Hello

I am an artist and considering doing some work in the near future involving some high resolution Photoshop files. In the past I've created some 24x30" prints at 300 dots per inch, the files were between 1.5 - 2 Gigs when I worked on them. The G5 PowerMacs I used were far too slow to process these files. For the project I'm imagining, the files may be between 4 - 6 Gigs.

I looked at the Mac Pro, but even with the basic configuration is more than I need and more than I'd like to spend.

Here's what I think I will need, but I'd love some advice.

A 3 Gigahertz processor, I don't need a quad so a Duo will be fine.

Lots of RAM, I'm thinking between 6-8 Gigs, but I'd like to add this as I go along and possibly expand it in the future.

A low end graphics card. Image processing relies mostly on the processor, so really I just need something to power the monitor, nothing fancy.

Hard drives should be easy enough, I want a small fast one to boot from, but I want to store the images files on a mirrored RAID setup, so i'll need to support that.

USB and Firewire for external storage if need be, and an Epson printer.

A quiet case. I don't know if this is possible, but I hate listening to noisy fans while I try to work.


That's all I can think of. I'd like the easiest setup possible, with the most stable hacked version of 10.5, and Photoshop CS3. So what are your suggestions, what are the right parts to buy? What's the quietist case?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can advise.

you really should consider actually getting a mid to high end graphix card at least around the stamina of the BFG 8800 GTX so that your comp works less at helping your gfx card display the image as you are working on it. This will make less heat produced and in the long run increase your comps lifetime.

I recently built my wife a new comp for her graphic design station like this while i was building the new comp I just slipped the better gfx card in the old machine to tide her over, the old machine ran faster and cooler while she was working than before.

Also you should go ahead and get yourself 3-4gb system memory to start when you build it. that way you can buy matched mem pairs of the same brand so you dont run into incompatability issues.