Expert: Scott Valentine - 10/11/2008

Question
Hi,

I love to shoot pictures and work on them in Photoshop.The computer I am useing now just can't keep up with the amount of photos I want to work on. I use a dell dimension 3000 and want to upgrade my computer. I was wondering what would be the best computer to upgrade to for working with photoshop with a budget between 1,000$-1,500$. Hope you can help.

Answer
Hi Chris,

I can't tell you the best computer for you, but I can give you a few tips. First, your budget is very realistic, and should get you a very solid machine. If you are interested in sticking with Dell, I recommend browsing their refurbished units. You can find some amazing deals on current hardware.

With that in mind, you should consider getting as much RAM as you can afford, so find a machine that will handle at least 4G as a starting point. The video card is not quite as important, unless you are planning to get Photoshop CS4. In that case, you will need a card capable of OpenGL to take advantage of some of the new features. Otherwise, a mid-priced 2D card will be more than enough.

Also, consider getting several hard drives, and using them in a RAID 0 array (mirrored). This gives you some breathing room in that you have two drives that are identical; if one dies, you can restore from the other one. Note that this is not a replacement for a good backup strategy - it's an enhancement. Since HD prices are getting lower all the time, I suggest you take whatever comes with the machine, then find some online deals to buy more drive space. Also, you might want to get another small drive to dedicate as a scratch drive. This lets Photoshop do complex operations without moving the rest of your data around.

Photoshop takes advantage of 64-bit operations and multiple processors under Windows Vista, but it's not clear that you will get a significant boost in performance. Consider sticking with the 32-bit version of Vista or XP, though multiple processors will help.

I hope this helps you in your search! Let me know if you have any other questions.

-Scott