Digital BW, The Print

A very useful thing to do would be to visit a website that helps you design your own computer. This allows you to evaluate the cost of different designs such as the amount of RAM, type of hard drives, etc. 

I recently did this and purchased a computer from CyberPower, Inc,  www.cyberpowerpc.com. Their online design program was easy to use and instructive and it helped me avoid incompatibilities. If you order a computer from them, they will have a person evaluate your design and call you if they think your design has a problem. Their service was excellent. When I filled out their on-line survey after I received my computer, I complained about one small thing and a management person actually called me on the telephone to try to understand my complaint better. 

I paid $3,000 for a system which has:  800 watt power supply, extra internal cooling fans, a larger case (to allow for better air circulation - heat is the biggest killer of computers), a quad-core processor with liquid cooling, three hard drives (1Tb for storage; 64Gb solid state drive for system and Photoshop software; and 150Gb 10,000rpm Winchester for scratch disk space and other software), 8Gb DDR3 RAM (i.e. fast), 64-bit Vista, and the usual odds-n-ends such as a wireless terminal, 8 USB ports, optical mouse, etc. 

That is a heck of a system for only $3,000. My 1Gb raw files are drum-scanned (16-bit pixel depth) 4x5 negatives. Adding several layers increases the file size a lot. Basically, my computer can run about as fast as I can click during Photoshop editing. 

Personally, I would not buy a Photoshop system without using both a 64-bit operating system and 64-bit Photoshop. The combination is a real winner and will become more standard in the near future. I have had no problems with Vista, by the way. 

I may make one change to my computer system. I may add another 64Gb solid state hard drive which I would dedicate solely as a Photoshop scratch disk. The solid state drive would be considerably faster than a spinning hard drive, even one spinning at 10,000rpm. This might even be more cost effective and just about as good as adding more RAM. 

At any rate, visit a website that will allow you to look at different computer designs and you probably will benefit a lot and be more apt to get the computer you really need. 

Good luck. 


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Louis Dina" <lou@...> wrote:
>
> I need some advice. My 6 year old computer (WinXP) just crashed and I need a new one.  It was getting slow anyway. I'd consider a Mac, but all my software is PC and I have never even used a Mac (they also seem very expensive). I have a limited budget (like to keep it under $2000 if possible. I have monitors and external USB hard drives for backup). I don't need a "state of the art screamer" but I do need a faster, more powerful machine to comfortably process 21 MB RAW 5DmkII files and one that works well with my Canon 6100 printer. I figure 200-300 MB files will be a routine thing in Photoshop (currenty using PSCS2 and LR2.3) Color management MUST work properly.
> 
> I've never used Vista and am a bit gun shy. I have heard there are problems with its ability to retain monitor calibration data, etc, and that color management may be an issue. I have also read about problems getting the Canon drivers and plugins working. A new machine will have some flavor of Vista, but which one? And is XP compatibility mode part of the standard Vista system? Does Vista require any new software or can I use my old Windows XP software?
> 
> Suggestions on computer make, deals, CPU, amount and type of RAM, hard drive size and type, video card, etc, would be appreciated. I'd like the video card to have two connections and two video lookup tables for my two Samsung monitors. Any other advice would be appreciated. I'm way out of touch on what to buy and don't want to make a big mistake.