Can we talk PCs. What do you have?

[KKay]

I am looking into buying a new PC but could use some input on what I would 'need' to get by for running
most Graphic Design programs.

I just need it to get me through my college courses then work for me as entry level graphic arts. I will use it mostly for graphic arts and applying them to templates for merchandise over building major websites or large scale desktop publications.
I currently have a 2350 Dell with Celron and I know the proc. is way to slow nor compatible to Photoshop.

Thank you in advance for providing me some of your knowledge.

Kelley ( ac KKay )

Post Edited (KKay) : 11/27/2004 5:23:25 AM GMT

[CtrlAltDel]

Hi there!


My current PC is a little over 2 years old. I run a 1.8 gig. Pentium CPU with an ATI radeon 9000 Vid. card and 256 megs of mem. It's not a smokin' system by any stretch, but it is more than adequate for anything I throw at it. I can run 'everything' simultaneously quite easily.


I use After Effects a lot, as well. Rendering times are pretty good. -I find a key to running any computer well is to KEEP IT CLEAN! No screensavers, TSR progs, defrag frequently, etc. My total cost for this was $600 canadian. (No monitor) Built myself.


Oh, and Win 2000. (XP is a resource hog.)

[swank60]

Not a PC guy, but I run a dual 1Ghz G4 running OS 10.2.8 and it's rock solid. I have had little to no problems with it - nothing worth mentioning, at least. I got a screaming good deal on it by bidding on it on eBay. Another good Mac resource, if you choose to go that route is www.powermax.com. I've bought a couple of machines from these guys over the years and have been very pleased - they have a pretty good inventory of used Macs that you can look through.

It doesn't matter if you win or loose, it's how much cheese you get.

[casedsgn]

BUILD ONE!
Seriously... I needed one for web testing, but figured I'd get something a little more than I needed just incase I wanted to play a game or two. This thing runs photoshop like a champ!

For around $750 at Fry's, I bought a Pentium 4 2.8ghz, an MSI motherboard, 1 gb ram, 160 gb hd, an ATI 9800pro, and a cool case. I went to my local computer reseller and picked up an almost new, beautifully color accurate 21' Dell flatscreen for $99.

I'd highly recommend building one if you have the means, it cuts your cost in half!

[Ryan8720]

I suggest you check http://www.cyberpowerpc.com. You can get one of their prebuilt mega deal systems or use the site to build your own. You can build at very top of the line for about $1500

Anyway, the faster the processor, the better. I suggest either a Pentium 4 with HyperThreading or an Athlon 2800+ or better. The more memory the better of course.

http://www.edgewebdesign.org/images/misc/ryan_shadowmetal.gif (http://www.edgewebdesign.org)

http://www.spreadfirefox.com/community/images/affiliates/Buttons/80x15/white_1.gif (http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&id=30444&t=82')

[pean77]

i am a network/pc tech and building a computer is not that hard. take a look at www.pricewatch.com ( i am not advertizing, its just a good place to start). then get yourself a list of what you need. This is what i would suggest. P4 2.8-3 with 1mb cache, 1gb ram, a good video card (nvidia or ati, do some research), a decent motherboard (asus, intel etc), 2 harddrives 100gb+, a cheap raid card (to mirror you hard drives), a good case (antec, lian li, silverstone, etc.), dvd burner (you can go with a cheap one, because there a only a few manufactures of dvd burners and drives the sell to companys and they put there names no them) and of course a licenced copy of Windows XP. you can buy a coa sticker and save yourself some money but you will have to get the disc from somebody else.

all said you can get build yourself a good computer for for under $1000
or if you want go cheap under $500

[iwansugiharto]

im mac person now i work on pc for the first time of my life, and i still love mac.

mac not expensive now...(you get great software too)