[ChenZan]

hi,

im thinking about getting a new computer, preferably a mac because i dont play many pc games anyway. although halo is available for mac and wideload games is making mac games..

anyways, i just wanted to know what stats i should have for a computer that can run Photoshop, Painter 7 or 8, maybe maya smoothly. Meaning how much mhz for processor, ram ect. ?

[cheney]

http://www.createdbycheney.com/testb/tutorials/hardware1.html
_________________
http://prettydiff.com/

[B0b]

nice Cheney btw LaCie use Mitsubishi tubes so those who are looking @ purchasing a LaCie monitor take a look @ the price difference between them and Mitsubishi

ChenZan with 64Bit Windows coming 4Q this year i'd look @ a dual Opteron System with 4GB RAM - i priced a dual 240 up just the other day - came in @ half the price of a Dual 1.8 G5

Thunder K8W (S2885)
AGP 8X / AGP 8X PRO 110W slot,
Eight DIMM slots for 16GB
Gigabit Ethernet
Serial ATA
Support up to 4 EIDE devices
1 FireWire 400
6-channel audio with SPDIF support
2 64bit (3.3v) PCI-X slots support up to 133MHz on Buss B
2 64bit (3.3v) PCI-X slots support up to 100MHz on Bus A
1 legacy 32Bit 33MHz PCI slot (5v)
5 USB 3 rear 2 front

Dual 1.4Ghz Opteron 240 CPUs

4GB DDR3200 SDRAM ECC Registered RAM 4x1024MB (why 4? so that each CPU can share 2 sticks = twice the memory bandwidth 12Gb/sec!)

3Dlabs Wildcat VP870

2 80GB WD SATA drives RAID 0

1 Liteon 8x DVD �R/RW

Antec Sonata Piano Black Quiet Case - 380W TruePower Silent PSU

keyboard and mouse of your choice

as the opteron will use both 32 and 64Bit operations using standard software isn't a problem..

did i mention that this rig will kill a 1.8 G5 in photoshop? and thats just using 32Bit Photoshop - just wait until Adobe releases 64Bit Photohop next year

oh thats using PS 7.01 - PS CS ur better off getting a dual Xeon (but then u dont' have the expandability when Windows64 comes out )

[Summer Pudding]

cheers BOb,

this is mana from heaven! I've been meaning to buy a new one PC for ages. There are a few too many three and four letter acronyms in there for my liking, but I'll work it out.



Pud'

[ChenZan]

wow

bob does this computer exist taht you listed? how much do you think it is going to cost?

man i just got out of college i dont think i can afford a super computer that fast without some income.

btw, whats the difference with the 32bit and 64 bit photoshop again?

[cheney]

http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8qs.html

This is a motherboard similar to what Bob was talking about. Notice that this beast does not have AGP, though. But, this would a dream motherboard for systems that would exist purely for high resolution use of Photoshop or small database systems under high volume traffic loads.
_________________
http://prettydiff.com/

[B0b]

[B0b]

[ambirex]

This is the board:
http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8w.html

and it does have an AGP slot.

oh and prebuilt systems can be found here:
http://www.boxxtech.com

just FYI.

[spooge demon]

The 2GB limit in 32 bit windows is there to stay, no way around it. I have tried every trick I can. My machine has 4GB RAM.

/3gb boot.ini switch- works on XP, not on SP1. MS has patch, have to beg em for it. But to no matter, you have to patch the executables in a very involved way to use it.

Ram disk. The link Cheney refers to in his essay only works in Win 9X. The driver for win2000 works after a fashion, but it seems there is a lot of overhead or inefficiency going on, it is not speedy. This is pointed out in documentation.

Cenetek ram disk does work, but you have to use excluded memory that is eliminated from system memory at boot time by using /maxmem switch. With this done, you are still limited to 1 GB ram disk. If you try to hold 2 or 3 GB for system use and use the remaining, it does not work. It seems the total it can handle is 2 GB, so 1 gig for system, 1 gig for ram disk. This is the only way I have gotten it to work. And needless to say it runs like a sick worm.

