Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Help Mondak build a non-gaming powerful PC

Dragonlich · 10-02-2004, 11:23 PM

Generally speaking, you need processing power to do the photoshop filters quickly, but any will do the trick eventually. Celerons (the new D-variant) are a *bit* more attractive than new AMD Semprons. Athlon XP's kick their collective arses.

The main thing with photoshop is memory - you need as much as you can (1 gig), but it'll *still* want more.

Go for a good-sized harddisk. 80 gigs is only slightly more expensive than 40, the prices only go up a lot after 200 gigs. but those are all HUGE for storing photos.

The videocard: go for a low-cost geforce FX (or medium-cost ati), NOT a 9200 if possible. I've had reports of the image quality being really bad on 9200's. There are low-cost cards with dual DVI (Asus 9520/VS for example). Or you could go for a Matrox card - good quality 2D, but kinda expensive.

Monitors: Paq is right about the monitors - TFT is expensive, way more expensive than CRTs. For color quality, a TFT simply can't compare to a CRT yet, although a good high contrast ratio (600:1 or higher) could do the trick for you. DVI is pretty much irrelevant unless you pay only a bit more for it.

Something you might also want to think about: noise levels - methinks it's kinda hard to concentrate and be artsy with a jet engine running next to you. There are (more) silent alternatives for CPU coolers, as well as harddisks, videocards and PSUs.

Also, I assume you thought about the (Wacom) Tablet for editing the pics?

10-02-2004, 11:23 PM	#3 (permalink)
Dragonlich 42, baby! Location: The Netherlands	Generally speaking, you need processing power to do the photoshop filters quickly, but any will do the trick eventually. Celerons (the new D-variant) are a bit more attractive than new AMD Semprons. Athlon XP's kick their collective arses. The main thing with photoshop is memory - you need as much as you can (1 gig), but it'll still want more. Go for a good-sized harddisk. 80 gigs is only slightly more expensive than 40, the prices only go up a lot after 200 gigs. but those are all HUGE for storing photos. The videocard: go for a low-cost geforce FX (or medium-cost ati), NOT a 9200 if possible. I've had reports of the image quality being really bad on 9200's. There are low-cost cards with dual DVI (Asus 9520/VS for example). Or you could go for a Matrox card - good quality 2D, but kinda expensive. Monitors: Paq is right about the monitors - TFT is expensive, way more expensive than CRTs. For color quality, a TFT simply can't compare to a CRT yet, although a good high contrast ratio (600:1 or higher) could do the trick for you. DVI is pretty much irrelevant unless you pay only a bit more for it. Something you might also want to think about: noise levels - methinks it's kinda hard to concentrate and be artsy with a jet engine running next to you. There are (more) silent alternatives for CPU coolers, as well as harddisks, videocards and PSUs. Also, I assume you thought about the (Wacom) Tablet for editing the pics? Last edited by Dragonlich; 10-02-2004 at 11:26 PM..