Computer Specs

[Felicity Moore]

Hello

I'm a forum newbie and to say hi and I'm just begining to develop my matte painting and concept art work having previously concentrated on illustration.

I would be glad to get some advice on computer specs please as my computer is below par and a bit old now. I'd like to upgrade and it seems the right time to get the best I can afford now.

Currently I have a PC from evesham.com
1.67 Ghz
768 RAM
Windows XP Home (don't laugh at me :oops: )
AMD Athlon XP 2000+

I mainly use Photoshop 7 now and want to consider the possibility of using Maya. I intend to get Photoshop CS3 extd. shortly.

Any advice would be very helpful. I'm planning to move later this year and thought to get a laptop initally as I'll be moving round quite a bit. Once I'm settled I'll probably get a desktop PC.
Is it dumb to think I can run Photoshop CS3 and Maya on a laptop?

I'm not against getting an Apple Mac by the way, but I can't get any sense out of anyone - all I'm getting is the pro-mac/anti-pc stuff which is fine, but doesn't really help me! I'm interested in what platform will work best with the applications I want to use. Whether it's a mac or a pc wont help me be a better painter!

:)

[Xdreamer79]

How much is your budget?

For painting I would highly recommend an AMD X2 or a Core2 Duo from Intel processor. As far for the memory go with at least 1GB but better spend money for 2GB.
As long as you arent a gamer you can go with a low range or mid sector graphic card but as I read you want to do some 3D stuff so go with a middle budget card or look for the 8800gts - even you don't want to install vista right yet.

Definatly go with windows xp pro instead of home or go with vista as long as you don't have that much peripherial devices (watch first for vista drivers on the manufactor's page).

Hope this helps you out a bit. Cheers

[Alex Jenyon]

You're never going to get anything other than the partisan fanboy-type arguments when it comes to computer platform arguments, unfortunately.

Like a mac: Buy a mac
Like a PC: Buy a PC

As you say, it doesn't matter - both are good, both run all the applications you want, and both would suit you fine. And neither will make you a better artist...

Unless you're doing any really heavy simulation work or high-end rendering (both fairly doubtful, if you want to be a matte painter), a modern high end laptop (of any make) will run Maya and CS3 fine. I say high end, because you'll have to part with a fair amount of cash to make sure it comes with a decent graphics card and a decent bit of RAM, but the apps will run great.

Just to put computer specs in perspective, though - I just did some matte paintings for a big feature film perfectly fine on a Powerbook G4 1.67Ghz with 1GB RAM. Power is nice, but it isn't essential, especially if you're learning (and hence not under deadline).

[Felicity Moore]

Thank you both :D

I've got about £1500 which would really sort me out the perfect desktop pc no problem but of course laptops are more expensive - I did find one Toshiba laptop that was perfect (£1200) but only shipped with vista or windows media centre, although I guess I could always buy xp pro seperately and not install the shipped option.
(A lot of the laptops here seem to have vista pre-installed, I don't see why I should have to pay for something I don't want! But co' like Dell are offering the option of OS now which is good).

Anyway, you've answered my question nicely thank you - I know my way round a pc and have little/no experience of macs so I guess I'll stay with 'the devlil I know...' :twisted:

[lightwell]

Is it dumb to think I can run Photoshop CS3 and Maya on a laptop?

No, I bought a Sony Vaio with 2GB ram and a Duo Core proceesor just after christmas as I am finding that I need to do work on site now and I happily use it for Photoshop and 3DS Max with Brazil or Vray. I was a bit more than £1500 but not much more.

Your best bet will probably be a desk top or small workstation though. Buy the fastest processor and the most RAM you can afford (at least 2GB). You also want to get a decent monitor. The widescreen apple monitors are okay and will work on a PC but I also read somewhere that they use the same components as Dell widescreens.

Happy shopping

JM

[rockhoppermedia]

Dell built a custom laptop for me, It was based on the XPS games machine it has 2GB ram and really fast processor. I had asked for a NVIDIA Geforce graphics card and they put the fastest in. I only notice lag on the filters if it is a massive 500 mb file. I paid alot for it but if you look around you will pick up a decent workstation for around 1500 GBP. Just be wary of places like PC world you know the supermarket type of store. The machines are designed to fail at the 3 year mark. It is worth looking at companies that deal with graphic designers/fx industry/cad they will be more reliable and they can build to your spec. I would rather have a professional looking after me than a spotty yoof. Dell are pretty good but you must remember they will try t sell you more than the base model.

Good luck i hope everything goes well for you

Rich

[Felicity Moore]

Just be wary of places like PC world you know the supermarket type of store.

