Design Computer

[DeeHutch]

What's everyone using out there, as far as spec's go? One of my stations is running 8 Gig's of RAM, but even that will lag quite a bit on a large wrap design. I'm asking because i'm about to have a new design station built.

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, mods please advise on that part. Thanks in advance!

 

[2B]

http://www.signburst.com/

Give Casey a call he is very knowledgeable and we have been very happy with the machine purchased from him

 

[AF]

What's everyone using out there, as far as spec's go? One of my stations is running 8 Gig's of RAM, but even that will lag quite a bit on a large wrap design. I'm asking because i'm about to have a new design station built.

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, mods please advise on that part. Thanks in advance!

Its a question of budget really. If you have unlimited funds, then go with at least 64 gigs of ram along with a host of other performance-enhancing upgrades.

 

[Snydo]

Your RAM is not likely your problem, 8 gigs is plenty...i7 processor, SSD, and a decent video card will solve your problem.

 

[visual800]

Your RAM is not likely your problem, 8 gigs is plenty...i7 processor, SSD, and a decent video card will solve your problem.

Exactly we are still running and i5 processor and have not issues, i7 has to rock! you do NOT have to spend over a grand to have a kicka$$ computer

 

[Marlene]

http://www.signburst.com/

Give Casey a call he is very knowledgeable and we have been very happy with the machine purchased from him

we bought one of Casey's computers and he is awesome. the support is amazing. I had some issues that had nothing to do with the computer, just loading fonts an such. I posted on signs101 for help and boom, there was Casey e-mailing and giving me the help I needed. it was way beyond anything expected. when I was looking into a new computer our office waned me to check into Dell too. I sent the info Dell gave me to Casey and he took the time to go over it an explain what was what. I would say that buying a computer from his would be something you'd never regret

 

[SightLine]

A few things. As a couple have already mentioned Casey from Signburst can really help you determine what will best fit your needs. Things will largely be dictated by your budget. I'm of the thought of future proofing as much as possible which does also equate to spending more now to be sure the system will be up to the task for as long as possible. I'm also all about business/commercial class over consumer class components. Consumer and enthusiast class hardware is more geared towards lower budgets/gaming/less frequent use at the possible expense of stability and long term reliability. There have been numerous threads on this in the past though so rehashing it all again is not something I'm going to do other than a few key points. Multiple processing cores - most important for multitasking and applications that can actually take advantage of it like many of Photoshop's functions and filters. High end video card - sure if you are using the core of your business for playing games then that will be important. You are likely designing mostly 2D although one important thing is that current versions of Photoshop (above CS4 I think) can and will take advantage of a decent video card for some things which can really help Photoshop run a lot smoother and process certain filters and functions much faster. Ram, cmon', its not terribly expensive - the more the merrier. 8Gb is really coming to be the minimum anymore (assuming you are planning on a 64 bit operating system and applications where possible otherwise anything more than 4gb is pointless). Photoshop has been 64 bit for quite a long time, Illustrator as of CS6 as well. 8GB might seem like a lot but load up a 1GB file in Photoshop and make just a few changes (each change has an undo state that will gobble up your RAM very fast) and you have already used all ram and are having to swap data to disk. An SSD is a near absolute must and yes that will make the Photoshop swap file a ton faster but an SSD is still nowhere remotely as fast as RAM is and the more you can have your working data in RAM the faster things will be. 8GB is standard on many consumer class desktops now with business class Professional Workstations having capabilities of 32Gb all the way up to 512GB and more of RAM now. Again, an SSD is nearly an essential must nowadays. A good 250GB SSD can now be has for well under $150. Make that your boot/programs/swap drive and get a nice big regular hard drive for bulk data storage. Even better is get a second smaller 80 to 128 GB SSD dedicated as your "swap" drive then the big mechanical drive for bulk data.

Regardless - get a business class system from Signburst, Dell, HP. Professional Workstations and business class systems often sacrifice a tiny (truly negligible) bit of performance for bullet proof day to day reliability. Business class systems generally are also not pre-loaded with bloat-ware useless extra software.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Ram, cmon', its not terribly expensive - the more the merrier. 8Gb is really coming to be the minimum anymore (assuming you are planning on a 64 bit operating system and applications where possible otherwise anything more than 4gb is pointless). Photoshop has been 64 bit for quite a long time, Illustrator as of CS6 as well. 8GB might seem like a lot but load up a 1GB file in Photoshop and make just a few changes (each change has an undo state that will gobble up your RAM very fast) and you have already used all ram and are having to swap data to disk.

I'm surprised no one really mentions ECC memory versus non ECC memory (and the other components that can support that type of memory as well). That will also affect your budget as well depending on which way you go with that. I would assume that since people are talking about "loading up with RAM" that it's non-ECC (depending on how you shop for prices as well though).


SSDs really should be what is used now, however, bare in mind that you only have a limited number of writes as a determination of the lifespan of the hard drive and typically when you have an SSD failure it's harder to retrieve your info compared to a regular mechanical drive. I would also make sure that you have a good and scheduled back up of that hard drive as well. The number of writes is going up and it does take quite a bit of time to get to some of those limits depending on your use, but many a time that I've been able to save info from a mechanical drive, but had no such luck with an ssd. Just something to also think about.

 

[MatthewTimothy]

I think before going out and buying a new computer a few questions should be answered:

• When was the last time you blew the cache?
• Are you running 32bit or 64 bit?
• Have you upgraded to an SSD?
• Are you multi-tasking?
• Are your updates actually up to date?
• Did this start happening after an update?
• If you are using Photoshop have you looked into adjusting the RAM tolerance?
• Are you on a quad core, dual core, 12 core?
• Have you ever used a tool like CCleaner?

