Adobe Photoshop and CS

[ukcatfan]

and they have an acer( had an acer scanner once that was a pain) that is cheap but don't know how that would be rated plus it is athlon 2 core rather than intel processor

The AMD ones are just fine. Some of them have ranked better than Intel and are usually cheaper.

On another note though...

Stay far far away from Acer!!! Their customer service is downright awful. We bought a laptop from them late last year. The first one died within 24 hours. Complete hard drive failure. CC replaced it with no problem. The second one had the pin in the power cord socket break off about three weeks later. We were out of CC's coverage (which is only 14 days, so also watch out for them) so we had to deal with Acer directly. It took them two weeks to respond to my e-mail and I tried calling a number of times, but I never could last out the wait times.

When I finally got it to them, they wanted to charge me $400 to fix it. We had put a small crack in the case. By small, I mean really small. It had absolutely nothing to do with the problem we sent it in for, but they forced us to pay to have that fixed or they would not do the warranty work. They said that every unit must go out at 100% factory status. I threw fits with them and eventually got it down to $200 after talking to the customer service vice president's office, which I was still forced to pay. They even threatened that if I did not pay for the fix, then they would void my entire warranty.

I have had Gateway, Dell, and E-machines before and all of them were much better than Acer.

Kevin

 

[fuse04]

Whilst certainly no expert I have recently been doing some reserach in this area myself. From what I have read, dual core cpu are ideal for multi tasking but as posted earlier, Vista loves RAM....you will need at least 1Gb to run Vista without risking any problems and preferably 2Gb+ for larger applications.

Currently being a AMD man, and now looking at entering the digital world for video and image editing, running Adobe is a problem on my existing system. This is because their products only support SSE2 compatible cpu's. The Althon 64 should be fine.

Gateway is not big over here, Dell is well known but tend not to be cheap. Those looking for getting more bang for your bucks, tend to deal direct with internet companies such as MESH, EVESHAM and PCNEXTDAY. They tend to have smaller overheads and have to produce good products at a low price otherwise they will not survive. The larger retailers could sale average to poor machines all day long because of the physical presence of their retail outlets, combined with lack of knowledge of most consumers.

hope this helps in some way

Rob

 

[jann1033]

ntel® Pentium® 4 or Intel Celeron® (or compatible) 1.3GHz processor (dual-core processors and those with Hyper-Threading Technology supported)

this is a requirement for pse5 from their site...would both work or do i need to stay with the intel core 2?( which is on the cheaper machine anyway)

 

[RitchG]

Well, nearly any new computer (Intel or AMD) will surpass those "requirements". The tradeoff is usually how patient you are and what your time is worth. Since I make money with my computer and time is money, I can justify a speedy, slightly more expensive system (or, as DW would say, "rationalize" overspending).

Also keep in mind that how the whole system works together will probably erase any slight difference between processors; Intel and AMD keep one-upping each other. At the same price level, an AMD 64 processor might beat a Pentium 4, but at another price level the Core 2 would beat the AMD x64 (if you're really interested, get a mug of double-expresso and go to ExtremeTech (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2014655,00.asp) or Tom's (http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/08/21/cpu_charts_summer_2006/) to get an idea of how these processors are tested and what the latest comparisons reveal; but keep mind the processor world updates every six months or so).

More RAM is almost always a better use of money than a processor upgrade. Moving to a faster hard drive might make more difference as you load/save/close image files (my latest system has a RAID setup that really helps with this, but added more $$ to the price).

I'd guess that _anything_ would be faster than what you have now if it's older than a year or so. And PSE5 looks like it could use the dual cores (more "threads") effectively, so that might be worthwhile.

At least, a new computer will _seem_ fast for a couple months. Then you'll start feeling slowed down again.....
---Ritch

 

[Groucho]

I got a free copy of Vista Ultimate (I was a beta tester and reported a bug) and a few days ago, decided to give it a run on my main PC. Athlon X2 4200+, 1.5 gigs DDR400, Radeon 1900GT, Audigy, 3x160g drives.

48 hours later, I was back to running XP.................

