im buying a new pc does anyone have any suggestions?

[Checkers]

Hiya Steve,
Here’s a link to what I purchased at my last job…
http://www.letterhead.com/ubb-cgi/ultim … 33108.html
It would be the minimum I would recommend, although you can get the 3 gig processors and you should be able to upgrade them later.
I would strongly suggest a minimum of 2 smaller hard drives, around 40 to 80 gigs; One for your O.S. and the second for Adobe’s scratch disk. If you go much larger on the hard drive, you’ll start to loose performance because your computer has to look through the entire hard drive to find the files.
You should also consider either a second PC to act as a server or at least a 3rd and even a 4th large hard drive for archiving. These can be the 160+ gig hard drives. The 4 drive would be a mirror of the 3rd if it should crap out. I would also suggest a DVD burner for archiving the larger files; but most single designs should fit on a CD.
2 gigs of ram is the minimum, I would recommend. If you can afford more, do it. It’s relatively cheap right now.
Stay away from LCD’s or plasmas unless you have a few grand to plunk down on a good monitor. The last time I checked, Apples were the only good ones out there and were running around $2000. Your video card should be fine, but it may depend on the monitor you choose.

You can go with a MAC and it might be worth it. The only draw back is that you’ll have to buy new MAC versions of all the software you want to use. And that can be cost prohibitive.

Let out a yell if you have questions. You know how to reach me 🙂

Checkers

aka Brian Born
Harrisburg, PA

[steve geary]

Thanks Brian,
I was going to call you, but I thought you were Busy!!! 😀

[David-Foster-]

quote steve geary:

One more thing… I have no experience on Macs but my wife does and loves them.
Could we use both, if we added a mac now? anyone do this?

Well the new Intel Macs are supposed to be able to dual boot and run Windows XP now! You get the build quality of Apple, the great OSX operating system for the wife, and you can run Windows when you need to!

(-)

[steve geary]

I’ve heard that too.. I’ll have to research it.. thanks!

[Checkers]

Hey, I’m busy! I was just waiting for some more materials to arrive.
They’re here now, so I have to get back to work. 🙁
I like the idea of the dual boot MAC, but didn’t they try that before with the Power PC or something like that?
If you’re concerned about bringing a Mac into a PC network, don’t sweat it. A former co-worker was able to plug his Mac right into our network and was up and running in seconds.
The only issue I saw wat that the mac would leave some additional files lying around after the job was saved and closed in a windows environment. It was almost as if the file was saved twice, but the duplicate file was more like a shortcut for the Mac.

Cheers,

Checkers
a.k.a Brian Born
Harrisburg, PA

[Nicola McIntosh]

i like the idea of the dual boot too…just wondering if i did buy one, would the mac would be compatible with my printers & cutters…. 😕

nik

[David-Foster-]

Hi Nik

Well it’s beta software at the moment but it looks great. No serial ports on Macs but USB stuff should be fine, it’s full blown Windows XP. In the review the guy said it was running faster than his 2Gig Sony Viao!

http://www.digitmag.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=5663

http://www.apple.com/uk/macosx/bootcamp/

[Nicola McIntosh]

thanks david for the links…im gonna swat up on it all, as my workshop is in need of a re-vamp and i like the slikness of the macs and of course the lovely screens 😀 (ed will probably have heart failure when he finds out the price of them) but i’ll leave that for a rainy day 😉

nik

[Marekdlux]

Hey Steve,
Get one of the Dells that Mike Lavallee has airbrushed with "real" flames. They are awesome!
They are listed under the gaming section of their website.
http://www.dell.com/html/us/products/renegade/images/800x600_XPS600_Renegade.jpg (picture of it)
-Marek

[steve geary]

Very cool Marek!
what are you running with the new versacamm??
also what software and Rip?

[Marekdlux]

Hi Steve,
We have Dells at work. Not sure on the specs. I never was much of a computer guy.
Re: VersaCAMM
I design in Illustrator CS and use VersaWorks for the rip. Not too many problems so far. I was doing some of my first full color banners on it today, 36"x132" double sided. I am using 13oz double sided blockout banner material. I print one side, centered on the media, then flip it over and print the backside. I haven’t perfected the registration yet, but I allowed extra room on the design for this. 4 done, 32 more to go. 😀
Sounds like you have been really busy, time to start charging more. 😉
-Marek

[steve geary]

Hey Marek,
Sounds like fun with the double sided banners… I’m sure they’ll be perfect after 36!

I’m still using corel for my print design, but getting into some big files, for a few near future jobs.

Yeah, we’re still busy, but my wife’s working with me know and i have Another colleague ( Checkers) that’s been a fantastic help! Prices are pretty much in line now, and production is up, and I’ve been meeting short term goals with sales… They’ve pretty much doubles from last year.
Keep saying i want to get caught up, but not sure if that’ll ever happen.

[Marekdlux]

Sounds like things are going great.
Good job.
-Marek