What specs for new computer?

SV
Posted By
susan_Vineyard
May 30, 2007
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381
Replies
9
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Closed
Our instructional designers (including me!) are getting new computers and the’ve asked me to come up with specs. We use Captivate and Photoshop heavily. Lots of graphics and sound and animation. What should we ask for? What graphics card? Do we need dual processors? What do you suggest?
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Don_McCahill
May 30, 2007
I do ID work as well. The requirements won’t be as heavy as for photographic use (unless you are producing courses that will be printed). Most of the graphics I use are for onscreen use, so wind up quite small. Captivate makes me think you are doing similar.

The one thing I would recommend is that you get dual monitors. This makes it easy to cut and paste from Word files (from the profs) to the courses. I would have a 17-inch monitor as one of the two, since this is the smallest standard size these days, and it allows you to view the course as a student sees it. Make the other one as big as you can get, since palettes and such take up so much room.

A big hard drive is always nice, ask for 500gigs, which is now reasonably priced. Go for as much ram as you can get away with. I’m only at 2 gigs, but if they ask, tell them that 4 is what you need.

Graphics cards have always been pretty simple for PS. But I haven’t used CS3 with its 3D uses, so that might make a difference … perhaps someone else will comment on that.

I don’t have dual processors … others might recommend it, but I don’t think this job involves heavy processor use very often. I never have to wait for PS.

Don McCahill
Instructional Designer
Lambton College
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
May 30, 2007
Hi Susan,

What’s the budget per computer, any idea? While not a budget-system, here are 2 suggestions I offer <http://ambress.com/pc/pc_suggestion.htm>, based upon parts priced at Newegg.com. The first system is based around the Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz CPU, with 4GB of systemn memory, a quiet graphics card, and a total of 4 hard drives, priced at $1840. Saving about $500 for the 2nd configuration, I dropped to a 2.4GHz E6600 CPU, a convential fan-cooled 7600GT graphics card, and got rid of the two small Raptor hard drives, for a total of $1310.

I think the Intel Core 2 Duo processors offer the best bang for the buck currently, and their dual-processor architecture is definitely a benefit. A high-end graphics card isn’t required for Photoshop, and you would be well served by an nVidia 7600GT card or anything comparable. The "quiet" graphics cards often are pricier due to the larger heatsinks installed on them in lieu of fans.

Note, I did not include monitors…they really are more of a personal choice I think, and vary widely in price. The graphics cards I’ve chosen here both support dual DVI output for two monitors.

Regards,

Daryl
NB
Neil_Barnden
May 30, 2007
It depends a lot on your budget. I’ve just built a very nice new system for around £900 (this probably equates to $900 or so, given comparative hardware costs in UK/US). The specs are:
Asus P5B Deluxe WiFi motherboard
Core 2 Duo 6600 Processor
2Gb RAM
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS
2 x SATA 320Gb HD
Windows XP Pro SP2
I work as a game developer, and use a lot of 3D, music, sound and imaging software including Photoshop CS3. The new system seems to run all my apps really well, and the speed increase is certainly a very noticable step up from my previous Pentium 4 based system. I’ll probably upgrade to 4Gb RAM soon (because it’s a relatively cheap upgrade, and I have two slots sitting empty on the Mobo!), but apart from that I think this system will handle everything I throw at it for a fair while yet.

(I’ve also mildly overclocked my system, as the Core 2 Duo processor handles it really well – but I don’t suppose your employers would be too keen on encouraging this!)

Happy speccing!
SV
susan_Vineyard
May 30, 2007
Daryl,

Why do you say four hard drives? We were wondering if we needed multiple drives for scratch drives? Actual physical drives or partitioned drives? Can you justify this for our bosses, please?
NB
Neil_Barnden
May 30, 2007
Hi Susan (and sorry to jump in Daryl!)

You’ll want at least two hard disks, so you can dedicate a non-system one as a scratch disk. Three would be even better, so you can install the system on one, work on another, and have the third as a scratch disk. And personally, I’d recommend different physical disks – not partitions.
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
May 30, 2007
Susan,

I was basically just being generous in the specs of the system, giving flexibility for maximum performance without knowing exactly what size of files you’d be working with. It is easier in my opinion, to overspecify and trim back, than to underspecify and go looking for what else might be needed. Going with 2 drives as per Neil’s suggestion is fine, but my thougts were these:

The WD Raptor hard drive is fast and is particularly nice for a system drive or a physically separate Photoshop scratch disk where there is a lot of drive activity going on. Meanwhile, one or two large-capacity drives provides ample storage room and workspace which is still separated from the busy system drive or scratch disk. If your work involves any video capture and rendering, having drives dedicated to each of those tasks is a nice luxury but not essential. I’ve just looked at the product description for Captivate and see nothing about it or in your original post that suggests much, if any, video editing is involved. So the drives I’ve specified probably are overkill. I also like to use a large drive to save backups on, but you may have some sort of network backup in place if you have multiple PCs in your office.

All in all, the 2nd system I described is perhaps more inline with your needs.

Daryl
SS
Sy_Sez
May 30, 2007
If you choose to go with an Intel Core 2 Duo, which is in fact "the best bang for the buck" currently— Wait for the June 4th release of Intel’s P35 chipset, as it offers a significant performance increase.

The chipset will handle both DDR2, or DDR3 memory, but you will have to choose one or the other. Asus has two excellent boards already in stores— The P5K Deluxe for DDR2, and the PK53 Deluxe for DDR3

< http://usa.asus.com/search.aspx?searchitem=1&searchkey=P 35>

< http://www.jncs.com/php/sys/index.php?id=sys-as-p5k-deluxe-w ifi>

Leigh
LH
Lawrence_Hudetz
May 31, 2007
Not much available for DDR3 yet.

Best bang for the buck is definitely NOT Intel. Best bang, absolutely Intel!

The AMD Dual Core 5200 is less expensive and is only slightly slower for graphics than the 6600, so for your work, the AMD systems will be less expensive and fine for you.

I concur on the HD, but be sure that in any case, you partition the drive for Scratch. This is because the scratch drive needs to be clean at all times, and exiting an image detetes scratch. If you have data other than scratch permanently on that drive, frequent defragmenting is recommended.

I assume you will be purchasing complete systems such as Dell, so they should be able to finesse the processor choice for you as they have both Intel and AMD.
D
deebs
May 31, 2007
Have you thought about using Apple Mac’s?

I am sure most suppliers have educational initiatives and I’d bet that with Mac’s you’d say here is what we need, send us a quote.

Then, of course, there are the software considerations:

Try
< http://store.apple.com/AppleStore/WebObjects/BizCustom?qprm= 78313&family=MacAdobeCS3>

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