CS3 vs. CS4

I didn't know where to look for the information.

I would like to purchase photoshop. I have elements 7 now. I had read at some point that cs4 uses too much memory or hard drive or something. I have 2gigs of ram and I struggle keeping any room to work with in my 160 gigs of hard drive. I have an 500 gig external hd (full) and a 1 tb external hd 80% full. I feel like I'm drowning in pictures.

Since I have owned neither version, I would imagine that I would be happy with either. I would appreciate any information or thoughts that anyone would share on the subject.

Thanks,

David

First of all is CS3 even available these days? CS4 is a better product than CS3 - it is faster and handles things better. Also if you get a new camera CS3 will not support any more new models if you shoot RAW. Another thing you may wish to consider is Lightroom.

RAM and hard drives are cheap these days so it's probably worth upgrading to 4GB RAM and grabbing another HD - you can pick up 1TB internal drives for less than $100.

While you're looking at updating things if you are using Windows seriously consider getting Windows 7 - much better than any of the previous versions of Windows.

I have entertained going to windows 7. I looked around for how to upgrade to 7 but I didn't find information as to how you go from vista to 7. I guess I am intimidated to undertake dismantling my operating system and loading a new one.

About the hard drives, do you just keep sitting hard drives next to your chair?

dcsmith40D wrote in post #9317510
I have entertained going to windows 7. I looked around for how to upgrade to 7 but I didn't find information as to how you go from vista to 7. I guess I am intimidated to undertake dismantling my operating system and loading a new one.

About the hard drives, do you just keep sitting hard drives next to your chair?

Assuming you have a desktop computer I'd be very surprised if there isn't room for more hard drives in your case.

It's my understanding that you can do an upgrade from Vista to Win 7 without having to do a complete clean reinstall (which I did coming from XP).

AFAIK you put the Win 7 DVD into your Vista system and away you go.

blackshadow wrote in post #9317544
Assuming you have a desktop computer I'd be very surprised if there isn't room for more hard drives in your case.

It's my understanding that you can do an upgrade from Vista to Win 7 without having to do a complete clean reinstall (which I did coming from XP).

AFAIK you put the Win 7 DVD into your Vista system and away you go.

No I don't use a desktop. I hate setting at a desk on the computer. It hurts my neck and shoulders.

You might be maxed out on your RAm if you use a laptop. You can always use more external HDDs - although they are slow compared to a SATA drive. What VISTA are you running right now - 32 or 64? If you want to install Win 7 in 64 bit mode (which I would highly recommend) but are running 32 bit Vista right now, then you need to do a clean install NOT an upgrade. I did just than for my laptop and it worked just fine. I would suggest that you find out exactly how much RAM you can install first.

5Dmaniac wrote in post #9317765
You might be maxed out on your RAm if you use a laptop. You can always use more external HDDs - although they are slow compared to a SATA drive. What VISTA are you running right now - 32 or 64? If you want to install Win 7 in 64 bit mode (which I would highly recommend) but are running 32 bit Vista right now, then you need to do a clean install NOT an upgrade. I did just than for my laptop and it worked just fine. I would suggest that you find out exactly how much RAM you can install first.

How do you find out 32 vs 64 bit and how much ram I can install? Seems I remember that I could add 2more gigs.