Mac people - some pointers please!

[Darren S]

Right chaps,

I've been given the green light to get a replacement desk-based Mac for one of our designers. I could spend hours tweaking the pros & cons of PC hardware, but I know next to nothing in terms of Mac stuff!

Basically, the guy who uses the out-going Mac spends 99% of his time in Photoshop and InDesign. What would you guys recommend as being key criteria in the Mac to get the most out of it? Loads of HDD space is obvious, but do they do different specs of Mac motherboards? Do some have more features and functions that others?

It's just the Mac itself that will be bought - he's already got a top-notch screen.

Cheers people!

D.

 

[Longy]

well depends on your budget tbh - as a designer I always want the best we can afford - the faster the better for productivity.

8 core xenons are pretty dam fast - but get as much Ram as you can min 2gig.

 

[Darren S]

I did say to the MD that we'd be 'starting at £2k' which probably only gets your foot in the door of Mac buying. Or maybe a mouse....

D.

 

[Longy]

I did say to the MD that we'd be 'starting at £2k' which probably only gets your foot in the door of Mac buying. Or maybe a mouse....

D.

haha - you should get a decent system for 2k m8 think they start at £1600 and they aint slow.

 

[Nafoff]

longy - where do you work chap, i am just graduating from a design degree now

 

[furry_cup]

take a look, you build a spec on the apple website www.apple.com/uk

you can get a very nice system for 2k.

 

[Longy]

longy - where do you work chap, i am just graduating from a design degree now

I work for a printers in Newquay m8 designer/pre-press.

 

[Rich]

I have just recently gone for 3 of the middle range Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Mac Pros, with 2 gig of Ram in each with the Apple 30 Inch on each in our studio - they where a little sleepy run ning CS2 but now are running lovely with CS3 taking advantage of the inte chipsl. Still not parted with my own money for one for home yet though!

 

[RichRSi]

2k will get a superb specd machine, especially as he already has a decent screen.

I wish I had 2k to spend on a new mac and software, I'd love to upgrade my mac for a bit more speed, my G4 is nearly 5 years old but still works great, I can honestly say they are superbly built and last well. The operating system is also fantastic, everything works very slick.

 

[Darren S]

Cheers guys!

Is the dual quad core overkill then? I'd been looking at the dual core/dual CPU spec with 4GB of memory? Rich - same as you m8 - the 2.66Ghz versions. I don't think upping the speed to 3.06Ghz would make that much difference? Certainly for the hike in the price, anyway?

Would the graphics card spec make much of a difference to either PS or InDesign? I'm not pushing for a Quadro card, but maybe the X1900 512MB card?

D.

 

[Rich]

Could not get them to spend out on the top level machines so don't know how much of a speed jump there will be.

Standard NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT card is fine for the Creative Suite and 2D stuff and will run the a Apple 30 inch and 21 inch at the same time. Unless your doing 3D or motion stuff or want to run mutiple 30 inch displays go for a better card.