So don't be a sucker like me and buy that much RAM, unless you are sure that you will be running the 64 bit version of everything, OS, program, processor etc.

Keep in mind that 64 bit Windows has not been released to Adobe yet, so they cannot begin the process of adapting PS. I have no idea how involved this process is.

[B0b]

[Pat]

They've coded it at least twice; don't forget OSX. A 2 gig limitation is in place for Photoshop 7 under OSX due to Adobe's code, despite the fact that OSX allows a maximum of 4 gigs of RAM per process. I'm assuming this has been addressed in Photoshop CS, though I have not upgraded and so am unfamiliar with its specs. In any event, it's unlikely that CS exceeds the 4 gig limit, so maxing your mac's ram to 8 gigs won't be terribly helpful. Given that Adobe has coded this a few times over already, I don't think it will take them long to implement it in 64-bit Windows.

-Pat

[ChenZan]

ok so heres a question. in the dual 1.8 processor for the g5, what does the "dual" mean and whats the difference between that and the 1.6 g5?

also i hear that memory is more important than processor, how much should i go for something like painter/photoshop/ maybe maya.

keep inmind that i'm on students budget.

[B0b]

Dual CPU = 2 CPU's in the machine = more va va voom

say you purchase the fastest Opteron available, how do you get a faster machine? put another in

if you use heavy filters they're optimised for Multi CPU support (not so important in just painting, but if doing image manipulation very) i can't remember if i posted the list on this forum but there's a list of all the filters that make use of multi cpu's

the other advantage of Dual CPU's is that if your using more than 1 app at a time then you won't notice any lag when ur swapping between the 2 .. the other bonus is that you can leave Photoshop doing a batch process on a bunch of images while ur doing other things and not notice that its actually working on those images..

the 12GB/s memory bandwidth on Opterons just rox

i believe that Adobe only made 1 version of 64Bit Photoshop and that was for the SGI but didn't take off so they didn't bother with following versions..

[ChenZan]

Okay,

let me know if this computer would run the newest Photoshop and Painter with ease.

Dual 1.8 Ghz Power Mac G5
1GB DDR400 SDRAM
80 GB HardDrive
CDRW/Dvd Drive (cheaper)
ATI Radeon 9600XT w/128 MB DDR SDRAM

its that too much or not enough in those catagories? Im thinking about getting a G5 but i may just have to by and consturct a PC which i hope i dont have to but yeah, 2 months since i made this thread and still havent gotten one yet.

[yousir]

ok, im no computer expert, but i got this G4 for 3000 CAN

NVIDIA GeForce4 Titanium
dual 1.25 GHz w/ 2MB L3 cache per processor
160 GB ultra ATA drive
apple Super Drive (dvd-r/cd-rw)
512MB DDR333 SDRAM

it runs like a dream, PS 7 Painter Classic.

again, i dont really know shit, but i love this computer, kicks the crap out of my old PCs. o, and my monitor is a samsung syncmaster 173T, which was extra (800 CAN)

[ChenZan]

okay, i havent boughten that g5 but i saw the new imac g5 and its a lot cheaper but not as powerful, how well do you think this will work for photoshop and painter?

http://www.apple.com/imac/

[B0b]

build a PC, its a gr8 experience + its 1/2-2/3 the cost of a G5..

[Strawberrysauce]

I wouldn't buy an iMac for painting/graphics work, the Power | Price ratio is not worth it. If your gona buy a mac splash out on a G5 powermac (the spec you posted above would be great) . Or you could build a pc and hand pick quality components as Bob says. I build my own recently and it is the best computer ive ever owned!

[stacy]

I agree with B0b and the spud eater.
Go to pricewatch.com or better yet, www.zipzoomfly.com
and choose a list of the high quality components that
you'd like in your box.

