Community Newsletter: Q&A: New PC recommendations needed for graphic-intensive programs

Feeding your Graphics software is a matter of what your time

In reply to: New PC recommendations needed for graphic-intensive programs by Lee Koo (ADMIN) 

Joan,

I use Adobe's Creative Suite 3 Production Premium which includes many memory intensive programs including Photoshop CS3e & Illustrator. They say you can never have too much RAM, but you really don't absolutely need 3 or 4GB. 2GB will work fine so long as you have a large, fast dedicated scratch disk and setup your program options to work most efficiently. Because Photoshop is bitmap based it needs the most breathing room. You'll want to open Photoshop before you launch any other programs.

The first time you launch Photoshop you'll want to make the following changes to preferences (Ctrl+K); Under General make sure "Automatically Launch Bridge" is unchecked. Bridge is a huge memory hog and should be opened as you need it and then closed. I also like to check "Beep When Done" to alert me that a process is completed. In File Handling you should make sure that "Maximize PSD and PSB File Compatibility" is set to Never as this will write smaller files more quickly and is not necessary to be on either of the alternate settings unless you are delivering layered Photoshop files to someone who does not have Photoshop (when would that happen?). On Performance you will have adequate resources if you "Let Photoshop Use" 80% of the available RAM. That should leave enough for other programs and the operating system. You can dial this slightly up or down and test the results, but 80% works pretty well. Be sure that your #1 scratch disk is a separate dedicated drive (D) from that which the programs and operating system resides (C). That drive should be at least 7200RPM and as least 10 times the size of the largest file you are likely to work on. I use 4-250Gb drives using a RAID 0 configuration to make a 1Tb scratch disk, but that's not a cheap option. A single 300-500Gb drive will work fine. You can add your other drives as additional scratch disks but you shouldn't need to. Your "History States" should be as low as you can manage and cache levels should be as high as they go (8) for maximum efficiency. Lastly on Type you want to be sure "Show Asian Text Options" is unchecked unless you need to use Asian text often as it also uses some memory unnecessarily.

Adobe lets you load your licensed copy of their programs on two computers, assumed to be a work station and a laptop. I have my CS3 catalog on a powerful and fairly expensive dual Xeon workstation, but I also use it on a relatively modest Sony laptop. The laptop has an Intel Memron7300 Core2Duo processor (2ghz with a 4Mb cache) and just 2Gb of RAM. The internal drive is only 5400RPM and I find it works fine for Photoshop and other Adobe programs. Not as fast as the workstation, but fast enough that I rarely wait long.

Unless you are running a x64 version of your OS you will not be able to use more than 3Gb of RAM in Windows anyway. When you are using your graphics programs just try not to have more than 2 programs open at a time and avoid running unnecessary programs like network meters and other utilities.

I show as of today (3/22/08) a Dell Inspiron 530s with Core2Duo E6550 cpu, 2Gb Ram, XP Pro, 22” LCD monitor, 500Gb 7200rpm drive (you can split this drive or add a second 500Gb for an extra $200), an ATI 256Mb video card and a 16X DVD reader/burner is under $1150. You can also look at Dell’s Outlet preconfigured systems. Just search Dell’s site for “outlet”.

The only reason to buy more horsepower (CPU, RAM, HDD) is if your time is worth more than the difference in the cost. My current workstation was $6500 fully loaded (Dell 670). It’s really not quite twice as fast as my laptop (Sony FZ190CTO) which cost about $1800. That’s a big difference in price. You should be fine with a budget box until you can justify a need for speed.

John Lacy
Proshooter.com