Part of the "problem" was that I put on the 64-bit version of Vista. There are still many missing drivers. A big one was my basic Adaptec SCSI card, which attached to my scanner. No Vista 64-bit drivers available. I also found that there are basically no third-party encryption tools (like Truecrypt, Drivecrypt, etc) that work in Vista 64-bit. I got a bluescreen on the first night I installed it, and had some other oddball problems. Several related to the User Access Control, which is a decent idea but it'll be a long time before it works smoothly; at this point, it's hair-tearingly annoying and even when it's off, some apps still need you to right-click the installer and "run as administrator".

Ultimately, I decided that it wasn't worth it. To be fair, the Aero interface is very slick, and while this sounds like a little thing, they FINALLY have a decent dialog box for when you try to copy a new file on top of an older one - minor, but the sort of thing that happens a lot if you do lots of file management.

So, the first question is, are you sure that you need Vista? Or are you just getting a new PC so you figure that you might as well?

If you're getting a new PC anyway, might as well go for Vista. Theoretically it should be built with all Vista-compliant hardware drivers.

I'm an AMD fan but the Core 2 Duo is supposed to be nice - the first Intel processor actually worth considering in quite a few years. I'd still tend to go AMD myself but I wouldn't put too much weight into that component at this point.

I can't stand Dell so I'd avoid them. Customer service is not good and the machines are built to hit a low price target first and foremost.

As for memory... 512 megs is getting pretty minimal for XP, much less Vista. I'd recommend a minimum of 1g for anyone building/buying a new PC, unless you're REALLY trying to cut corners - but memory is really where the speed of the PC comes from nowadays. 2g should be overkill if anything, unless you're working with really, really, really huge photos and like to run a ton of apps at the same time.

What kind of processor do you have? You can probably gain a ton of performance by adding 1g to your existing PC, and adding a hard drive is not a big deal, either. (Also, the speed of your PC has nothing to do with how much free disk space you have, unless you're so low that the swap file doesn't have enough room, at which point you're more likely to get actual errors than just slow-downs.)

 

[jann1033]

on the system we have,it would cost us $600+ to just get to 1 gb of ram.the kind we have is really old, don't remember the name but really expensive and i guess not so easy to come by..the guy called it ancient and bil( teaches computer college level courses) agrees, when i talked to him he said that's why he didn't add more when he put in xp and the hard drive for us ( crashed last summer), and we don't have enough room to get to 2 gb. we were planning on getting a flat screen moniter anyway so we can practically buy a whole new system for what we would pay for those things

personally i don't really want vista as i figure anything new is going to have problems but haven't found a system yet without it. i really could use an upgrade on most of our software(ie Works etc, since we have stuff from 2000 when we got this computer and some of it wouldn't even work with xp) which i liked as the gateway had pretty much what we use for hub's business and dell it looks like it's just trial versions of most of it. i liked dell when we got this one but their customer service is really awful now.

 

[safetymom]

I bought a laptop with Vista several weeks ago. It has the dual core Intel processor. It has 1 gig of ram. I haven't had any problems with it. Vista worked fine with it. Eventually I would like to get more ram but for now it works great.

 

[fuse04]

I am still looking and researching but am likely to hold fire for a few months until Vista has settled down and the graphics cards and PC games have caught up with the Directx 10.

Like Groucho, I have been a AMD fan in recent years but from what I read Intel have a big edge at the moment with thier dual core processors and are doing serious work on quad core.

Jann1033 I agree with you in that it sounds like you would be better investing in a new system. Here in the UK it is still reasonable easy to get systems with either XP or Vista.

Good luck

 

[DVC Jen]

DH upgraded my PC to 2 gigs right after he gave me photoshop elements 5 for Christmas. I am not the most patient person well - truth be told - he got tired of the "impatient words" coming from this part of the house.

 

[Anewman]

I am currently testing Vista(Ultimate x64) with 1gb of ram, have had a few driver issues. And I have not been able to get GBPVR running, so I have been using media center for now.

I have not installed Photoshop yet, but Lightroom seems pretty crisp.

