Need Hardware recommendations for Adobe Photoshop

R
Posted By
Ringo
Feb 21, 2008
Views
298
Replies
3
Status
Closed
Hi All,

I have a Dell Optiplex 745, Core 2 Duo, 1Gb of ram, 300 gb 7200 rpm Sata hard drive, 128 mb graphics card. My problem is, I am working with 700mb Photoshop files and it takes about 10 minutes to open them in photoshop.

I need some upgrade recommendations so I can open these files faster (instantaneiously if possible)…what ram i should upgrade to, what graphics card is good, do I need a seperate scratch disk, etc. Can anyone give me some good recommendations? Thanks!

Ringo

Must-have mockup pack for every graphic designer 🔥🔥🔥

Easy-to-use drag-n-drop Photoshop scene creator with more than 2800 items.

TK
Toobi-Won Kenobi
Feb 21, 2008
"Ringo" wrote in message
Hi All,

I have a Dell Optiplex 745, Core 2 Duo, 1Gb of ram, 300 gb 7200 rpm Sata hard drive, 128 mb graphics card. My problem is, I am working with 700mb Photoshop files and it takes about 10 minutes to open them in photoshop.

I need some upgrade recommendations so I can open these files faster (instantaneiously if possible)…what ram i should upgrade to, what graphics card is good, do I need a seperate scratch disk, etc. Can anyone give me some good recommendations? Thanks!
Ringo,

You didn’t say which operating system, XPor Vista.
Vista can require 40% more ram than XP for the same application. More RAM will will see the biggest improvement.
1 to 2 more so than 2 to 4.
PS doesn’t use the 3D capabilities of the graphics card and I read somewhere that it only needs 64MB anyway to display and redraw an image. Another hard drive would help, with PS on one drive and its scratch disc on another.
You can have problems when it’s on the same drive as the OS swap file. A faster processor?
You didn’t mention your clock speed and would your M/B support one? I’m using a home made 64 dual core 4200 with 2 GB of RAM and a 128 card with two 250GB SATA’s running XPPro and I’ve opened 1GB files in less than 20 secs.
10 minutes isn’t normal for your machine, (unless it’s a Vista) I’d have a look at what else is going on at the same time in TaskManager.

TWK

TWK
R
Ringo
Feb 22, 2008
On Feb 21, 3:27 pm, "Toobi-Won Kenobi" <Toobi-won > wrote:
"Ringo" wrote in message

news:> Hi All,

I have a Dell Optiplex 745, Core 2 Duo, 1Gb of ram, 300 gb 7200 rpm Sata hard drive, 128 mb graphics card.  My problem is, I am working with 700mb Photoshop files and it takes about 10 minutes to open them in photoshop.

I need some upgrade recommendations so I can open these files faster (instantaneiously if possible)…what ram i should upgrade to, what graphics card is good, do I need a seperate scratch disk, etc.  Can anyone give me some good recommendations?   Thanks!

Ringo,

You didn’t say which operating system, XPor Vista.
Vista can require 40% more ram than XP for the same application. More RAM will will see the biggest improvement.
1 to 2 more so than 2 to 4.
PS doesn’t use the 3D capabilities of the graphics card and I read somewhere that it only needs 64MB anyway to display and redraw an image. Another hard drive would help, with PS on one drive and its scratch disc on another.
You can have problems when it’s on the same drive as the OS swap file. A faster processor?
You didn’t mention  your clock speed and would your M/B support one? I’m using a home made 64 dual core 4200 with 2 GB of RAM and a 128 card with two 250GB SATA’s running XPPro and I’ve opened 1GB files in less than 20 secs.
10 minutes isn’t normal for your machine, (unless it’s a Vista) I’d have a look at what else is going on at the same time in TaskManager.
TWK

TWK

Hi TWK,

Thank you for your response. To answer your questions:

Operating System is Windows XP SP2.
Processors is 1.87 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo, 64 kilobyte primary memory cache, 2048 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Based on your recommendations, I should simply purchase a 2nd hard drive and use it as a scratch disk. Also, get an addiitonal 1gb of ram (giving me 2gb total) should do the trick.

If there are any other suggestion, kindly let me know. I really appreciate your assistance.

Ringo
TK
Toobi-Won Kenobi
Feb 22, 2008
"Ringo" wrote in message
On Feb 21, 3:27 pm, "Toobi-Won Kenobi" <Toobi-won > wrote:
"Ringo" wrote in message

news:>
Hi All,

I have a Dell Optiplex 745, Core 2 Duo, 1Gb of ram, 300 gb 7200 rpm Sata hard drive, 128 mb graphics card. My problem is, I am working with 700mb Photoshop files and it takes about 10 minutes to open them in photoshop.

I need some upgrade recommendations so I can open these files faster (instantaneiously if possible)…what ram i should upgrade to, what graphics card is good, do I need a seperate scratch disk, etc. Can anyone give me some good recommendations? Thanks!

Ringo,

You didn’t say which operating system, XPor Vista.
Vista can require 40% more ram than XP for the same application. More RAM will will see the biggest improvement.
1 to 2 more so than 2 to 4.
PS doesn’t use the 3D capabilities of the graphics card and I read somewhere
that it only needs 64MB anyway to display and redraw an image. Another hard drive would help, with PS on one drive and its scratch disc on
another.
You can have problems when it’s on the same drive as the OS swap file. A faster processor?
You didn’t mention your clock speed and would your M/B support one? I’m using a home made 64 dual core 4200 with 2 GB of RAM and a 128 card with
two 250GB SATA’s running XPPro and I’ve opened 1GB files in less than 20 secs.
10 minutes isn’t normal for your machine, (unless it’s a Vista) I’d have a look at what else is going on at the same time in TaskManager.
TWK

TWK

Hi TWK,

Thank you for your response. To answer your questions:

Operating System is Windows XP SP2.
Processors is 1.87 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo, 64 kilobyte primary memory cache, 2048 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Based on your recommendations, I should simply purchase a 2nd hard drive and use it as a scratch disk. Also, get an addiitonal 1gb of ram (giving me 2gb total) should do the trick.

If there are any other suggestion, kindly let me know. I really appreciate your assistance.

Ringo
You’re welcome.
I would get more ram first, making sure it was the same flavour as that which is already in the box.
If you have a 1GB stick (three spare slots)no problem, if it is 2 x 512MB and you have two spare memory slots, get 2 x 512MB
See what improvement that brings and then maybe fit a second drive. Also, making too many chnages to your system at once can lead to reactivation problems with PS, it no longer recognises its original installation environment.
How old is your machine?
1.87GHz isn’t very fast as processors go today.
The one I had before I built my current one worked out cheaper to buy new than to do the upgrade.
Cost out the upgrade against a replacemnet (you shouldn’t need a monitor) PC’s have never been as cheap as they are at the moment. You can specify XP with new Dells
When MS support for XP goes, my next box is a Mac.
Hth
TWK

Must-have mockup pack for every graphic designer 🔥🔥🔥

Easy-to-use drag-n-drop Photoshop scene creator with more than 2800 items.

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections