I am contemplating starting a new business that will require a computer best suited for heavy graphics in Desktop Publishing. Files generated are enormous, and processor speed and RAM size will be critical.
I am now using a Dell box with 4 GB RAM (as much RAM as it will take), and running XP, and it seems that this box is straining to keep up.
What’s the current state-of-the-art for computers that can have a lot of RAM and processor speed? Manufacturer? Approximate cost?
Although I have been a Mac person in the past, I’m not terribly interested in paying a premium for a Mac unless its performance is clearly superior to a Windows box.
Well, you can get an i7 from intel or perhaps an am3 from AMD. Put 16 gigs of ram into it.
If you go with intel, get an SLI ready motherboard and put 2-4 nvidia graphics cards in, slaved together. If you decide on amd, then get a crossfire board and do the same with some ATI cards.
motherboard - 150-300 bucks
cpu 150-1000
16 gigs of ram -650 bucks.
graphics cards 300 each
power supply 200 bucks (might as well get 1000 watts)
you’ll need a hard disk too, but thats cheap and not so critical to your work. Say 100 bucks.
Whatever it needs to be - $1000-$2000, I guess. I’m not terribly interested in building one myself, though I guess one might save a bit of money by doing that…?
You MIGHT save some money building your own high end machine. For low to mid grade you are better off purchasing. My list was more about what a maxed out machine might have, what you might watch for.
I just bought this HP as my “I’m not going to upgrade again for at least 5 years, dammit” machine for work.
I don’t do heavy graphics but I run lots of big apps at once (Visual Studio 2010, Photoshop, SQL Manager, browsers, email, etc) and it’s keeping up great.
My add-ons were a processor upgrade to 3.2GHz, 1.5 TB hdd (free), 500GB second hdd (free), 20-inch monitor, and USB speakers. The price was $1500, BUT right before I ordered I found a $400 coupon, so it helped a lot. Seems like they had more deals on that machine when I bought it than they do now.
Only complaint with the machine so far - besides having to uninstall a lot of crapware - is lack of back USB ports. There’s only 4 and now that I have USB speakers, I’m going to have to get a PCI-e USB card to compensate. (There are 3 USB ports on the front, tho)
Neither of these will help with DTP. And the new Intel chipsets support both SLI and Crossfire.
I’m going to mention monitors. Note the plural. I suggest you get yourself 2 x 24" monitors rather than one really large one. Not only is it more cost-effective but you get better separation of work. If you go for 2 monitors, you can use Nvidia or ATI/AMD cards. For triple monitor support you need either two cards or a newer ATI/AMD card. Your monitors should also rotate so you can work on portrait pages. If you are going to be working with colour photos and colour reproduction is going to be critical, then look for graphics cards and monitors with 10-bit or 12-bit colour per channel. Note that you need both card and monitor.
This will be important to me, as well. I was thinking a dual monitor setup, but a triple would be nice. Any advice on which specific monitors and cards - especially for 10-12 bit per channel?
It is vital that you purchase the right panel type; the cheapie TN panel is not going to cut it for graphic work. You know how on most LCD panels you can look at the screen from an angle and the colors and brightness all change? That’s what you want to avoid.
Unfortunately, this information is not trumpeted in product listings like those bogus contrast ratios; it takes a bit of research. I am personally partial to the IPS Dell Ultrasharps (I think most of the panels are produced by LG).
Im gonna go out on a limb and disagree with the sli card array here. Unless you are doing things that involve skinning 3d objects on the fly like gaming or cad applications, you are better off spending you money on more CPU and ram. The money you spend on multiple $300 VGA cards will get alot more CPU power.
You could cheap out and get an 8-bit panel with A-FCR dithering to hit 10-bit, like the Dell U2410. Eizo uses the same panel in some of their products. It’ll set you back 500 bucks.
At home I’m running an HP Z400. It seems to be a decent entry-level Xeon box. You might want to check it out if you’re looking for a low-end workstation.
You say you’re a Mac person–you have to realize that in PC-land, your choices are a lot more open and “state-of-the-art” may be different from what you’re used to. For example, I just checked on the web site for one system builder I’ve used in the past, and if you really want to you can spec out a box that’ll fit under your desk and cost upwards of 30 grand.
