Graphic Design Computer help! Which PC is best?

Question

I am a freelance writer who has branched out into some basic graphic design. I use mainly Corel Draw and Photoshop, but I'm getting to the point where my laptop, a Dell Inspiron, isn't keeping up with the demands of newsletter layout, ads, etc. My computer runs slowly, crashes, and loses files (argh!) all the time. I've doubled my RAM, but the laptop just really needs to be cleaned up. Should I upgrade my OS to Vista?

It's definitely time for me to buy a desktop with more power, but since I travel a lot, I would like to be able to keep my laptop for at least the newsletter layout since that is due at the same time every month (I use Corel Draw for that). To make things as easy as possible, I'll need to be able to transfer files back and forth from my laptop to my desktop. That means no Mac!

Does anyone have advice on what Dell PC would be best for graphic design? I am looking at the XPS 420 and XPS 630. Anyone have experience with these?

Answer 1

well, just updating your o.s wont do it lol unless your running windows o2 ><



I use photoshop ( as I hate fireworks and am not to fond of corel ) I checked out both dell you are looking at, and if I had to choose between the two I would say the XPS 420 (it got better reviews..)

personally I would build my own.. ( 4gig of ram 64 bit duel processor evga ge forces 8800 gts sc 612mb, raid 0 setup , ect..)

Answer 2

First of all, dont go with the XPS line unless you feel the need to game, or love the cases. The standard line is more then enough. Instead of a model, I will give you specs. Quad-Cord computer, 2 ghz or greater. 4 gigs of ram. 256 graphic card or greater. Unless you game the graphics card is not that important, while it does play a little part in your overall graphic editing ability, it is by no means a decisive factor. Don't worry about cell shading or any of the other terms going around now. Just decent graphic card will be more then adequate. Also the bigger the hard drive the better. I would get at least a 500gb. Photoshop files can get large, especially for when you are using them for printing purposes.



Good Luck.



As for your laptop, do not upgrade the OS. While in a lot of ways Vista gets a bad rap, and you shouldnt have any problems with it on a a new computers, especially mid/high end one, upgrading an existing system with it is a bad idea. Especially if you are hurting for resources already



Oh, expect to see a lot of people telling you to go Mac.

Answer 3

Does your Inspiron have a discrete graphics card? If not, it may not run graphic intensive programs. While newer integrated graphics chipsets have improved, you sound like you have one of the older ones - GMA 940 perhaps.



Why are you looking only at Dells?



Maybe what you need to do is clean up or replace that hard drive. You sound like a person who keeps a lot of media content on your HD. An overstuffed HD is going to share its pain with you. You need to save to a flash drive, and defrag.

Answer 4

homestead windows has a larger memory footprint, and motives why your HP would value 0.5 has each and every thing to do with it being a commodity laptop. Apple is a hardware/application mixture this is engineered for presentation photos. it quite relies on UNIX meaning it has the soundness which will provide help to run it for 40 or greater hours which you will discover for image layout is going to be strictly necessary. i take advantage of computers now, yet I run LINUX -- when I do paintings I do it on PAPER or i bypass hire a mac. Adobe does not run on loose OSes without significant hassles (brought about via their replica protection schemes) and no, it is not reliable for commercial paintings -- nevertheless for fantastic paintings there are various stuff which make it great. however the secret is that for image layout you opt for a Mac and you opt for Mac OS X.