Bang for the buck Desktop For Digital Dark room.

[rj russell]

<p>Hi All,<br>

My Laptop has finally taken a turn for the worse and I plan to purchase a desktop. I am in the middle of finnishing an office within the home. <br>

I am looking to keep costs to a minimal while maintaining maximum performance. I shoot raw and edit mainly with lightroom. Printing via blacks or our Epson Artisan 810.<br>

My Questions are;<br>

1) What requirement should my pc have?<br>

2) What is a Quality bang for the buck Monitor? and should I be concerned about calibrating?<br>

3) What are good colors for digital darkrooms?<br>

Thanks,<br>

Ryan</p>

[digitaldog]

<blockquote>

<p>2) What is a Quality bang for the buck Monitor? and should I be concerned about calibrating?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Get a “smart monitor” a display built from the ground up for high end calibration, high bit panel, integrated software that controls the display, matted colorimeter. Something like the NEC SpectraView II line. 3090, PA271W etc.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>3) What are good colors for digital darkrooms?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Spectrally neutral gray. <br>

 

Two formula's I've archived for gray (not any gray paint will work or is spectrally neutral!):<br /><br />Go to your local PPG Paint dealer (PPG used to be known as Pittsburgh Paint<br />and Glass) and have them mix up the following formula:<br /><br />1 gallon Interior Latex Flat Pastel Base 80-110<br />B-12 L-36 O-3<br />This will make one gallon of Munsell #8 gray wall paint.<br /><br />And:<br /><br />Surround Recommendations:<br />N-7 Paint Formula<br />Recommended for interior walls<br />Behr Paint available at Home Depot<br />Base – Premium Plus Interior Flat (1500A) pastel base<br />Formula <br /><br />Colorant OZ 48 96<br />B Lamp black 0 15 1<br />I Brown oxide 0 3 1<br />T Medium Yellow 0 1 1<br /><br />Recommended for the metal walls of a SpectraLight booth<br />Polyurethane<br />Sherwin Williams <br />Tel: 201-933-3800<br />Formula F63VXA3082-4350<br /><br />GTI, the people who make light boxes also sell a premixed paint they claim is spectrally neutral. <a href="http://www.gtilite.com/accessories-ga.htm" target="_blank">http://www.gtilite.com/accessories-ga.htm</a>

__________________

</p>

[garrison_k.]

<blockquote>

<p>1) What requirement should my pc have?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Windows 7 64-bit with dual boot linux Ubuntu. The rest we can't answer as we need to know your budget? Do you want a Dell/HP or get something custom built by a local PC tech? I'd go for the latter, if it matters.</p>

[rj russell]

<p>Thanks Andrew, I will use these paint codes!<br />As for the monitor, I am only a hobby photographer with a tight budget as home renovation are my biggy right now.<br>

What are some bottom end quality monitors? </p>

[rj russell]

<p>Dual boot linux Ubuntu? Tight budget, box store or build kit. I Have old laptop for surfing etc.. so desktop will be solely used for editing and handling raw photo's</p>

[garrison_k.]

<p>Google the OS Ubuntu. It's an absolutely wonderful OS. It's easy to dual-boot and install. Ubuntu is light and fast and <strong>free</strong> and being Linux, needs no anti-virus. It's the safest way for your privacy and your computer to surf the net. I'm a huge fan and every minute I don't use microsoft, the better. Mac (unix) people obviously love it as well. And once you fall in love with what a community has achieved with Ubuntu, and do it better than the "other two", you wonder why we put up with so much garbage from them.</p>

[roger_smith4]

<p>For lower end try a NEC p221 with Spectraview II. It's what I'm using.</p>

[robert lee]

<blockquote>

<p>As for the monitor, I am only a hobby photographer with a tight budget ... What are some bottom end quality monitors?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>See if you can pick up a late generation CRT. These things wear out so try for something that hasn't been used heavily. The important thing here is that tonal values don't shift as a function of viewing angle. This is the one significant characteristic that you pay for in a high-end, graphics art LCD panel that comes part and parcel with even the least expensive CRT.</p>

<p>Prepare for a dual monitor set up: LCD at front, CRT off to the side. Buy any cheap LCD display with a stand that allows portrait orientation. This is to minimize the amount of neck craning between the two displays. Throw the image to be edited onto the CRT. Keep tool bars, menus, etc. on the LCD panel.</p>

<p>As for the PC, anything faster than Atom based will do fine. Photo editing just isn't that CPU intensive (even if you're editing LF scans or 250MP stitched composites.) Do make sure to get 4GB or more of RAM.</p>

<p>A SSD, even a small 80GB model for the boot, programs, and scratch will net big time savings. At the least, install an SSD on a free SATA connector and use it for the Photoshop scratch drive. Set aside some space for Window's ReadyBoost cache on the SSD as well.</p>

<p>Do buy a color calibration device. This is the single item that defines and makes a digital darkroom.</p>

[digitaldog]

<blockquote>

<p>As for the monitor, I am only a hobby photographer with a tight budget as home renovation are my biggy right now.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Look for the NEC P221W, its their entry level smart monitor. </p>

[rj russell]

<p>How are these, Samsung SyncMaster 2494Hm with a color calibration device? </p>

[mike_earussi1]

<p>A friend just bought an HP with a quad processor and 6GB ram for $550 at Office Depot. And you can often buy a good flat srceen 19" CRT at Goodwill for around $30.<br>

Don't know of any good cheap LCDs but here's a couple of testing site you can use to compare:<br>

<a href="http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/s-ips-lcd-list.php">http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/s-ips-lcd-list.php</a><br>

<a href="http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews.htm">http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews.htm</a></p>