CS4 question

[RichieValenz]

I realize this isn't the right place to ask this, but I thought I would give it a shot. I'm trying to build a (windows) computer for a friend who needs it for graphic design. He said he was only going to use it for CS4 Design Standard (illustrator, photoshop, and indesign). He didn't give me any other info and I've never built a computer for this purpose before, but he did want it to be cheap (less than $1000).

My question is, does anyone here have any recommendations for specs? I really just need to know what type of cpu and gpu to use.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[SwiftLives]

Adobe Creative Suite will use as much RAM as you let it. Crucial.com is a great place to buy RAM - good balance between price and quality. You can find it for cheaper, but I've had massive problems with cheaper RAM before. 4GB is a good place to start. The more the better.

As for an internal drive, look for something with a high RPM. 7200 at least. Higher will be better. This will make a huge difference with reading and writing files. These are going to make more of a difference than CPU and GPU.

As for CPU and GPU speed, that's a bit more difficult to quantify these days, since so much more goes into it than just a speed rating these days. (I used to build machines back in the days of DOS). My knowledge is very limited.

At the very least, I'd recommend a 2Ghz processor. Make sure it has a good FSB. If you're going Intel, avoid Celeron or Penteum. Core 2 at least.

GPU - can't really help you there.

Good luck. Let us know what you come up with.

 

[LeviG]

basic spec (I personally would go something like)
fast dual core intel cpu (quads aren't used well in windows version of cs in my opinion) - go i7 if you can get it but they're not cheap when everything else is considered so probably the latest core2duo best option here.
get an ati hd4xxx or firepro gpu due to steam processing which means the gpu acceleration actually works properly in photoshop etc.
4GB+ ram
64bit vista (its not that bad seriously)/windows 7
atleast 2 hard drives, preferably 3/4 so you can have a scratch disk (2 disk striped raid maybe) plus 2 drives in mirrored raid (redundancy and read speed) for the os/program drive. Drives don't need to be massive unless storing on this computer.

Should easily get this for $1000 but I'm not 100% on US prices as I'm UK based.

 

[junker]

If you have a 1000.00 to build a pc box - you can build a pretty killer one!

Ultimately it looks like he's going to be pretty low on his processing demand with those programs (cept some ps filters and any huge RAW files)

I agree that celeron you should stay away from - but stay away from pentium? Odd that. I guess in these days of mulit-cores and such it could matter - but as I understand it, most programs don't really utilize the multi-cores very well - if at all. And especially if he's going print media and such. (as opposed to 3d rendering, film editing, and music processing)

I would get a decent little Motherboard and regular old box (although some people really need a shiney pretty box...to sit under their desk) a really good video card and a whole lot of RAM... I believe in Maxing out RAM!!! It's the difference!

Sure a 10,000 rpm would be nice and fast - but I'd love to have 8 or 16 GB of RAM....dribble..

If he wants a smoking gaming machine level of box and is willing to spend every penny of that 1000..then you should really research components and their performance ratings. I think ASUS is a decent MOBO maker ( I personally went all Intel on MOBO and Processor on my old PC box...but I still left it...and went to the Mac circa 2003)

Good luck! There was a time when I would've really been into this conversation.... but I learned the beauty of a mac and never looked back.

 

[alphaod]

Something like a Q6600 should do nicely; a bit old, but cheap now; get at least 8GB of RAM, get Vista x64 and then buy CS4 64-bit. Fast HDDs are a plus, so 3 300GB VelociRapters in RAID 5 should be good.

Be sure to get a good power supply since that's critical.