I switched to Mac from PC over a year ago and love it and I run quad core on 16gb with a 480 SSD and I have no lag on mutli-tasking or handling large files.

Before going out and spending a few hundred dollars I would look into your network and maybe adjust. If you're running everything on one hard drive that might be an issue. Have you considered a NAS or separate system that stores client files and a design system that runs the applications? If you are running Adobe's full suite of software you will need to look into no less than a 200ish gb SSD. If you are planning on storing client files I would look into around 480ish SSDs. You should also ask yourself if I lost all my design files today will I be able to get them back? If the answer is no you might want to look into a RAID1 (data is mirrored over two drives) If you want one large drive and have three drives look into a RAID5. If you want true backups look into RAID10. If you want to build your own NAS there are opensource software out there such as freeNAS but it will take some learning but you can effectively create a ZFS for all your files.

 

[nikdoobs]

I switched to Mac from PC

Why would you do that?

 

[MatthewTimothy]

I do more development then design these days. I can automate all my repetitive tasks unlike I could on my windows and I use BBedit since all the classes are open to script against. Plus when I need to do designs I can automate it better with Yosemite's Script Editor since they added JavaScript and ObjectiveC. Also, I find it easier to develop InDesign and Photoshop scripts on my mac than I could on my PC. Its easier to virtualize so even though I'm on a mac I can run all my tasks through Parallels so why not? All my dedicated Windows programs work on the mac now. If I didnt have my multi-desktop I think I would go nuts, too...

 

[AF]

Something like this for your design workstation but go with 64gigs of ram ( 4 x 8gb) so you can add more later. Add a second SSD for working documents and have it setup with a ramdisk for PS scratch. You won't need ECC memory for a design workstation for photoshop / corel / illustrator. This system can also run VM's natively in hardware for that oddball linux / xp application you just have to use.

 

[AF]

I do more development then design these days. I can automate all my repetitive tasks unlike I could on my windows and I use BBedit since all the classes are open to script against. Plus when I need to do designs I can automate it better with Yosemite's Script Editor since they added JavaScript. Also, I find it easier to develop InDesign and Photoshop scripts on my mac than I could on my PC. Its easier to virtualize so even though I'm on a mac I can run all my tasks through Parallels so why not? All my dedicated Windows programs work on the mac now. If I didnt have my multi-desktop I think I would go nuts, too...

I run both systems, I see no advantage to locking in to one system versus the other. Both have their merits, and in the end software dictates what system you have to use.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

I met Kasey at SGIA. Just from talking to him, I know the next computer we buy will be from him.

 

[petepaz]

we have two of these (and 4 pc's that we run our printers/rips with)
[h=3]iMac 27-inch: 3.4GHz

Specifications[/h]

• 3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i5
• Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz
• 8GB (two 4GB) memory
• 1TB hard drive[SUP]1[/SUP]
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M with 2GB video memory

 

[WildWestDesigns]

You won't need ECC memory for a design workstation for photoshop / corel / illustrator.

I'm thinking of stability predominately (as well as longevity). Is it necessary? No. But I'm also of the mind, better to have it and not need it, then need it and not have it.

This system can also run VM's natively in hardware for that oddball linux / xp application you just have to use.

My next build will be doing this, but for Win 7. Keep current on everything else. I like Win 8 on my Cintiq tablet, don't know how well I would like it as a desktop, but maybe when I do my next build, they will have the next OS will be more suited then how Win 8 is right now for a desktop application.

 

[AF]

Something like this for your design workstation but go with 64gigs of ram ( 4 x 8gb) so you can add more later. Add a second SSD for working documents and have it setup with a ramdisk for PS scratch. You won't need ECC memory for a design workstation for photoshop / corel / illustrator. This system can also run VM's natively in hardware for that oddball linux / xp application you just have to use.

I meant 32 gigs of ram as good starting point.

 

[jdmage_mx5]

I run a 13" macbook pro with i7, 16gb of ram, ssd for OS and programs, 1tb secondary hard drive for short term storage (ditch cd drive for secondary hdd). Docked to a hengedock when working in the office. While this may not be outrageous monster power I promise you it can handle any vehicle wrap you want to throw at it.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

Although I don't really know much about the technical ins and outs of computers these days, the computer I run is a Intel Core I7 3770K @ 3.5 GHz. It has 32 GB of ram and runs on Windows 7 64 bit OS, Service pack 1. Our OS and crucial software run from a Solid State hard drive. I don't remember for the life of me how many GB that drive is, though. It also has a 1 TB mechanical hard drive for file storage, and a 1 TB external hard drive that I back my files up on. We've got an Nvidia G Force GTX 650 graphics card with multiple monitor support, but currently we only run one 23" Samsung monitor on it. I've also got a Logitech G500s gaming mouse that I freakin' love.

We had this system built locally last year and it's been in service for about a year and a half now. It still runs as fast as the day we bought it. There's hardly ever any lag whatsoever and it's a very efficient system.

 

[gnatt66]

I had one built locally ( cant tell everyone to support local business and then order your own stuff online!)

AMD A10 8600k 4.1 quad
16 gigs of crucial gaming ram.
WD black edition 1tb hard drive
goofy gamer case with red light.
windows 7777777 cause 8 is the devil.


$750 out the door.

its not an SSD i7 whiz bang special but it SMOKES anything ive ever had. reboots super quick and opens photoshop cc/flexi cc in a flash compared to my last one.