computers

photogincollege · Feb 1, 2008

I do agree mrrodgers that building your own is much better, but she said she can only go with dell, and their xps computers are still pretty well equipped, even though it does come at a high cost.

vonbonds · Feb 1, 2008

Why not do the obvious if a Mac is preferred. Get the fastest most expensive Dell there is....sell it and then buy a Power Mac with your proceeds.

Emerana · Feb 1, 2008

yeah I dont even know what ram means ... I dont think I will be building my own comp any time soon. And our discount is free so I dont think I need to worry about it costing more. We have been pretty happy with our dells...we arent gamers though.

Atropine · Feb 3, 2008

Emerana, I think some of the people in this thread are not helping you much. If you have a good discount on Dell, there's no reason to buy a Mac or a HP or any other brand. I've had several Dell desktop computers in my profession and they have never caused any problem. Like Big Mike said, beef up the RAM as much as your economy allows and buy a big display, at least 21". Since Dell uses good panels in several of their displays that won't trouble you with poor viewing angles. It's the cheap LCD's that are using TN panels that performs bad.

Use the link below and enter "Dell" in the search bar. You will get a listing of the Dell displays present in their database, an all you have to do then is to choose a display built on S-IPS or S-PVA technology.
http://www.flatpanels.dk/panels.php

jstuedle · Feb 3, 2008

I 32 bit versions of Windows 2000, XP and Vista there is a limit of 4 Gig. The 64 bit version of XP and Vista ( and some other specialized versions) can address for our proposes an unlimited amount. (there is a limit, but you won't approach it) A lot of the software we use will not run on 64 bit machines yet, so going over 4 gig now is a waste of money.

Aw45 · Feb 4, 2008

Back to your original question. Get yourself a X-rite color calibrator. This is the best brand out there to get true and proper colors.

yeti · Feb 4, 2008

Hi Emerana,

Here is my two-cents:

You don't need to get a Mac, unless you really want a Mac for some reason. Believe it or not hardware-wise PCs are better computers for the buck. DELLs are okay, I am not very fond of the way their computers are constructred, but that's just me (and I am weirdo who likes to build his own computers).

When I am shopping I am usually don't bother with top-of-the-line and don't bother with bottom-of-the-line. I go for the sweet spot in the middle where you can get good hardware at a reasonable price. I suggest you do the same. You can't go very wrong there - anything you get is going to be of decent-enough quality for serious work. Usually I fit within $2500 (total) for a desktop PC + monitor to last me about 3 years of heavy work.

For your needs you WILL need lots of RAM. 8GB is fine, but an overkill unless you are going to be working on HUGE images. I would say 4GB is fine for the average semi-professional photographer, even if you are running Windows Vista. As a software developer I constantly work on machines with just 2GB of RAM and I don't think it's slowing me down in any way. Make sure DELL gives you good quality memory: you want the fastest memory your computer will take with the smallest number of memory modules your hardware can take. Be careful with those dual-line memory configurations, they want pairs of two identical memory modules matched for performance. Most of the time DELL will do this for you, but still keep an eye out for things like that in case they allow you to mismatch memory.

The XPS suggested above is a great gaming machine, but "good for gaming" doesn't mean "good for photo work". The XPSes is equiped with top-of-the-line video card or two that, which nowadays means it is often optimized for 3D work, like texturing an object and rendering it in real-time on your screen. That's, of course, nice, but you are unlikely to touch any of this stuff just by running Photoshop. You definitely want it for extreme gaming though, which is what the XPS is created for. I believe the XPS is an overkill here as well. Just get something that has an "okay" video, that's usually good enough: ATI or nVIDIA, doesn't matter much, but nVIDIA seems to have better support on the hardware side. In my experience nVIDIA computers are a bit easier to build as you have greater variety.

Try to get something with a multi-core CPU: dual-cores are great, but get a quad-core if you can as this is where the industry is heading. I am not sure how Photoshop is written, but it is very likely it will be able to use multiple cores efficiently. Get something Intel. AMD used to build good CPUs, but nowadays they seem to take some time to sort out their priorities.

As for a monitor, you definitely want something big, like 24". LCD or CRT is your personal choice, but you will have a lot easier time getting an LCD this size. I like LG, Viewsonic and Samsung, but I definitely haven't seen everything out there. You have to realize that an LCD will NEVER give you the full range of colours your eyes can see, or even your camera can resolve. I personally think that pretty much any good-quality LCD nowadays will do the job for you, just make sure you have a way to calibrate it. That's something Apple's computers are typically better off: since it's all Apple from the nuts and bolts of your computer all the way to its software, Apple can calibrate it for you and provide you with a one-click setting to get the calibration you need. With PCs it is not so, you have to calibrate yourself. You need something to calibrate with: there usually hardware devises that attach to your monitor and allow you to do that. I am not sure how much they cost, though.

As for harddrive, get something big. Harddrives are not too expensive nowadays. Get the largest one you can get away with. I like Seagate, but you can get whatever you want. Most of the time DELL won't give you the choice to pick one brand over another anyway, and knowing them, they will probably go with Western Digital. That's probably fine, but don't expect it to be a top-performer.

Oh yeah: get a good antivirus and firewall program with full 36-month subscription. You need it, trust me. You might want to get some version of MS Office as well as it will be more expensive to get later. That's up-to you.

That's about it. I think it covers the basics of a computer. You can get other stuff, like a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD burners, but I would personally stay away from exotic devises like that for now, just get a regular DVD burner and you will be fine. You can install whatever you want later. (Yes, you can do it yourself!)

Sorry for the essay.