What would be the best computer for Photoshop CS4?

Posted on 21 Oct 2009 - by Chris In: Other - Computers

ladeedah asked:

Hi there, computer whizzes!

Okay, I have to buy a computer that can smoothly run Photoshop CS4 and my Wacom Tablet. That’s about it.

Can you tell me what would be the best laptop and/or the best desktop for my needs? I’ve heard MacBook Pro, but is there are there cheaper, nearly as good alternatives? My budget is about 1200.

Thanks for reading

Tags: Best Computer, Best Desktop, Best Laptop, Budget, Buy A Computer, Buy Computer, Computer Whizzes, Cs4, Photoshop, Wacom Tablet

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5 Responses to “What would be the best computer for Photoshop CS4?”

Steven
October 21st, 2009 at 7:54 pm

Best computer would be HP Pavillion, could take in more space than those other computers such as the Mac and the older PCs
raining
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:18 am

ok,, just buy a PC that meet the system requirements of the photoshop,, better have high video card.. because price versus quality
Linuxnewbie
October 26th, 2009 at 11:11 am

just buy a PC that meet the system requirements of the photoshop
Melvin M
October 28th, 2009 at 8:52 am

HP,Dell,Microsoft computer can help you.For greater efficency in Photoshop CS4 try Vista or the upcoming Windows 7
Photog906
October 29th, 2009 at 7:43 am

Unless you are wanting a Mac, I would recommend a PC for CS4 at this point.

Although it was suggested that you need a powerful video card in a prior post, this is not really the case. Although CS4 is the first version of PS for the PC that will take advantage of some of the capabilities of a video card (i.e. – rotating on the fly, smooth zoom) these functions are more ‘Gee whiz’ than necessary (we lived w/o them up ’til this version) and they are not needed/used by filters etc. The real crunching that happens in PS is on the CPU…

And this is why: The Windows version of CS4 supports 64 bit Vista, there is not 64 bit support for the Mac. And yes Virginia, it makes a significant difference.

Example: Alien Skin Blow 2 filter/Add-in supports 64 bit. I had a need to blow up some of my images significantly, such that the resulting files were more than 3 GB. Running such a process on an HP Pavillion with 32 bit XP with 2 GB RAM would take appox. 35-45 minutes. I recently purchased a never Pavilion with 64 bit Vista and 4 GB RAM (and by the way shared video RAM – something you would think less than ideal, this is a HP DV7-1232). My ‘blow up’ time was reduced to 7 minutes for the same 3 GB file.

The cool thing about the 64 bit Pavilions is that they support up to 8 GB.

Do the Pavilion.

Did I mention you can get them at Staples on sale (every other week) for $650? (At the price you can use it for a year and next year get the Quad core version for the same price!)

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