 

[Groucho]

on the system we have,it would cost us $600+ to just get to 1 gb of ram.the kind we have is really old, don't remember the name but really expensive and i guess not so easy to come by..the guy called it ancient and bil( teaches computer college level courses) agrees, when i talked to him he said that's why he didn't add more when he put in xp and the hard drive for us ( crashed last summer), and we don't have enough room to get to 2 gb. we were planning on getting a flat screen moniter anyway so we can practically buy a whole new system for what we would pay for those things

Hey Jann, your PC probably uses SDRAM memory, PC133 most likely. It may be more expensive than the "usual" DDR memory that's pretty standard today but no way would it cost $600. I've done many PC upgrades where you keep most of the same components and just toss in a new motherboard, CPU, and more modern memory - usually total parts cost is $150-200 depending on what level of equipment you upgrade to. (These are usually cases of motherboard failure - unfortunately, I had a lot of nForce 2 motherboards fail in PCs I built, especially Epox ones.) But if you don't have a "go to" guy you trust and aren't comfortable building/upgrading the PC yourself, you are probably best off doing a full new PC.

For LCD monitors, keep an eye on those buy.com sales... I know someone who picked up a decent 19" LCD from them a couple months ago for a whopping $110. Can't beat that!

 

[tinksdad]

You can never have enough money OR RAM!!! Get as much as you can afford and a little bit more!!

I just upgraded machines last Nov. and went from 256MB to 4G!! It makes a HUGE difference running PhotoShop. I'm sticking with XP for awhile........

 

[chipmunkfan]

I just installed photoshop elements 5 and noticed it is taking forever to open the edit function. I have 512MB DDR2 SDRAM so like others had suggested probably should start by upgrading the RAM

 

[jann1033]

Hey Jann, your PC probably uses SDRAM memory, PC133 most likely. It may be more expensive than the "usual" DDR memory that's pretty standard today but no way would it cost $600. I've done many PC upgrades where you keep most of the same components and just toss in a new motherboard, CPU, and more modern memory - usually total parts cost is $150-200 depending on what level of equipment you upgrade to. (These are usually cases of motherboard failure - unfortunately, I had a lot of nForce 2 motherboards fail in PCs I built, especially Epox ones.) But if you don't have a "go to" guy you trust and aren't comfortable building/upgrading the PC yourself, you are probably best off doing a full new PC.

For LCD monitors, keep an eye on those buy.com sales... I know someone who picked up a decent 19" LCD from them a couple months ago for a whopping $110. Can't beat that!

hehehe rechecked with the hub and yeah you are right husband was saying $600 for everything he'd want to do not just the memory... guess that air between my ears is leaking out again..however now he is hooked on getting a new system so the die is cast

 

[Groucho]

I just installed photoshop elements 5 and noticed it is taking forever to open the edit function. I have 512MB DDR2 SDRAM so like others had suggested probably should start by upgrading the RAM

If your computer is churning away at the hard drive (check the busy light, or just listen closely) when it's "hanging", that's a sign that more memory will help.

1g is a nice spot for most users. Dimishing returns will definitely set in soon after that. 256 megs to 512 is a big jump, 512 to 1g is a smaller jump, 1g to 1.5g is smaller yet, 1.5g to 2g is very small... of course, that depends on your OS setup and the amount of junk that's running in the background. A bunch of spyware and/or background services will chew up memory and you'll find the whole system slowing down...

 

[jann1033]

If your computer is churning away at the hard drive (check the busy light, or just listen closely) when it's "hanging", that's a sign that more memory will help.

1g is a nice spot for most users. Dimishing returns will definitely set in soon after that. 256 megs to 512 is a big jump, 512 to 1g is a smaller jump, 1g to 1.5g is smaller yet, 1.5g to 2g is very small... of course, that depends on your OS setup and the amount of junk that's running in the background. A bunch of spyware and/or background services will chew up memory and you'll find the whole system slowing down...

i think this is a part of my problem but can't figure out how to get rid of the stuff ...i've done searches and don't see how to do it with xp...anyone able to tell me how i get the background extras to not start up automatically?,,,,,and since we have 5 user profiles, does that mean they start up 5 times? once it said i had 130 programs running in the background...there has to be a way to turn that junk off...i know you could in windows 2000, there was a list and you just unchecked the boxes you didn't want to start but here i can't find it( i thought for 2000 you typed misconfig or something into run but wrong again, husband thought you hit f2 on start up but that didn't work either) the only thing i could find in microsoft search wasn't the right thing cause the box that came up was empty(?)
...and you wonder why i don't' want to put more memory in myself

groucho...i see a new remote/bomb detonator container for you in bobq's sensor cleaning thread... looks very durable

thanks

 

