Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 2:21 am Post subject: computer set-up, starting again.
Hi Everyone, I'm new to this forum...and found it to try and find out what I need to set myself up with Photoshop. I'm an artist and self-taught photoshop obsessive, and have been working with photographs at high resolution, that I manipulate and print from...I used a desk-top PC which worked well [in the UK]. My files are often over 3GB, sometimes 4GB, and it was fast.
Now I'm living in Greece and want to set myself up again with Photoshop and be sure the computer I get will work well with these big files. I'm afraid I don't know the specifications of the computer I was using.[!@#$%]... the technical side never interested me...as long as it worked. But...I don't want to get a new computer only to find that it's too slow for photoshop. I've read the spec. from Adobe about what I need....a bit baffling to me; Processor speed, Ram, Memory, bit-channels...could anyone advise me what specifications to ask for that would guarantee super speed and a solid working platform?
many thanks,
Howard
Joined: 05 Mar 2003
Posts: 3987
Location: Cheltenham, UK
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 5:22 am Post subject:
Hi howardcrump and welcome to the forum. there are all sorts of computers with all sorts of specs. It sounds like you will need a good monitor with credible colour management built in a decent but not fancy graphics card and at least 4 gig, preferably 8 gig or more and get a faster cycle RAM. If you want to multi-task a quad core processor would be desirable or an i5, i7 may be overkill, but wouldn't hurt and at the same time a dual processor would get you by. Just depends on how demanding you are of your computer. _________________ If life serves you lemons, make lemonade!
Joined: 26 Nov 2010
Posts: 368
Location: Australia
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 10:34 pm Post subject:
And an openGL graphics card... For big files, they say definitely as much memory as you can afford... Also, two disks will be useful because you can set one up as a "scratch" disk, which will make it faster.
If it wan't that you have super big files, I'd say that most modern PCs would run just fine for you. Hopefully somebody else on the forum also uses big files and can give more advice...
When I upgraded, I was baffled too but I just chatted online to a nice fellow from DELL who was reasonably helpful. He didn't know Photoshop, but he knew that he'd sold a few of that model to Photoshop users. I'm really happy with what I bought and it works great, though I don't have megafiles! Maybe they can offer advice (you don't have to buy from them)?
Hello to thehermit & Renata [I'm Aussie too]...thanks for taking the time to answer my post. I really appreciate it. I'll look into graphics cards [don't know what they are I'm afraid but have heard of them]...[an open GL graphics card Renata? OK..will check it out]...and I'll get as much RAM as I can afford...this seems to be crucial for speed...my files are high res. images, sometimes a couple of square meters...so just scrolling accross the image needs a lot of power [this is RAM, right? it's the processor that does this...] ... and I usually have several layers going, though I try to merge or delete them when finished with them, so I don't have too much going at once. When I finish working with files, I save them on disks or an external hard drive...so I don't have too much stuff stored on my computer. As for mult-tasking, I will look into costs for a 'quad core processor ...and an i5 and i7 ...and dual processor [whatever these are]...you see I really am out of my depth ...but I think in my position, overkill would be wise. ..but I really only want the computer for Photoshop [and emails]...but all the stuff you told me is really useful...now I know what to look into. If there is someone who works with big files like mine...hopefully they will add to this dialogue...again, many thanks. Howard.
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