Mac Pro configuration for a print designer

[Aaron Bonding]

I'm looking into requesting an upgrade to a Mac Pro from my employer. I'm currently using a G4 MDD, Dual 1.25 GHz, 1.5 gigs of RAM, etc., running Panther and CS1.

What would be a good custom configuration to run CS3? I use Adobe apps about 90% of the time (85% print, 15% web), but do some video conversion here and there. The most taxing of my tasks is working with some ~300 MB Photoshop packaging files. Any reason to pimp out the processor or graphics card? For a display, I'm currently using a 19" Samsung 1280x1024.

My employer is REALLY tight, so I figure a system upgrade would be a lot more likely than a raise! Any recommendations for an older refurb model that could get me more bang for my buck?

[mojoprime]

well, if at all possible, i always say try to get today's technology because like it or not, tomorrow is coming and the machine you buy today will probably last you longer since software seems to change as fast these days as hardware.

that being said, i run a MDD at home with CS2 with no problems. if you get a macpro, you really need to upgrade to CS3 to eek the most performance out of the hardware. is that in your budget as well? i see that you mention it.

so, as a rule, always get as much new equipment as you can afford. do you have an idea of how much you have to spend?

[Silence04]

for what your doing:
at least 4gigs of ram (assuming you want to have multiple packaging jobs open at once)
2.66ghz or higher dual processor should be fine
512mb video card if you plan on getting a bigger monitor, 256mb should work good on a 19".

Gainsaver.com has refurbished powermacs pretty cheap, i don't know of there quality though. But i do know that G5 processors are about the equivalent power as the intel chips Mac Pros have now.

btw, apple just increased the performace/price on their Mac Pros yesterday. the starting price is now $2700.

[Aaron Bonding]

Yes, I'll be including CS3 in the budget. I want to take advantage of some of the newer features introduced since CS1. That'll eat up a good bit of the budget.

I'm just now starting to familiarize myself with what my budget should look like. I don't know a whole lot about hardware, so I'm trying to figure out where I can keep one option as standard and beefing up in another.

[PrintDriver]

You shouldn't have to pimp your processor or graphics card. Of course get the fastest processor you can afford.:D

Max out your ram though. CS3 needs 2 gigs. It is a pig. Also think about reformatting your hard drive into at least 2 partitions when you get it to give yourself dedicated scratch space (CS3's a scratch pig too.)

[Aaron Bonding]

Thanks for the suggestions! This is the type of info I need.

I'd never thought of the partition for scratch space. I have a habit of overloading my current hard drive so those packaging files sometimes max it out.

[PrintDriver]

I have 3. One for programs, one for scratch, and one for temporary file storage. Only day-active jobs are on my comp. Otherwise they are on a Raid file server or in the Archives.

[mojoprime]

i would even suggest if you can afford it, get a second harddrive to use as a blank scratch disc. most drives are so cheap now that you could get a 250mb for around 100.

so, if you get the cs3 design suite, that's 1500. figure at least 3500 or so for the machine, depending on what you get.

does that sound about right to you guys?

[mojoprime]

^^see, that's what i'm going to do when i get a new machine. 3-4 drives. 1 for systems/apps, another for files (and fonts?), another for scratch. that way, if you don't have a server, you run a daily back up on the files disc, maybe weekly on the root disc.

[Aaron Bonding]

Thanks again for the suggestions.

I need to improve my overall workflow, something I never really thought about in school. I went straight from there into a job as a one man art department, so I haven't had many chances at sharing ideas/methods between designers.

I have a few old, mostly full hard drives that I inherited from my predecessors. I could certainly put those to good use.

[Silence04]

^ i think the make pros only accept the new thinner SATA drives

[doubting_thomas]

^ i think the make pros only accept the new thinner SATA drives

Yup, SATA only for internal drives.

[mojoprime]

this is true, but you can find relatively cheap external enclosures and make firewire or usb2 drives out of them, and use those for storage.

[PrintDriver]

It does you absolutely no good to assign a firewire or usb drive as your scratch. It may actually slow you down. Use externals for storage. And iPods for your music (I can't tell you how often I've seen drives jammed with music and useless downloads). Keep only active files and necessaries on your working comp. Your job depends on it.