[Anewman]

i think this is a part of my problem but can't figure out how to get rid of the stuff ...i've done searches and don't see how to do it with xp...anyone able to tell me how i get the background extras to not start up automatically?,,,,,and since we have 5 user profiles, does that mean they start up 5 times? once it said i had 130 programs running in the background...there has to be a way to turn that junk off...i know you could in windows 2000, there was a list and you just unchecked the boxes you didn't want to start but here i can't find it( i thought for 2000 you typed misconfig or something into run but wrong again, husband thought you hit f2 on start up but that didn't work either) the only thing i could find in microsoft search wasn't the right thing cause the box that came up was empty(?)
...and you wonder why i don't' want to put more memory in myself

groucho...i see a new remote/bomb detonator container for you in bobq's sensor cleaning thread... looks very durable

thanks

Many ways.

1. Many programs give you the options during install, it helps to choose custom install(instead of auto/typical). It will say something like start program when windows starts.

2. You can goto the preferences(options) of the individual application, and turn off the tray icon. Like quiktime/messenger/aim/etc...

3. Sometimes right clicking on the icon in the tray will give you a disable option.

4. Uninstall any unused Programs

5. MSCONFIG still works, just go to the startup tab and deselect the apps you dont want to start. Use caution.

6. Start menu/right click on my computer/Manage/services and applications/services= you being able to turn off various services(like error reporting) to save resources. This should only be done by persons that know which services are not needed, do not try this at home. There are websites that tell you which are safe to turn off.

 

[MOmousefan]

I went to the Microsoft website and ran the free diagnostic that will determine if my PC is Vista-ready. I have a Dell with a 3.4GHz processor and 1 GByte of RAM. The test indicated that I was Vista-ready, just needed to update some drivers.
I purchased a laptop for my wife on Valentine's Day and it has a 1.6GHz dual-core processor with 1 GByte of RAM and it seems to run fine. BTW, Microsoft does reccomend 2GBytes of RAM, and a dual-core processor certainly would help.
I also think any PC that runs Vista should Photoshop.

 

[Groucho]

Unfortunately, doing a "full" cleanup on a PC is something that I can't recommend for those not very comfortable in maintaining their own PCs. This involves check the registry, knowing what to look for, knowing what is and isn't safe to remove, and knowing how to check on the stuff you're not sure of.

The "safe" stuff is...
First, head to Add/Remove Programs and get rid of anything you don't use. Most "big name" PCs come with tons of "shovelware" - trial versions of junk, usually. Get rid of it! Also get rid of any toolbars, "surfing assistants", etc that you can find - except for the reliable ones, like the Google or Yahoo toolbars if you use them.

Next, go to Start, All Programs, and peek in the Startup folder. There's usually a few things there that are safe to remove. "Acrobat Reader Speed Launch" is an obvious one - all it does is make Acrobat Reader run all the time in the background - sure, it'll make it start up faster, but everything else slower! Kill it!

If you use Internet Explorer, you probably have spyware. Download Ad-Aware or SpyBot and run full scans and get rid of anything they find. Run it again after rebooting - some spyware is too invasive to come off easily. If something keep re-appearing, put its name and "remove" into a Google search and look for manual removal instructions (usually involving Safe Mode.)

You may also want to run Spyware Blaster (www.javacoolsoftware.com) which will inoculate you somewhat against known spyware.

I also highly, highly, highly recommend using Firefox and Thunderbird for web and mail, instead of Internet Explorer and Outlook Express - not only do they offer more features, but they will give you a much safer browsing/mail environment. Install the Adblock Plus add-on for Firefox and no more web ads, too!

These steps will get rid of a lot of the stuff. You can also keep an eye on the System Tray (next to the clock) and see what icons are there - try to cut back. Some will stop running when disable the tray icon, some won't. Quicktime is one that still runs even if you disable the tray icon - you need to go to the registry to disable it properly.

 

[DVC Jen]

I know some of you have whitened up slightly yellow teeth before using photo shop. How did you do that? Can it be done on teeth that after nearly four freaking years (not that I have issues with the orthodontist not being able to get it done in 2 like he said ) still have braces on them?