Advice ASAP bitte!

[tonyedit]

Here's the jazz...

An as new second-hand Emac g4 800mhz 40gig available at the moment. My friends is a photographer moving more towards digital and needs a cheapy machine to start with. Will the Emac run Photoshop CS2? And does it have USB and Firewire ports? Just can't find the info elsewhere!

Much thanks guys.

 

[eva01]

wont run it fast

and may be even slower depending on the amount of RAM

 

[tonyedit]

Ta, but...

Hows about a Mac Mini 1.42. Found one available at similar price. Am I on safer ground there?

 

[Josh396]

As Eva said it won't run it fast but if he's just starting it may not be that bad depending on the price. And yes it will have USB and Firewire ports, though I think the USB ports are only 1.1 on that model.

 

[York-Diuck]

The mini would be a better choice. I jus got the 1.42 one and it turns out they bumped to a 1.5 instead. But anyway, It'll be quite a bit faster and has usb 2.0 ports and one firewire, so its a decent machine. If you want cheap, I'd go mini. Might want to up the ram to 1gb though, jus a suggestion

 

[ChrisA]

Hows about a Mac Mini 1.42. Found one available at similar price. Am I on safer ground there?

If you put a 1GB RAM stick inside PS will run aceptably but not for high volume use.

He will want a good monitor too. PS uses lots of screen space and then you need good color fidelity. If you are looking to save money get a good quality 20" CRT the good LCDs cost as much as a new Mini

But does he have to use PS? Could he use something else? People who like PS say that their primary reason for not switching to something else is that they've invested so much time in learning PS. If he is just starting he has no investment so the primary reason to use PS goes away.

No natter what you choose the Mini is not fast enough to suport a high volume RAW workflow. To sort and convert 200 images would take hours and hours. But a JPG baed workflow is perfectly manable on a Mini. "Workflow" is a big deal in pro digital photography. He has to work out a procedure (AKA workflow) that does not waste his time Working out weter to do selects first or color corection first how to import and catlog and backup. This matter little to someone who does a few vacation shots now and then but a pro who shoos all day to earn a living is different.

He will need other software too. If he shoots in raw mode what conversion software to use? Some of this depends on his camera and some on which computer.

 

[ChrisA]

A I think the USB ports are only 1.1 on that model.

No, ALL minis have the newer 2.0 USB ports. You do want the 2.0 USB ports. Downloading images off the memory card is slow (5 to 10 minutes for a 1GB card) using USB vers. 1

 

[CanadaRAM]

An as new second-hand Emac g4 800mhz 40gig available at the moment. My friends is a photographer moving more towards digital and needs a cheapy machine to start with. Will the Emac run Photoshop CS2? And does it have USB and Firewire ports?

The eMac 800 is the slower model with USB 1.1, PC133 RAM and a maximum of 1 Gb RAM (2 x 512)

The USB 2.0 model eMac 1.0 GHz, (careful, 1,0 GHz models came in both the old and new design), 1.25 GHz and 1.42 GHz with DDR RAM and a 2 Gb RAM limit would be preferable