Architectural Designs

What should I look for in a Professional grade computer for Graphic Design and photo editing?

I need a computer suitable for a small business. In this business I will be editing photos with adobe photo shop. I will combine clients personal family photos/slides/home movies etc. into a digital photo disc set to music and I may include animation and flash. Potential clients will also be businesses who hire me to edit photos for printing in booklets, flyer's, brochures etc. or for web sites. I am making a savings plan / budget for when I finish college next year. I need some input. I don't really know what you need for a professional grade computer. Is there an online custom computer builder that I can chat with?

Public Comments

1. dual or quad processors 8 gig ram 64 bit operating system 500 gig or more hard drive a motherboard that everything isn't integral so you can use multiple graphic cards that's a good start
2. I just built my own computer for professional wedding photography http://anibaldistudio.com/. I used www.newegg.com to buy compatible parts and it ended up costing about $800 for the following (which is working out great)... - 8 GB Ram - Two 500 GB hard drives (one is a backup of the other) - Quad Core AMD 2.4 GHz Processor - Motherboard with good built in graphics card (dont skimp on this)
3. As much RAM as you can fit in the box. Graphic design and photo editing applications eat RAM like candy.
4. If your not a somewhat computer geek this may be very boaring... If you stop and think of the similarities between graphics and the needs between a computer for image and video processing and that of a high end "game machine" you will see they run hand in hand. I wanted a machine for audio, video and image editing. Good sounds, in and out. Crisp and clear colors. Vivid, but true colors. Fast response times. No smearing on captured video or during play back. Huge amounts of ram both in the computer and on your graphics card. Quality sounds are not needed here, but when I built my computer I made sure it had a kick a$$ sound system too so I could rock while rolling to my image editing. I picked a 64bit mother board, a ASUS M2N32-SLI wireless, 2000Mhz front side bus with extreme over clocking ability and 9 SATA drive locations. 4Gb fast ram, DDR2-800 (room for 4 more). Nvidia 6800 GS video card with 256Mb ram stuck into one of the 16x PCI-E slots. My processor is a duel core AMD 6000+ running over 3.15Gb. I gave the system a 600W. power supply, a all metal "server" case (helps dissipate heat) and added extra fans to help cool the high number of drives this Mobo can support. I have a Seagate Barracuda 7600 rpm 1000Gb SATA drive set up as my Main, or drive C but it has been partitioned into 4 sections. My boot section is 250Gb. 2 sections are 300Gb and one is at 110Gb. There are a total of 8 partitioned hard drive in my computer with 4 of them on 1 drive giving me physical room to add 5 more SATA drives, with 1 being a external if needed. I have a total in house storage, so far, of 4 terabytes (4000Gb) - http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-terabyte.htm - with other USB-2 external drives from a 250, to 2 @ 500 and 1 @ 1000, all in Gb size. There are 2 DVD-RW's, with one being a Lightscribe (burn my own labels right on to the CD's or DVD's). Ripped DVD's number into the 100's as well and growing. I also rip records, music on vinyl disks, LP's and 45's.. and turn them into digital files using Audacity. Inside the tower case is a A/D conversion box where I have standard RCA wires coming out and here I can hook up ANY standard audio/video item, like a old VHS or DVD player or whatever, and convert from analog to digital (rip and convert old VHS tapes to digital). I also have a slew of USB 2 ports, Firewire and DVI inputs. Keyboard and mouse are wireless. Sound system is a 4:1 surround sound (woofer under the desk) and while I do NOT play games, I sure can rock to my extensive file of MP3's. 10's of thousands of them. Video is also channeled out to a 46" HDTV in another room for a another experience there of its own. My work screen here is a new 24" wide screen with a 40,000:1 contrast ratio (colors make your eyes bleed) and true 1081i resolution and I am running at 1920x1080 and do NOT need duel screen ability because I can open multiple full screens here beside one another. The computer isn't even whimpering when I have many things going at once. Like now, I have Jimi Hendrix rocking, internet, e-mail, PSPX2, Yahoo IM and Answers going... This system was built - 2 years ago - with 95% of the parts mail order after doing my home work. The $219.00 ACER view screen was bought just 3 days ago from Best Buy and it rips my $450.00 ViewSonics 19" flat screen a new A$$ hole..! What should I look for in a Professional grade computer for Graphic Design and photo editing? Most of the same things found in a high end game machine..! I run XP-Pro as my OS. Bob - Tucson