Bewildered at this stage...

shayser

I'm a complete newbie as far as specing a machine goes... I've been trying to spec this for a while.. Sorry for the long post..

Function: graphic design creating large files using Photoshop CS2 and Illustrator. Got a P4 2.8, 2GB, 64mb AGP, 120GB 7200RPM. This is way to slow for the work. File sizes currently can go up to 300MB, but plan to do some A0 size (concert posters) so files could be up to 1GB.

So, want to order a new machine for this work. I would appreciate some advice as I've been looking at various options, overclockers, DELL etc and basically haven't a clue what to get! Build your own seems to be the best bet money wise though.

Speed is my number one priority.

I've about €3000 ex. VAT to spend.

I think these are the questions I need answered - feel free to correct me, I could be way off the mark:
Should I go for AMD, Intel, Dual Core or Dual CPU? Thinking Dual Zeon, but these are mad money.
4GB memory?
As I'll be doing 2D work only I think I won't need a very expensive graphics card? Won't be gaming on this machine. What would be good?
Thinking of getting RAID5 - 3x250gb SATA 7200RPM - 500BG storage. Does this sound good? SCSI is too expensive. What are the best SATA drives?
Which motherboard? I'd like to future-proof as much as is possible so should I go SLI for the board/graphics?
Case?
PSU?
TFT?

Have I left anything out? I know I've asked a lot of question here, but any advice greatly appreciated!!

Cheers....

Shayser

commited

[url]www.shop4memory.com:[/url]
2Gb kit Low Latency PC3200 Dual Channel - Patriot ( 2-3-2-5 1T) - €284 * 2 = €568


www.komplett.ie

Cooler Master Centurion 5 Black/Silver (Without PSU)

Hiper PSU ATX 580W Black, Type-R, HPU-4K580 Dual Fan, Silent,SLI, 20/24pin

NEC DVD±RW burner, ND-3550A, 16x, Dual, Black OEM

Club3D GeForce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express, VGA, DVI, Tv-Out, Retail

Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB SATA 8MB 10000RPM

Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert, FW, nForce4 SLI, Socket-939, GbLAN, PCI-Ex16

AMD Opteron 175, 2.2GHz, Socket 939, 2MB, BOXED w/fan (same as a X2 4400 but more overclockable)

Samsung 20" LCD Syncmaster 204Ts, Silver, DVI-D, D-sub, 16ms

Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 Software English OEM
Total: 2460.52 + €10 del

(all incl VAT)


Well under budget and is an EXCELLENT spec'd machine!

That memory is the quickest 4gb of memory you can buy Went for a large high res TFT for your Photoshopping etc. Case is always a matter of personal preference. A DVD-RW for back up. The PSU should be plenty for your needs. The graphics card is pretty decent, should you decide to play a game of solitare 2 ultra fast raptors for a raid set up for when you're handling files etc. 500GB of storage & back up space.
Excellent SLI motherboard with great overclockability & the Raid 5 option, as well as support for 8 Sata drives and 4 IDE drives. The Opteron 175 is basically the same as a X2 4400 but more overclockable. And the all important XP pro

ambro25

You may want to look at a rotatable TFT (landscape > portrait), for DTP.

Not much more expensive than 'normal' TFTs up to 19", but big difference beyond that. Look out for a model with hardware image transform (the TFT controller rotates & scales VGA output, not the PC/GFX card - more reliable than a client software solution).

I had a rotatable 17" TFT a couple of years back, can't remember the brand tough - was a mainstream brand (e.g. relysis or such like), and well handy (useful in my job to display a full A4/Letter page as close to 1:1 ratio at highest possible res.)

commited

19" TFTs are pretty low res for PS work though! I dunno anything about rotateable TFT's though /backs away

DemonOfTheFall

I don't think that TFTs are very recommended for DTP work, as their colour reproduction leaves a bit to be desired, on even the highest end models. It seems that you have to pay insane money to get an LCD with proper colour reproduction, going by a review i read on anandtech a while ago.

commited

I agree - but the guy asked for one, so assumed he wanted one

TFT's are certainly getting better though