24pp 8vp @550/1400) when I'm in games season.

I was tired of slow PS so a year ago I got a new computer; dual core Intel processor, 4GB DDR533, 2 160MB HD set as RAID 0, seperate 80GB HD for the scratch disc, XP Pro.

One piece of advice I would give is not to use RAID 0 for storing your pictures. RAID 0 is better for performance, but actually increases the chance of losing your saved data because if one drive fails, the entire array goes down.

What I do is used RAID 0 for my boot, Windows and application data, but then use a really fast drive for temporary storage. After losing a lot of data, I always back up my data drive to an external USB drive.

I have:

AMD Athlon X2 4800+ (Dual core, 2.4ghz, 2mb L2 cache)
2gb DDR400 RAM
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
Nvidia 7800 GTX KO

Although, for the money, the new Intel core2 duo systems are better.

'One piece of advice I would give is not to use RAID 0 for storing your pictures. RAID 0 is better for performance, but actually increases the chance of losing your saved data because if one drive fails, the entire array goes down.'

Technically you are correct, but use 2 raptors and let those worries melt away, If I was concerned I would use raid 3 my controller supports it, at cost of one extra drive.
These raptors are so reliable it is not funny. Saying that I always backup copies of critical data onto the main server here to be sure.

Server is an amd 3200 1gb ram with about 1TB storage w2k3 server. There are 5 machines in my home, the elder kids each have one, they share the drives on the server so only small drives needed locally for their progs and os.