Digital BW, The Print

Hello - I've been dabbling in scanning and printing in B&W for a 
couple of years.  I have an Epson 5000 and recently purchased a 1280 
that I plan to use with MIS Quadtones.

I'm running Photoshop 5.5 on Windows 98 with a Pentium III 550MHz 
chip and 256MB RAM.  I plan to upgrade/rebuild my system and would 
appreciate any advice on what I should go to.  

Has anyone tried Windows XP and what are its advantages?  

Should I go Pentium 4 or AMD?  

How much RAM is ideal/sensible?

What are the advantages of Photoshop 6 vs 5.5?

Thanks in advance for your input.  I've already enjoyed reading 
previous postings.

Brad Boyd - Portland OR

Brad,

I only know the Mac, but some of your questions apply to both platforms: Get 
as much RAM as you can afford and allocate as much as possible to 
Photoshop. Also, make sure Photoshop runs it's scratch disc on a partition or, 
ideally, a separate fast drive.

Photoshop 6 has much better color managment implementations and allows 
for previews. Also has a bunch of web related tools. You may want to read 
specs at adobe.com.  I'd say the upgrade is absolutely worth it - but your 
mileage may vary.

Antonis

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "bradbboyd" <bradbboyd@y...> 
wrote:

> Hello - I've been dabbling in scanning and printing in B&W for a 
> couple of years.  I have an Epson 5000 and recently purchased a 1280 
> that I plan to use with MIS Quadtones.
> 
> I'm running Photoshop 5.5 on Windows 98 with a Pentium III 550MHz 
> chip and 256MB RAM.  I plan to upgrade/rebuild my system and would 
> appreciate any advice on what I should go to.  
> 
> Has anyone tried Windows XP and what are its advantages?  
> 
> Should I go Pentium 4 or AMD?  
> 
> How much RAM is ideal/sensible?
> 
> What are the advantages of Photoshop 6 vs 5.5?
> 
> Thanks in advance for your input.  I've already enjoyed reading 
> previous postings.
> 
> Brad Boyd - Portland OR

Thanks Antonis.  I can see this group is going to help me move up the 
learning curve with less trial and error than going it alone.

Brad

---

 In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "antonisphoto" 
<antonisphoto@y...> wrote:
> Brad,
> 
> I only know the Mac, but some of your questions apply to both 
platforms: Get 
> as much RAM as you can afford and allocate as much as possible to 
> Photoshop. Also, make sure Photoshop runs it's scratch disc on a 
partition or, 
> ideally, a separate fast drive.
> 
> Photoshop 6 has much better color managment implementations and 
allows 
> for previews. Also has a bunch of web related tools. You may want 
to read 
> specs at adobe.com.  I'd say the upgrade is absolutely worth it - 
but your 
> mileage may vary.
> 
> Antonis
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "bradbboyd" 
<bradbboyd@y...> 
> wrote:
> > Hello - I've been dabbling in scanning and printing in B&W for a 
> > couple of years.  I have an Epson 5000 and recently purchased a 
1280 
> > that I plan to use with MIS Quadtones.
> > 
> > I'm running Photoshop 5.5 on Windows 98 with a Pentium III 550MHz 
> > chip and 256MB RAM.  I plan to upgrade/rebuild my system and 
would 

> > appreciate any advice on what I should go to.  
> > 
> > Has anyone tried Windows XP and what are its advantages?  
> > 
> > Should I go Pentium 4 or AMD?  
> > 
> > How much RAM is ideal/sensible?
> > 
> > What are the advantages of Photoshop 6 vs 5.5?
> > 
> > Thanks in advance for your input.  I've already enjoyed reading 
> > previous postings.
> > 
> > Brad Boyd - Portland OR

Brad, I just upgraded to XP and don't see a whole lot of difference, 
except that it seems to be much better at multitasking.  I can now 
print, scan and websurf at the same time!  don't think Intel or AMD 
make a diff and you want as much ram as possible.  PS 6.0 is better, 
but since I am a fairly primitive beast who only works in B&W I don't 
know what exactly is new that I couldn't live without... do a search 
and see if it is important to you.

mark

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "bradbboyd" <bradbboyd@y...> 
wrote:

> Hello - I've been dabbling in scanning and printing in B&W for a 
> couple of years.  I have an Epson 5000 and recently purchased a 1280 
> that I plan to use with MIS Quadtones.
> 
> I'm running Photoshop 5.5 on Windows 98 with a Pentium III 550MHz 
> chip and 256MB RAM.  I plan to upgrade/rebuild my system and would 
> appreciate any advice on what I should go to.  
> 
> Has anyone tried Windows XP and what are its advantages?  
> 
> Should I go Pentium 4 or AMD?  
> 
> How much RAM is ideal/sensible?
> 
> What are the advantages of Photoshop 6 vs 5.5?
> 
> Thanks in advance for your input.  I've already enjoyed reading 
> previous postings.
> 
> Brad Boyd - Portland OR