System requirements ?????

[snappysi]

Hi All,
I recently started a thread about laptops that is just under this one. After doing some research i am coming across several varying perspectives as to what should be "in" a system for editing.

Can anyone share real world advise as to what they would consider MINIMUM requirements, not necessarily for laptops but also for a desktop system.

Some say that the more ram the better, others have told me that 4 is enough. A friend of mine that runs an It department has advised of a system that i thought would be inadequate but has suggested running an ssd drive and that would speed things up. whilst it may open the programs faster, i doubt it is going to help with the process of editing, but i could be wrong.

I was thinking 8GB of ram would be minimum, as far as processor, does i3, i5 or i7 make much of a difference ??? as in my other thread, i would be mainly concerned with photo editing ( Lightroom, ps ).

Any help would be appreciated

Simon.

[ricktas]

To utilise ram over 4gb, you need to be running a 64bit environment, so consider that. If you are going to use photoshop on this computer, I have seen PS use 16GB of my 24GB while stitching a huge pano, so I agree with those that tell you to get as much RAM as possible (on a 64 bit system).

An SSD drive is great for your operating system and software, but use another drive for storage. And you are correct it will not make processing faster as such as that is RAM function, but an SSD will make reading/writing of data faster, so your programs open faster and so will files open/save faster if they are stored on the SSD.

Processors have a GHz speed, this is basically the speed your processor can run, and with the i3-i7 the higher the number, generally the higher end the processor, and it can therefore do more at once (though the reality is not really as simple as that).

I would suggest getting the very best you can afford. And remember that graphics RAM is also important for photo editing.

[snappysi]

Thanks Rick, That mostly sums up what i believed to be true....

Simon.

[Warbler]

Reading this will help too.

http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2011/06/how-to-optimize-lightroom-performance.html
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-performance-photoshop-cs4-cs5.html

[Kym]

The minimum desktop I would recommend is

Windows 7 64bit
8Gb memory
Any reasonable graphics card from the last 2 years - at least 256Mb or better still 512Mb memory
A decent CPU (Intel i5 Core or better)
As much disk as you can
A SSD system disk if you want quick

See: http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/rmp_sg_whirlpoolpcs_multi_tasking_configs for some affordable specs.
The $700 basic system is a good start (sans monitor)
The Whirlpool specs are kept up to date.

As for notebooks it varies. Small/light = slow. If you want performance you need a bigger unit - its just how they are packaged.

[Kym]

In addition ... get an IPS monitor!!
See: http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?95028-LG-IPS236V-PN-In-Plane-Switching-Monitor-excellent-colour-reproduction