[filmscanners] Re: Digital Darkroom Computer Builders?

["Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@atkielski.com>]

Laurie writes:

> Most of the desktop machines that I have seen for
> sale at under $1000 in the big box discount stores
> have ADM 2000-2200 GHz XP or Pentium IV 2.0 -2.4
> GHz CPUs with a minimum of 128 MB to 256 MB RAM,
> a 40 to 80 MB 7200rpm hard drive with a 2MB cache
> which can be upgraded to a large harddrive for a
> small additional fee, and a 17 to 19 inch color
> display monitor which is also ugradable for a small
> additional fee although the quality of those
> monitors may be questionable.

For a good image-processing system, you need to add a zero to the RAM and
disk space, and add at least 2-5 inches to the monitor size and make it a
high-end monitor (I prefer Sony).  Configuring multiple disks as a RAID
would be even better, since the defective memory management of Photoshop
often must be compensated by fast disks.

Processor speed is rarely an issue.  About 99% of the delays I see in
Photoshop even with a 1.8 GHz processor are caused by disk I/O.

Overall, you can never have too much memory, too much disk, or a processor
or disk that is too fast.  However, many vendors (and buyers) place too much
emphasis on processors speed, and far too little emphasis on the other
characteristics of a configuration, even though these latter characteristics
are usually much more important.

Also, the utility of a good monitor cannot be overemphasized.  And a
digitizing tablet is essential, too.

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