What's the perfect photoshop computer?

[october907]

I work for a printing company. We are looking to upgrade our workhorse machines if we can get a noticable improvement in performance.

We currently use a 2.4Ghz P4 based computer with 1 Gig ram as our primary machine. We spend all day in Photoshop and Production House, frequently processing files in the 500-700 MB (and sometimes larger) range.

My question is how much improvement will I see if we go to duel processor machines? If we simply upgrade the ram to 2 GB? Any ideas?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[paparazi]

I'm a big PC fan with a background in professional photography but have to admit that "apparently" in this particular discipline Applemac G5's blow PC's out the water.

http://www.apple.com/powermac/performance/

Martin




Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[johnodq]

Even though I make my living working on PC's I'd have to agree with Paparazi that for Photoshop you can't beat a MAC. It is the most used system amongst the photographic trade.


---------------
Johnodq
---------------
Please let me know if the advice I give is of help.
Feedback will benefit all

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[mahamat]

I dont care what PC world say, a PC laptop will NOT run Photoshop better or quicker than a G5, no way!
If you are going to use Photoshop Seriously use a mac with as much RAM as you can throw at it.
There are currently no stable OS's that make full use of a 64-bit CPU so having one is a waste of time (for now).

 

[Grenage]

Indeed.

It is less an opinion and more a fact that a G5 is the best Photoshop machine. Macs are the photoshop machine.

 

[johnodq]

You only have to go into ANY digital photolab or professional photographers and take a look at what they are using to see what system is the preferred one.

Subjective statements akin to " Mine is better than yours" will never answer such questions, if you are in Europe and can travel then take a trip to "FOCUS" at the NEC (runs till wednesday) and see what the professionals there use.

90%+ are Macs, with Huge monitors, usually dual montiors, and stacks of RAM....

---------------
Johnodq
---------------
Please let me know if the advice I give is of help.
Feedback will benefit all

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[vanvb]

One interesting thing to note is that in the performance tests like the one that paparazi privided a link to, the program tends to be where the testers skew the data to show their hardware to be the fastest. Some hardware do better than others. The fact that Mac LOVES to use Photoshop for its benchmark tests that say that it is is the "fastest" should tell you something. Dual G5 is where you want to be. As for displays, I work for a University and our University Communications people just picked up a few of the 20" cinema flatscreens. WOW! Nice stuff. I would recommend them to anyone who can afford them.

By the way, this comes from a die hard PC guy who would never look at buying a mac for anything other than what you have described. For that though - it is the best as most others in the industry will attest.