PC for Prepress

[Trimmer]

Hello anyone can tell me what kind of pc should i choose to work in prepress and Graphic design,!
Should i choose the lcd monitor or crt (now i'm using crt monitor 21')?
What kind of performance are the best to choose?and the brand of pc
I used to use xp as operating system and vista too but since my pc is not to fast
i use xp.
Any suggestions

 

[mattbeals]

Doesn't really matter what brand of computer it is. A quad core and a fast SATA-II (3Gb/sec) drive should be enough. As for memory, that depends on whether you want to stick with Windows XP or move to Vista. If you stick with Windows XP Pro then you are stuck with a maximum of 4GB of RAM. But only 3.25GB should actually be available to you. If you go with Windows XP Pro 64bit edition then you can use more memory. But you'll have driver problems. So maybe going to Vista is the smartest choice. So look to Windows Vista Business editions and you can go well beyond 4GB. So seriously think about going to Vista, getting more than 4GB of RAM and at least four cores. The brand is really irrelevant.

 

[rbailleu]

mattbeals is right on target. I would stick with xp pro and 4 gb ram for now. and wait out windows 7 introduction. there are still some arguement weather lcd can be accurate for some people. for most people a good lcd is fine. you can buy a cheapp 22 inch lcd for under $200. a good 24 inch for under $400.

 

[mattbeals]

I had forgotten about Windows 7. I hear it's better than Vista. But the advantage to Vista, at least at this point, is we know what's wrong with Vista. With Windows 7 we have to discover what's wrong with it. If you're installing current software then odds are pretty good that Windows 7 will work fine. It does have a "windows XP compatibility mode" for those rogue apps that don't like 7. But that mode kind of defeats the point of Windows 7. But again, we all know what's wrong with XP, even with SP3. We've got a pretty good idea of what's *not wrong* (notice the inverted logic because of how much is wrong) with Windows Vista, and Windows 7 is a crap shoot at this point.

 

[rbailleu]

matt,

your not one of those ,ugh, mac people are you?

 

[PrepressDan]

nothing wrong with macs

 

[mattbeals]

No, I'm a Mac guy through and through who's stuck using Windows XP. Although I am a pragmatist first and foremost. Windows has evolved as have the creative applications and supporting software to really negate the Mac vs. PC debate as to which platform is superior for graphics. It's an equal game. The religious wars are left to the consumer market and the corporate desktop. But for our purposes it is a wash.

Having said that... Windows Vista is a royal cluster f**k. Windows 7 is what Vista was supposed to be.

 

[Keith]

I'm glad I stumbled upon this thread as I am looking to build a new workstation to drive my printers. After some research, I am scared to death of Vista. All my machines have drivers for it but not all my software will cooperate with it. I just simply do not want to deal with that headache. As Matt Beals said, I will wait for Windows 7 and then switch to Vista ('cause we'll have it figured out by then!)!

I would love to build a Mac workstation but I hate the print driver windows with all its stupid drop-down menus. Right now, we design on a Mac and print with a PC.

 

[rbailleu]

I just had this pc verses mac arguement with my cousins over the week end. one cousin has a mac and is not in the graphic arts industry. he just likes iphoto etc. while I am not a big mac person. I will readily admit apple has excellent software. the iphone is a killer product. mac's have a lot of neat features. I just cant see paying the apple penalty for the neat stuff. there is also a reason a lot of rips are run on windows servers. I have not ever had an xp issue. I dont use vista for any work machines. I have never had an issue with vista at home. I have never personnally seen any real problems with vista. I have seen some 3rd party programs that were not updated to work with vista but that happens on the mac too.

 

[lfelton]

mattbeals is right on target. I would stick with xp pro and 4 gb ram for now. and wait out windows 7 introduction. there are still some arguement weather lcd can be accurate for some people. for most people a good lcd is fine. you can buy a cheapp 22 inch lcd for under $200. a good 24 inch for under $400.

Hmmm... I'd argue that's false economy. We use hardware calibrated Eizo monitors in prepress / artwork which cost a lot more than that, but they're worth every penny. When you have to know that the colours your artworkers see match the proofs, match the press, saving a few bucks on an inaccurate monitor is a bad idea.

Totally agree on the quad core, CS4 crashes much faster on our newer machines

 

[rbailleu]

an eizo calibrated is clearly high end. definitely not cheap. and a step above good. and if you are going to be doing quality color work I would say an absolute must have. that being said I don't have an eizo and I want one. but color calibration devices will work on a $200 monitor. the color may never be great but not being perfect is okay for a lot of beginning designers. but then again beginning designers could probably get by with 1 gb ram and a pentium 4 single core.

 

[prepressguru]

No, I'm a Mac guy through and through who's stuck using Windows XP. Although I am a pragmatist first and foremost. Windows has evolved as have the creative applications and supporting software to really negate the Mac vs. PC debate as to which platform is superior for graphics. It's an equal game. The religious wars are left to the consumer market and the corporate desktop. But for our purposes it is a wash.

Having said that... Windows Vista is a royal cluster f**k. Windows 7 is what Vista was supposed to be.

Ya Vista before service pack 1 wasn't ready. But service pack 1 did correct it.

I prefer Vista over XP. Very stable and no virus's or malware. Never had one blue screen with Vista. If you are building a PC go with Vista 64 bit premium. You then can use CS4 Photoshop 64 bit edition which Mac doesn't have. Drivers are not an issue anymore. Vista has been out for some time now. Plus the only driver you might need is for the video card unless you attach some funky piece of hardware, everything is included. If you build your own PC box stick with a good motherboard like Asus (my preference) or gigabyte.

Good luck!