Pixiq

Time for me to upgrade and get a new Mac Pro at my country house. It’s an older Intel processor and I can’t load CS5. Arrgg. You know about "dog years", where every year for a dog is like seven human years. Computer aging happens even faster. I think every computer year is like 34 human years.

So I’ve been using my trusty Mac Book Pro when I need something in the country done in CS5. I love my CS5 (and my MacBook Pro). In my city place, I have a fast enough machine and that's where I do my real heavy lifting. But it's nice to tinker on the weekends in the country.  Looking for a new 'puter isn’t so easy. I don’t want to pimp out my new ‘puter so much that I have to eat beans for dinner a while. Plus, it’s not pleasant for company if that is my dinner, if you know what I mean.  I like a good meal and I want as good of a machine, as is in a reasonable budget as I can afford. Time to hit the search engines and find so info on how RAM, or Processor, or Multi Cores will best help my Photoshop performance and as they say, my Photoshop "experience".  

So I found a great resource on the Adobe site that explains how to optimize my hardware to fully utilize and speed up Photoshop.  Click here so see it. Great info when you're shopping for a new machine.  Frankly, other than Photoshop, my "older" computer works fine. But since Photoshop is the primary use on my computer, I have to keep up every few years.

So what should I get? Spend my money on RAM (which I’ll get in after market) as Photoshop CS5 in 64 bit mode, can utilize as much as I have, whereas in 32 bit mode, it can only see 2.1GB. BTW, CS4 can see 3 megabytes of RAM, no more. So as much memory as my wallet can get before it starts to cry. Got that all from the Adobe site. Great info.

I also just saw that one of my favorite blogs and bloggers, John Nack, who is an Adobe employee, just posted a link to an Adobe White Paper on setting up and fine tuning a ‘puter for Photoshop CS5.  It’s his April 15^th entry titled “How to set up & tune a great Photoshop machine”. John always has great info on his blog, not just Adobe stuff, but out and out fun stuff. Check it out.

Now everyone’s setup may be different, depending on what you are doing most of the time. For me it looks like lots of RAM (third part RAM, after I get delivery of the Mac), a 4 or 6-core, and as fast a processor as I can get in my budget. The processor will have more impact for me than more cores, like an 8 or 12 core. The multi-core is for multi-threaded tasks, and Photoshop does not usually do multi-threads. That's good news as the 8 and 12 core are budget busters.

I’m going re-read both documents linked above, wait till my hair stops hurting, and then I’m still going to ask my Mac guy his opinion. Can’t wait to order and get it. Nothing like the smell of a new ‘puter on your desk.

PS- Right after I posted this, I got a link from Katrin Eismann on a related subject- Spring Cleaning for your MAC. More good stuff.

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