Necessary thing to look for when buying a computer to be used for DISigning

[Iloveeliot]

Hello all DISigners! Last week my extremely old computer quit on me. I have fallen in love with so many designs I have seen here that I an thinking I might like to be a DISigner when I learn how use the necessary programs. I was hoping some of you can give me an idea of what to look for in a computer, or preferably a laptop, as well as what programs I will need. I want to do this as affordably as possible and I'll probably have to wait until I return from Disney so I can get some money together. Disney has kind of drained us financially. Thank you all for your suggestions in advance. If things can't be mentioned by brand name feel free to PM me. Have a great summer!

 

[modegard]

I am a progarmmer by profession, not a DISigner, but I do create my own DISigns for my family. I have a laptop with a very large screen, which helps when designing things and working on photos. I use Photoshop Elements 9 which cost me $80 at Costco, and am learning to do name fills right now. It is amazingly easy so far! I also have been using Ulead photo software for about 10 years for other things. It is also very good. The most important thing when buying a laptop is hard disc space (photos and graphics take a lot of space) and having a large screen to work on. I work on a HP laptop with the biggest screen you can get. Makes it heavy to carry around if I take it on vacation, but it is awesome for sitting on the couch and playing.

 

[RustManFan]

Photoshop Elements is a fantastic program for DISigning. Also be sure you get plenty of RAM and hard disk storage capacity since the images can be large if done in sufficient resolution.

 

[jordak]

Hello all DISigners! Last week my extremely old computer quit on me. I have fallen in love with so many designs I have seen here that I an thinking I might like to be a DISigner when I learn how use the necessary programs. I was hoping some of you can give me an idea of what to look for in a computer, or preferably a laptop, as well as what programs I will need. I want to do this as affordably as possible and I'll probably have to wait until I return from Disney so I can get some money together. Disney has kind of drained us financially. Thank you all for your suggestions in advance. If things can't be mentioned by brand name feel free to PM me. Have a great summer!

Lots of RAM, a fairly fast CPU and you want a pretty good graphics card as well. Graphics can be a real drain on all of these but it also depends on what you plan on doing. Really don't need a lot if you are doing some simple designs but if you start working in a high resolution, advanced graphics you will definitely want the extra power. Also, like modegard stated, hard drive space is a must too. I have three internal drives and one is just dedicated to Photoshop and Video. Then I also use a few external drives as backup and for storage. So I would get a external drive as well since you want a laptop. Sounds like a lot, but I think you can get all that in a laptop fairly inexpensive.

Oh yeah, I use Photoshop CS5, but I would go with Elements to get your feet wet to see if you like it, then you can always move up to Photoshop later.

 

[jtanddolly]

I highly suggest getting an external harddrive with lots of memory so that you can use it for all of your design work and not the space on your new computer. Also, if your computer crashes you will have all of your work saved on the hard drive so you won't have to worry about loosing it.

I also use photoshop elements and love it.

 

[RustManFan]

I think many new laptops will come with PSE....my newest one did!