what is important in a computer for imaging

[jerry_diakiw]

It is time to replace my old toshiba 30gb laptop win xp using pscs2 I have an

external 250 gb hard drive.

I do not use my computer for anything else but imaging with pscs. I do not use

any gaming or do videos nor watch tv or videos online nor ever will. What are m

requirements that I need to consider for max speed. Do I need special ATI

graphic cards and stuff like that? what is critical in working on ps re speed .

currently I feel like I can handpaint an image faster than working with a raw

image in acr or lightroom , converting it to pscs, , using photokit sharpening,

sometimes neat imnage, sometime converting to b/w with image factory, saving

a copy for web, creating a copy for a 13 x 19 print and upsizing for a 50mm x

70mm print. Speed speed speed what makes the most difference. Are there other

considerations I am not taking into account? I have a table top but my body

does not work at a desk/. I am physically limited to working in a prone position.

Jerry

[fraczekp]

Don't neglect your hard drives -- often they end up being a limiting factor on the speed of things such as image manipulation (there is lots of data swapping from and to the hard drives at times). RAM is your friend too... I would say you need to focus on:

A) Processor (Intel Duo has my vote now although I've been AMD user for ages)

B) RAM (no less than 2 GBs -- 4GB if you plan on using Vista)

C) Fast SATA HD (10,000 RPMs if this is the only drive you will have -- if you RAID your drives, don't use RAID 5)

D) Good external USB backup drive

 

As to the graphic cards -- with today's standards most of the stuff will do. Definitely try to get a DVI capable card and consider a dual screen setup if you want to go all the way. I found the dual setup extremely helpful!

[emre]

What is important is having lots of visual space (two monitors), a machine to calibrate them with, fast hard disks, and a comfortable input device (I recommend a Wacom Intuos). All these will make for a more efficient workflow.

[steven_clark]

I think priorities on a PS computer are

 

A: RAM, lots of it and no errors. Get DDR2 as that's where the technology is going and it will make future upgrades easier. If you run out of RAM the computer will start using HD space in its place which will slow thigs down by orders of magnitude, especially if the data isn't nicely in order.

 

B: hard disks, multiple HD's are very good for PS that way you can do things like put the page file on one disk and the swap file on another, if you're real creative you can have the program files entirely seperate too.

 

C: Basic standalone graphics, you don't need a high end 3d accelerator...yet (they're working on that) but a basic $50 card should free up some RAM and probably improve performance. Some will debate this though, hence the low priority.

 

D: RAM bandwidth, the faster you can feed these massive piles of data to your overpowered processor the faster operations will complete. Dual-channel should double your performance by reading from two banks of memory, kinda like RAID-0 for your RAM.

 

E: Processor, a dual core may or may not improve speed that much but it will do alot for useability. For example you may be able to have another program open and be getting things done while PS processes something. While the processor is the most advertised spec of most systems it is usually the least needed for upgrade as it is already so much faster than every other part of the machine.

[mark bucher]

RAM, RAM, and more RAM. Photoshop is a memory pig and the more you have the better your machine will run. I've found that RAM is much more important than the processor, especially when dealing with large file sizes. That be my opinion anyway.

 

Mark

[kralovic]

I would agree that most limiting factors concerning speed are the

amount of RAM memory (up to a certain point where adding more memory

brings nothing) and the speed of your harddisk. The disk speed

comes into play when you are opening/saving the file, starting PS

etc. RAM and processor speed is what you encounter most when working

with the image. If you don't have enough RAM, the computer uses disk

as temporary RAM and things go SLOW. If you have more RAM than

needed, nothing happens.

 

A 10 megapixel 16bpp image is 10x4x2=80MB of raw memory (for a W x H

in print at 300ppi, count cca WxHx0.72MB) Multiply by the number of

layers/masks you use, and additional data stored per layer. Add the

windows memory footprint (I can only guess it is in the order of tens

of MB), PS+plugins footprint... You want around 1-2GB (i.e. cca

1000-2000MB) of *very fast* RAM.

 

The same goes with your disk - you want to transfer these amounts of

data *fast*. A good option is to have one smaller but very fast disk

for work, and one (preferably two) large one for storage.

 

After optimizing these two I would go for processor speed: some

advanced algorithms like removing noise, sharpening, etc. can be

quite demanding. However, most of the processors you get now are fast

enough to make the bottleneck to be the memory (amount and speed).

 

As for the graphics card - from the point of view of speed it is not

significant: everyting you buy (unless you really try hard) is fast

enough for you.

[jerry_diakiw]

wow guys amazing answers i did nt understand most of it but I realize first priority is ram ram ram and I will research some of these other notions . I need to know what each of the following writers mean

 

Rastislav writes: A good option is to have one smaller but very fast disk for work, and one (preferably two) large one for storage.

not sure what this means

and he writes? "As for the graphics card - from the point of view of speed it is not significant: everything you buy (unless you really try hard) is fast enough for you." What is a good recommendation for this?

steven clark writes

hard disks, multiple HD's are very good for PS that way you can do things like put the page file on one disk and the swap file on another, if you're real creative you can have the program files entirely seperate too. " Stupid question I bet but How do I get multiple HD's? not too mention I have no idea what is meant how i put the page file on one disk and the swap file on another. What I don't know boggles my mind.

And he writes:

Dual-channel should double your performance by reading from two banks of memory, kinda like RAID-0 for your RAM.

What is dual-channel and Raid-O AND why should avoid raid 5 as he suggests?

 

PLease forgive my ignorance I should probably take an appropriate course The thoughtful responses to my initial questions are greatly

appreciated

Jerry in Toronto

[don_e]

Jerry,

 

"A good option is to have one smaller but very fast disk for work, and one (preferably two) large one for storage. not sure what this means"

 

This is advice to have more than one hard drive. The larger one is for storage of your image files.

 

"As for the graphics card - from the point of view of speed it is not significant: everything you buy (unless you really try hard) is fast enough for you." What is a good recommendation for this?"

 

He is saying a recommendation is unnecessary as you will not find a card that does not have enough speed for Photoshop work.

 

 

"hard disks, multiple HD's are very good for PS that way you can do things like put the page file on one disk and the swap file on another, if you're real creative you can have the program files entirely seperate too. " Stupid question I bet but How do I get multiple HD's?"

 

You buy them. What is referred to as a "swap file" is what Photoshop calls a "scratch disk". The recommendation is having a separate hard disk for the "scratch disk".

 

"What I don't know boggles my mind."

 

These questions have been asked and answered many times on photo.net. I recommend you search photo.net (see the link in the upper right corner of the page?) and get a basic knowledge of what's inside the computer box and what the stuff does.

 

Or go to the Dell or HP or other online store and order a computer with

 

2 gigabytes of ram

 

2 hard disks of a size that will accomodate the number of files and their sizes you have now and you expect to add for as long as you expect to use the computer. The first disk, which will be the c: drive, can be smaller; the second will be for storing your files and should be bigger.

 

The least expensive video card option. Expensive video cards are for games and CAD. If you must spend more money on a video card, go to the Matrox website and browse the products.

 

Any of the current cpus will do fine, but, as with everything else, generally the more it costs, the faster it is (at least for some things)

 

Be more concerned about the monitor (search photo.net). Buy a calibrator for it (search photo.net).

 

Good Luck,

 

Don E