Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 1/19/2008

Question
QUESTION: which Adobe Illustrator version will be better for old Intel Celeron PC (2,6GHz, 512MB RAM): version 9, 10, 11, 12, 13? Better means not latest version with plenty of additional features, better means vers. which use less system resources, which stable, fast loading. I mainly need for logo designing -for web usage. I can get any versiom, it does not matter.

ANSWER: Illustrator 10 is your best bet. Im not even sure that your computer can handle anything higher with such little RAM.

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QUESTION: And which Illustrator version will suitable for old Intel P-III 866MHz, 512MB RAM, HDD 20MB?

THANK YOU.

ANSWER: I would go for the lowest version I can get which would be 9. I do not even have the technical specs of what the minimum requirements are for something that old. I would be hesitant to load it up without finding this out.

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QUESTION: I find the system requirements. Lowest version is v.8.

Adobe Illustrator 9.0

Pentium or faster processor
Windows 98, 2000, or NT 4.0
64 MB RAM
105 MB hard drive space
CD-ROM drive
Video card that supports 800 x 600 or greater monitor resolution
Adobe PostScript Level 2 or later (if using PostScript printer)


Adobe Illustrator 8.0

Power PC processor
System 7.5 or later (Mac OS8 recommended)
32 MB RAM, with 20 MB available for Adobe Illustrator (64 MB recommended)
50 MB hard disk space (95 MB recommended)
CD-ROM drive
800 x 600 monitor resolution

Vers.9 use much more resources (CPU) and workd slowly. There is many new features in v9. I would like to know which version is better when the purpose it to create logos, for further exporting logo into Macromedia Flash, for saving logo as EPS for further editing in Photoshop7, for creating vector graphic to print on CDROM.
Or better consider CorelDraw?

Thank you.

Answer
Hi Alex,

Unfortunately, the requirements you gave for Version 8 is for Mac, not PC. Which if that is the case, you are out of luck with 8.

Your P-III is from 2000 and definitely slower. You will have lagging no matter how far back you go and as you mentioned, the lower you go, the more limited you are. It is only running in Mhz, not even Ghz.   

One thing to keep in mind is 8 is very VERY old (almost 10 years) and may not be compatible with newer software, including Flash depending how new this is.

Corel Draw is definitely a no-no if you are using Flash. It can have issues with compatibility. There is no difference between 8 and 9 for creation, except for the new features that you have found. Both have the pen tool and allow you to manipulate text. Its just a matter of how patient you can be while waiting for the new features to run on a slower computer.

I run into this kind of question a lot and my answer is always the same in the end. Its time to invest in newer equipment and software.

Thanks!

Kevin