My choice to run Photoshop and Painter whould be:

$113----MB - P4P800-E Deluxe w/865spe chipset.
$122----CPU - 2.4 Prescott core w/1MB cache
$145----Mem - Corsair 512MB X 2
$78-----Case - Thermaltake V7000A
$116----HD - Maxtor DiamonMax Plus9 200GB ata133
$222----HD - WD Raptors SATA150 10k RPM X2 in RAID-0
$79-----PS - Enermax 860W
$155----Video - Chaintech SE5750 256MB DualHead
425MHz engine clock - 550MHz memory clock
------
$1030

There... for just over a grand you can have a monster-box that will
not only run Photoshop and Painter, but Lightwave, 3DSMax,
Maya, Premier Pro, VegasVideo5, Boris, SoundForge, AfterEffects,
Invigorator, Combustion, NewTek VideoToaster[3] (if you don't do
any live switching), XSI, Digital Fusion, and just about any other
HIGH END graphics application you can think of.

And, you'll have the new marketable skills that doing you own box will bring you.

[Strawberrysauce]

"spud eater" Hey! enough of the sterotypes...








er

... we've got sheep here too


Guiness drinking sheep tended by Leprechauns

[stacy]

Hahahaha !!!
As they say, chill doode !!!
Where do you think I heard the term...
That was from one spud eater to another.
I take great pride in being a spud eater.
Just like --Yankee Doodle--.

Not many generations ago my family were rag pickin'
Shanty Irishmen from the Ring of Kerry and
Valentia Island.

Actually I like spuds. And Mutton.
Especially with a good dark beer.
But I don't know about the Leprechauns...
...are they chewy, or kinda' crunchy?

[Strawberrysauce]

chewy, a bit like chicken

[stacy]

Mmmmm-boy, that's some
good eatin' there.

That means big drum-sticks.
I'm not touching the poke's nose
though.

[Meaty Ogre]

biuld a pc. save yourself 1000 bucks. you'll be glad when it comes time to pay off that credit card. iv'e used both. i run ps and painter on my pc all day long. 2.4 cpu with 2 gigs ram. I spent less than 2000 on my machine. dont get carried away, just get what you'll need to do your work.

[makototaramoto]

cooling is just as important or even more important when it comes to building/running a high end machine. Most cases haev the opton of many fans others have two side and one back...for me i think the cooler the better...some people complain that their comp. sounds like a jet...which i guess with bad fans it does my is silent as a lamb...anyway the bigger the file you work with and the more it calls on your processor or ram..the more heat they will produce and it is better to get the hot air out then to bring cool air in (in my view)...
_________________
mercer

[ChenZan]

okay so i have most of my parts boughten. i need a sound card and i dont know squat about sound cards. how much do sound cards usually cost and what would one look for in sound cards. i saw this one augidy card that had a bundle with tons of games like halo and splintercell but thats like $100. is that a steal or should i not be paying that much for a sound card. how much do you think that card would cost with out those extras? since my pc is only for art adn some games i dont know how much i should spend on sound. im already overbudegt with the PC already.

[stacy]

KEWL...!
This Gainward card is the most bang-for-the-buck that I know of.

http://www.axiontech.com/prdt.php?src=PW&item=57381



$26.95
24-bit / 192KHz digital
8 channels
Optical digital output
All speaker configurations up to 7.1 surround sound
Independent surround sound channel volume control.

I don't build boxes as my main work anymore but every
so often someone I sold to before, comes back and wants a
new box, or an upgrade, so I keep an updated short list of
the best parts for the least money that I can find.
This is the sound card on my list.

POST THE COMPLETE LIST OF GOODIES THAT YOU GOT
SO-FAR FOR YOUR BOX!!!

[ChenZan]

yeah these are the parts so far, i think once i get my case im gonna find someone who hook it up for me.

Asus P4p800 Edeluxe motherboard
INtel Pentium 4 3.0 ghz processor
Radeon 9600 Pro
1 gig of memory
Western digital raptor 10,000 rpm 74gigHD
Maxtor 200gigHD
sony dvdrw

aspire x-dreamer II case with 500w power supply

[stacy]

Great choices. I have an Aspire X-pider case.
That will make a super solid machine.

Try putting it togeather yourself first.
Pay close attention t the manuals.
If you're successful, then Computer Building
will be another thing you can add to you skill sets.