Graphic Design Computing Needs
If you do a lot of work with Macromedia products and image-editing software like Adobe Photoshop, then you really need your development system (i.e. personal computer) to be able to cope with the workload. For example, in Photoshop, you can open and edit many images simultaneously. You might perform various actions on each of these images and if you are dealing with large JPEG’s (in the region of MB’s), then the history of those changes you are making could result in an awful lot of system memory (RAM) being used up. This most likely will slow your system considerably. Throw into the equation the processing power required to cope with using Dreamweaver or a video-editing suite of tools and then your system will really be under stress. The consequence is a sluggish and slow to respond computer which will reduce productivity and increase your frustration as you try to work.
Recently my computer could not seem to keep up with my demands. I had deleted unused data, uninstalled redundant applications and defragmented my hard disc, but still the development work I was doing was eating the system resources too quickly and slowing my work to a grinding halt. After various tweaks, I decided that an upgrade was needed - well actually I opted for a completely new system.
Here is the specification of my newly self-built computer:
- Motherboard - I chose the Gigabyte X48-DQ6
- Processor - Intel Quad Core XQ9450
- RAM - 4 GB
- Power Supply - 500Watts
- Hard Disc - 2 x 320GB SATA, arranged in a RAID0 array
- Graphics card - 512MB
- Fan - the bigger and more silent, the better
- Backup - external hard disc, 80GB in an IDE (PATA) enclosure
I installed XP 64-bit on the system partition and keep all my data on a second partition. I also have a smaller third partition to allow me to archive old data. Note that I use XP 64 for various reasons. Not only is it faster, but it also supports the large amount of RAM I have. For instance, on my system if I run XP 32-bit, the OS only sees 2.9GB RAM, yet there is 4GB RAM installed. On XP 64-bit, it can see all the RAM; this is because 32-bit systems only have an address range of 4 GB and this must be shared with other resources, such as the graphics card. Hence if you use 4GB or more, it is worthwhile getting the 64-bit OS, which can fully utilise your sizeable memory. Just make sure that your processor can cope with the 64-bit system. I use the quad core q9450 from Intel, which is a great processor and one which overclocks very well.
All in all, my system was easy to install and to get working. The improvement in my productivity is actually measurable in terms of time saved and the noticable reduction in frustration, as my computer no longer has to struggle to cope with Photoshop’s extensive RAM usage.
So, my computer upgrade was a very worthwhile exercise in improving my system and allowing me to work faster. I would recommend taking the same action if you find that the common performance tweaks you can normally use are not really helping you get the speed you need from your machine. Just remember, building a system from scratch is not as difficult as you may at first think.