Best PC Spec for Graphic Design

Anyone know a decent spec for using graphic design software on a PC. It'll be running Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark and Dreamweaver. Work want a decent spec, but won't stretch to a mac as it doesn't fit 'corporately'. Short of whacking up the memory, and buying the flashiest graphics card on the market, I'm kind of at a loss, so any help from you guys would be appreciated.

Quote:

Originally posted by hagrid

but won't stretch to a mac as it doesn't fit 'corporately'.

Your loss.

I will take it that means you must stay Intel based. I personally would do an Intel Duo Core CPU and pack the puppy with RAM and the best Nvidia card you can get. Don't forget USB 2.0 and 1394 ports for the hi-speed periphs. OS = xp pro, avoid Vista like it was the Black Plague until it grows some legs.

Quote:

Originally posted by Kanzen

[reply=hagrid]
but won't stretch to a mac as it doesn't fit 'corporately'.

Your loss.
[/reply]

Tell me about it! Most likely the case that they don't know how to use them, therefore they're the devils tech!

Thanks for the advice Ev1l0ne, time to crank up the price on the spec I think.

Well, being a graphic designer myself, I'm obviously partial to the Mac Pro for those programs. But if it MUST be on a PC, you should have a minimum of 1 Gb RAM (at least DDR-400, if not the newer DDR2-800) and a processor power of at least 2.0 Ghz. Obviously it goes without saying that a decent video card is a must.

I run InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator on my computer without a hitch and here's the specs:

Processor: Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz (E6600)
RAM: 2 Gb DDR2-800
Motherboard: eVGA 680i nForce SLi (a little unstable, though)
Video: 2 NVIDIA 256 Mb 7600 GT
HD: 250 Gb SATA Western Digital Caviar
2nd HD: 250 Gb IDE Seagate Barracuda
Optical: Samsung DVD/CD-R/W Lightscribe
Case: Antec Performance One Cold-Rolled Steel

Of course, I built this myself for around $1200 (newegg.com, natch) but if you want to buy a complete system that can perform up to specs and have the usual warranty coverage, etc., well, you can't go wrong with Dell, but be prepared for sticker shock.

Caveat: My computer wasn't really built for graphic design, but for gaming, so it's way more powerful than what you really need. For example, you don't need an SLi system, you're fine with just about any run-of-the-mill ASUS motherboard.

Only change I'd make to Ero's suggestion is exchanging them for two 250GB WDCs and Raid 0. Much better drive performance makes reading and writing a lot easier. Just make sure to backup regularly.

For 2D graphics you do NOT need a high end graphics card, you do not even need a mid range card. If you plan on doing hardcore 3D animation, or you want to play games you may need a better graphics card. A high end graphics card does not provide any benefit at all for 2d graphics.

The only thing you may want to consider with a graphics card is if you need dual monitor outputs and if those dual monitor outputs are VGA DVI or one VGA and one DVI. If you are using LCD monitors you definitely want a dual DVI card, a LCD monitor hooked up to a VGA cable looks soft.

Another thing to keep in mind with graphics cards is the max resolution it will support, most graphics cards will support 1920x1200 on two displays with no problems.

Like I said before, if you are not playing games or doing 3D work save your money and get a cheap (price) video card and put that money into a better mother board or more ram.

My recommendation for the rest of the system is to get a very good motherboard, something that supports alot of fast ram, quad core intel processors and if you need it, a sata raid.

You can always buy the cheapest intel core2duo processor the 6300 for now to save money and upgrade to a faster processor in the future when they become cheaper.

As far as ram goes, 2 gigs (two 1 gig sticks) high speed matched pairs is a good start, you cant really take advantage of more than 3 gigs with a 32 bit operating system.

This is basically what I did when I wanted to setup an audio/video production system for my self. Professionally I am a visual effects director/digital compositor so I know alot about computers for graphics. Digital compositing does not really need 3D graphics power except in very specific situations, its basically photoshop for video. Audio production is the same, the graphics card does not matter. So I spent my money on good ram, a low end video card with no cooling fan on it so it is quiet (for audio work) the cheapest core2duo processor I could, a very good motherboard (I needed sata raid support) a few hard drives and a pro audio card.

My specs are basically this.

Motherboard - Asus P5B Deluxe
CPU - Intel core2duo 6300
RAM - OCZ DDR2-800 PC2-6400 Platinum XTC 2GB (2x1024MB)
VIDEO - XFX GeForce 7300GT 256MB (Dual DVI no cooling fan)
Boot Drive - 2X WD Raptor SATA 36GB 10k drives in raid 0
Work Drive - 2X Seagate Barracuda 500Gig drices in raid 0

This system is quite fast, and I can drop a quad core processor into it when ever I want.

truly i have a pc my self but if you talk to most people in graphic design they will tell ya to buy a mac.

Im in gfx design, but i use a PC

Just get a schweet processor, and tons of ram.. oh and definately avoid vista!

Even though I am a PC guy, I do agree that a Mac would be much better suited for this. But since they have their heads up their....

Go with a Dual or Quad Core CPU and 2GB or more RAM. I would suggest going with 4 GB with the Intel Core Duo. For a Video card, since it is primarily 2D, I would suggest going more for RAM size than speed as you need the resolution over 3D screen refresh speed. 256 MB ram on the video would be my minimum, with at least dual outputs.

If the PC is attached to the network, you can utilize raid network storage instead of local for saving your work. That would mean just getting 4 Raptor SATA 36GB 10k drives in 2 raid 0 set-ups. One set-up for boot, and one for local temp usage. If you are going to store and work local, I would go with the 2 Raptors in Raid 0 as my boot, but I would go with SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) drives for the work drives and storage as I have found them much better than SATA, but that will require either a server motherboard or an add-in card.

Personally, I love the SAS drives but they are a pricey addition to PCs right now as they are fairly new. But the speed is awesome. And it is backwards compatible to SATA so you can use one controller for both types as long as they are on different chains.

Once again - thanks for all the help from everyone. Currently our corporate IT bods will 'allow' me to up standard spec to 2 gb RAM, 3.2ghz Duo Core processor, ATI Radeon X1600XT (I'm still not sure on this at the moment, need to do more research), and 2 160gb SATA drives.