For sure! Plus they don't listen when you say you want something specific they just try and sell you what the day's main deal is! I had some guy trying to force me to buy the LARGEST Wacom tablet when my budget would only stretch to an A5 size (ok it's small but it's part of my arm now - I tried someone's huge one the other day and I couldn't use it :oops: )

:wink:

[joe mp]

If you're looking to go the PC route, and want something high end, I would buy everything separately, and have a mom and pop type computer place build it. Try buying your parts online. I like newegg.com, good deals. In the end it may take longer, but you can find good deals and build a great machine for much cheaper than one of Dell's top of the line machines or a mac or a laptop etc.

[rrische]

Just to put computer specs in perspective, though - I just did some matte paintings for a big feature film perfectly fine on a Powerbook G4 1.67Ghz with 1GB RAM. Power is nice, but it isn't essential, especially if you're learning (and hence not under deadline).

I also was very happy to finish a huge matte painting (6k in 16 bit) for
"Live Free or Die Hard" ("Die Hard 4.0" for those outside the US) totally
on my PowerBook g4 laptop (1.67 Ghz with 2 gigs of ram).

Nothing beats doing matte paintings on your couch. :D :D

Rick

[RiKToR]

rrische makes a good point, Its not the hardware that your using but mostly the amount of patience you have. With that said I have just made a purchase at the apple store and took the plunge to buy my first mac. I bought a MacBook (non pro) it has a 1.83 GHz Core Duo Processor, and will have 2gb of RAM when I upgrade it with cheaper than apple ram. Also a 60gig HD, and various other stuff that you can check out at www.apple.com/macbook (http://www.apple.com/macbook) . The one downside is an Intel GMA950 Graphics Chip. Since I do Maya, PS, Shake, Final Cut, this was the only hesitating factor for Maya. But from what I see in Cinema 4d Benchmarks (which put the OpenGL slightly higher then some G4s with Radeons) and videos on YouTube that show the GMA950 is capable of pushing some polys in games, I dont think it will be a big problem since I own a workstation with Quadro FX 4000 card.

For me the performance is in the ability to do mattes / sketches on the go. With a 3 - 4 hour battery life, and 13.3 inch monitor (it really doesnt feel that small on the one I saw in the apple store) and 6 lbs at and 1 inch thick, it gives me the ability to that and hopefully enough 3d power for projections in maya but as I said I can live without that and use my desktop to at least model the file, the core duo can render it.

Lastly I will say the I paid $799 at the apple.com refurbished store, it has the same 1 year warranty and I can buy and additional two any time before the first year ends.

If you are interested in windows machines dell makes excellent computers and I happened to be looking at an HP pavillion dv6000t (literally same specs as a macbook) with a GeForce 7300 which will run 3d apps very well. With any windows machine and maya though, you want to get XP. Vista has horrible OpenGL performance at the moment. (The main reason Im switching to mac, MS has shown that they really dont care about the digital arts market being that its smaller then business)

[Felicity Moore]

I've had a bit of a rethink since my last post regarding the mac - I may well go for that option afterall.
I'm quite fed up with XP updates changing things sporadically with my current set up (disabled my wacom driver last week - or at least the disabling happened immediately after XP downloaded the updates - and it disabled my anti-virus (avast!) recently, or again coincidentally). I've turned auto updates off at the moment but need to remember to check security updates manually, although it maybe some of these that clash with some of my software.

I intend to get a desktop at some point when I'm settled in one place, so for now at least, mobility is my main reason for getting a laptop.

[RiKToR]

Well I just got my refurb and the only thing that doesnt seem like new is the brown box that it came in instead of the printed one. Ive got to get that two gigs of ram though or I will be going quite slow while working on this 6k matte I got going now.

The other thing is, and this is pretty typical of LCDs, the contrast is a little more forgiving in the black areas, and this one is a pain to color correct with apple's onboard correction tools. But I will finalize my color on my desktop before I leave final cut for DVD so no biggie.

[Felicity Moore]

I have a sore head trying to make sure my monitor is set up correctly.

I really need to learn about this. I've come from illustration, and have found printing my illos that they sometimes look like what's on my screen and sometimes not! I have some understanding of my PS workspace but have a hard time understanding if the monitor is set correctly and also the printer.

Now Im concerned with matte painting and concept art I still need to be sure that I can output and I'll get what I'm seeing.

I've a lot to learn :roll:

[RiKToR]

Well the best way to have accurate colors is to buy a color calibrator and the use printer profiles in PS, but even then its not entirely accurate. It is the bane of the digital artist getting your colors to match.