New Desktop for Graphic Design

[Space Cadet B^3]

Circumstances may come to pass where I am able to purchase a new machine. One of the primary elements I'd be using the unit for is graphic design/desktop publishing.

After going through Dell's site and playing around, it's looking like it's going to be around a $1500 budget requirement.

So I thought I'd see what you tech types have to say about what I should look for in a computer that's good for design type work.

I'm really unsure about graphics cards for one thing. The Dell help section is pretty vague.

I'm planning on going live with a website and freelance design identity by the end of October, and this machine will be critical to that effort.

Any general thoughts or places other than Dell to look are welcomed as well.

[PWD]

Depends What you're you looking for, a photo-crunching beast to run batch Photoshop processing with crazy filter action, something to run Illustrator, something for some basic dreamweaver.

[Varaj]

Graphics card won't be that critical if you aren't doing 3d rendering real time with fancy shading, etc.

[Space Cadet B^3]

I'm wanting to run Adobe CS Which will include Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. I will probably also have Dreamweaver as it's the web app I'm most familiar with.

Thanks for the help guys.

[PWD]

Yeah, you certainly don't need dual 8800GTXes... but you will want something with some fairly large video ram on it so that you can run in high resolutions at high bit depths for working on large images.

So 2D, but hefty 2D. God help me for recommending them, but some of the ATI's are quite nice for 2D work.

[PWD]

I don't get a feel for "how much" photoshop you're running. If you're gonna just do slight tweaks on the occasional website image, no biggie, but if you're heavy into layered filters on gigantic 700MB images, that can really drive CPU.

[Space Cadet B^3]

I don't get a feel for "how much" photoshop you're running. If you're gonna just do slight tweaks on the occasional website image, no biggie, but if you're heavy into layered filters on gigantic 700MB images, that can really drive CPU.
Well at work I do full 8.5 x 11" photoshoppery, but for freelance, it's just going to depend on the clients needs.

Probably not an everyday need, but I'd like to have the option.

[PWD]

Then get a dual-core, somewhere in the 3ghz range. A quadcore is sexy, but overkill if you're only doing heavy lifting periodically. Get 2g of ram. If you're running a 32-bit version of windows, stop at 2Gb. If you're running Vista64, you can go bigger.

The larger the imagery you anticipate working on, the more you need to concern yourself with the video card's video ram size. Anything 128M+ should be sufficient, unless you're talking about very large resolutions such as widescreen. It's been a long time since I thought about ram sizes to resolution translations so I can't pull that out of my brain for you, but bigger is good, though for 2D alone there's absolutely no need for a 768Mb monster.

[PWD]

A word on displays: Widescreen is really helpful for graphic design. You won't need to spend on superfast 2ms grey-to-grey times for graphics work either, so you'll be able to afford to go larger. 24"+ is really sweet for desktop publishing type work.

[Space Cadet B^3]

cool thanks, very helpful, I'll have to actually compare this to what Dell has for options on the screen when I'm doing my shopping, because it's a little over my head in some aspects.

[Space Cadet B^3]

So many choices... lol it's hard to know what's best for me and what's just gravy.

[Dr_Avalanche]

You have my sympathy. My head hurts just thinking about hardware upgrades.

[Space Cadet B^3]

This is what I'm thinking of getting. Comments, thoughts, suggestions?

XPS 210

SYSTEM COMPONENTS
XPS 210 Qty 1
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6600 (4MB L2 Cache,2.4GHz,1066 FSB), Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Unit Price $1,612.00

XPS 210 Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6600 (4MB L2 Cache,2.4GHz,1066 FSB)

Operating System Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium

Memory 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs

Keyboard and Mouse Bundles Dell USB Multimedia Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse

Monitors 22 inch E228WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel

Video Cards Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3000

Hard Drives 250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™

Network Card Integrated Intel® PRO 10/100 Ethernet

Modem Integrated 56K Data / Fax modem

CD or DVD Drive 8x DVD+/-RW Drive

Sound Cards Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

Speakers Dell AS501PA 10W Flat Panel Attached Spkrs for Analog Flat Panels

Office Software (not included with Windows Vista) Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007

[PWD]

It's a little anemic for doing heavy photoshop, but it should serve you well for a small home business type atmosphere. Just recognize this won't have huge legs on it for upgradeability down the road.

My biggest quibble is with the integrated video. if anything's going to bite you, that will.

[Space Cadet B^3]

The other choice for video was: 128MB ATI Radeon X1300 [add $50 or $1/month1], would you recommend making the upgrade there?

The choices for processor were as follows:
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6600 (4MB L2 Cache,2.4GHz,1066 FSB) [Included in Price]
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6700 (4MB L2 Cache,2.66GHz,1066 FSB) [add $200 or $6/month1]
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor E4400 (2MB L2 Cache,2.0GHz,800FSB) [subtract $150]
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor E6320 (4MB L2 cache,1.86GHz,1066FSB) [subtract $100]
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor E6420 (4MB L2 cache,2.13GHZ,1066FSB) [subtract $50]

[PWD]

Spend the $50, definitely.

[Space Cadet B^3]

Thanks!

[PWD]

Sorry, I didn't answer the CPU part of your question. While the $200 extra cpu is better, it's not an earthshaking difference by any means, so don't feel compelled there.

[Space Cadet B^3]

Okay, I sent my build to a buddy I know who owns his own IT company, this is the build he said he could do.

Configured System
Qty
I483

OPERATING SYSTEM
1
NOBILIS SERIES BASE SYSTEM XP PRO SP2

including
1
DESIGNED FOR MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP STICKER

including
1
MS OEM WINDOWS XP PRO SP2 W/DOC/COA LABEL/CD

OPTICAL1 - 2 IDE DEVICE LIMIT
1
LITEON DVDRW 20X SATA BLACK BULK DL NO SW #LH-20A1S

including
1
POWER CABLE (IDE 4PIN <-> SATA 15PIN) ATA-POWER

PROCESSOR
1
INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6600 2.4GHZ LGA775 1066FSB 4MB L2 HT EM64T

CASE / POWER SUPPLY
1
NOBLECASE TS082-B ATX MID BLK BLACK/SILVER/USB/HD AUDIO/300W

GRAPHICS CARD
1
SAPPHIRE 100172-64 BIT X1550 256MB PCIE

HARD DRIVE - 1
1
SG ST3250310AS 250G SATA 8MB SATA 7200RPM

MOTHERBOARD
1
INTEL BLKD975XBX2KR 1066 ATX DDR2-800 GBLAN 775

LAN CARD
1
INTEGRATED LAN FOR PARTNERLINK ONLY

MEMORY
2
1GB DDR2-667 NON-ECC DIMM

SOUND CARD
1
INTEGRATED SOUND FOR PARTNERLINK ONLY

APPLICATION SOFTWARE
1
OEM OFFICE 2007 HOME&STUDENT NOBILIS OFFICE 2007 HOME&STDNT

OPTICAL DRIVE APPLICATIONS
1
NERO SUITE 2 MPEG2/DECODING/ ROYALTY PATENT VISTA READY

UTILITY SOFTWARE
1
SYMANTEC OEM NORTON ANTI VIRUS V.2007 SINGLE PK

WARRANTY
1
Nobilis Sys Ext-Full Service (3yr) Full Service Plan

KEYBOARD
1
LOGITECH USB 250 DELUXE KB BLACK VISTA READY #967738-0403

MONITOR
1
VIEWSONIC VG2030WM 20" WS BLK 1680X1050 5MS 800:1 DVI SPKR

MOUSE
1
LOGITECH SBF96 OPT WHEEL MS (UV96) USB BLACK #931637-0403




Unit Price
x Qty
= Sub
+ Tax
+ Ship
= Total

$1667.60
1
$1667.60
$121.74
$0.00
$1789.34




I tried to get as close as possible to the Dell quote. The monitor is a 20” instead of a 22” (I can probably get a 22” from a different vendor though. This one cost $255 by itself) and the antivirus software is Norton instead of McAfee. The warranty is actually better than Dell’s; three years instead of two. And it’s Windows XP Pro instead of Vista which is probably better for most people as Vista has a lot of problems. Let me know what you think or if you want me to look at different options on screens and thingsSorry for the formatting, this thing won't hold tabs.

Anyway, I'd rather give money to a friend, but I also want the best system I can get for my money.

I promise I'll stop harrassing y'all about this soon, but I really appreciate your insight.

[Dacke]

Can you get him to drop the Norton and save a couple of bucks there, and use AVG or something like that instead?

[PWD]

So he's offering you less, it's costing you more, it doesn't come with Dell's support, and you're considering it?

[Space Cadet B^3]

So he's offering you less, it's costing you more, it doesn't come with Dell's support, and you're considering it?
Well, when you put it like that...