Designers Computer Specs

Hank_Scorpio

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if people here could give me some backing on computer specs for designing.

About 6 months ago I gave in specs for a new computer to run InDesign CS3, Photoshop and Illustrator and Acrobat from. I generally need all 4 products running all the time. But when I handed in the specs to the IT department, they and the Accounting department chopped it to bits and took off and reduced some of the specs I suggested.

Now it's come around again, I spent 50 minutes PDFing a 800 x 2000mm display banner and I spent much time last night getting it to PDF as I kept running out of memory.

So here's what I need, can others here just put down some specs that are needed to run all 4 programs simultaneously and produce large format prints.

I work on a Windows operating system. 2.13ghz Dual Core, 2gb RAM and a 256mb Quadro FX graphics card. It's not handling the stuff.

Recommendations?

heggie

macbook pro, 1gb ram (upgrading to 2 soon) handles everything fine at the moment.

Paddy@CIRL

Win XP
Pentium Core2Duo 6600
2GB RAM
Gefore 8800 640MB Graphics Card

Photoshop has been acting a little bit funny lately when I click on the Type tool, the sysmte gets very worked up about it...

minikin

Hi Hank,

What prog are you using for the banner? What sort of file sizes are you getting?
Illy should do that in under a minute.

If you're going to be working with very large files:

• Get a Mac Pro with at least two hard drives (photoshop etc are drastically improved/more stable if you use a different drive for scratch disk)
• Knacker loads of ram - 4gb would be great, you're better off getting 8x512mb rather than 4x1gb dimm (buy these from Crucial) as it makes use of the maximum memory channel capacity.

If you're doing a serious job you need serious tools, not some bargain basement solution.

The equivalent wintel pc is always going to have one major drawback - microsoft...

FruitLover

What were the specs you were looking for? Everything looks fine bar RAM. You'll want as much as your system can handle, and preferably very fast hard disk(s) for when you run out.

minikin wrote: »

The equivalent wintel pc is always going to have one major drawback - microsoft...

Please explain in detail what the problem is, rather than a fashionable throwaway comment.

heggie

rather than start a mac vs windows thread, maybe the key to this is how artwork is put together. a banner that size from photoshop would probably take ages, but thats not what photoshop is for...

minikin

Hi Fruitlover,

That was no 'fashionable throwaway comment' - it was based on ten years professinal experience in prepress / print / display industry.
I use both platforms on a daily basis.
I am not some kid with an ibook in my bedroom.

I have no axe to grind, both platforms are tools - it just happens that mac is a better tool for hank's requirements. End of... please don't try to argue that any microsoft OS is the equal of a mac... it's not.

BostonB

Perhaps theres a reason why hes currently using a PC instead of Mac. I used to work in print design. We used PC's and Macs quite a lot, and there wasn't much between them. The only problem then was some printers wouldn't take PC files and there were always problems with fonts and registration with files moved from one platform to another. But increasingly more people were using PC's. I have no idea if theres a preference these days or why.

minikin if you going to express a preference, could you explain why one is better suited. Saying "just because" doesn't really explain it, and isn't all that helpful. On the web saying you're a genius and just believe me, is worthless. Hard cold facts and statistics, benchmarks have more weight.

Hank_Scorpio you'd need to identify the tasks you do most often and which take the longest to do. Only then can you identify which can be speeded up and how. For fast disk access (loading files) you'll need fast Hard drives set up in RAID. You'll also need loads of RAM, and lots of processor power. These days I haven't found gfx cards to be a significant bottleneck for 2D work but more ram on the card would help.

having said all that, I'd probably go with a Mac Pro myself. Especially if I wasn't paying for it. I suspect though that Hank_Scorpio has to squeeze as much out of a specific budget, and the companies existing IT supplier. So thats probably going to be the limiting factor.

minikin

hi boston,

I never claimed I was a genius - just stated that my opinion is that of a graphics professional.

I didn't get into the specifics because
1. The differences have been done to death - that's what google is for
2. I have much more important things to be doing than writing a thesis on the pros and cons of macs and pcs... like work... hank looked for advice, i gave him advice.

BostonB

I wasn't saying you did, I was making the point that... You could be traffic warden (or kid with an ibook in their bedroom). Theres way of knowing on the web and you offered no facts to back up your opinion. The hardware is the same, the software is the same. Whats left is the difference in the OS. If you have a link to why OS X is better for designers why not post it. Something along the lines of

http://www.senecadesign.com/designgeek/osx-designers.html
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/better_font_management/

Maybe I'm wrong, but when he said spec's I took that to mean specifics.

minikin

surely it's spec as in specification.

You're right, I'm actually a pig farmer who gets his kicks out of pretending to be a graphic designer.

I'm not going to go posting links to external websites - how does that prove my credentials? All it does is show I know how to perform google searches...

My advice is based on real world experience rather than hearsay or recycled internet opinions... I offered my professional opinion in good faith - take it or leave it.