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Choosing a Computer System for Digital Imaging
you need to make sure you buy 2 disks that are *identical*. Also keep in mind that
striping (RAID 0), will also increase the chances of disk failure since you are
splitting your data between 2 disks, and if one of them dies, all is lost. Having said
that, I still use a RAID drive on my computer, and just make sure to back up my
data every now and then. I'd also recommend motherboards with hardware RAID
controllers rather than software RAID control.
-- Tommy Huynh, January 16, 2002
On the G4 side, take a look at the Acard IDE PCI card - it gives you four more IDE
(ATA100) drives, and has hardware raid. Superfast, and exceptionally stable. Also,
in the DVD issues, having a drive like the Pioneer mounted in the latest Apple
products not only allows you to save files, but the included software lets you make
slide shows on DVD for clients. A good way to show off a portfolio, and at 5 bucks
a disk, beats the heck out of prints cost-wise:)
-- Robert Landrigan, January 16, 2002
Speeding up your machine for extensive processing.
Okay, just a few words from experience; my company (one of the big US imaging
companies) builds a specialist solution for high speed Photoshop and image post
processing. The input files are 75-100mb in size from a specialist scanner, but the
image manipulation is faily standard - cleanup/scratch removal/sharpen/etc... using
custom tools and Photoshop as an option.
The core spec machines is: 2*PIII 1ghz
1gb RAM
Promise IDE RAID - with 2 pairs of 2*40gb-9ms-2mb cache-7200RPM disks
(Striped to RAID 0 for speed)
Running Win2k Pro
The big speed gain in part comes from the dual processor, but mainly from the
RAID subsystem, which is surprisingly inexpensive. All the parts for this can be
bought surprisingly inexpensively (not sure of $ price, but les than a comparable
Dell box) and it blazes through the applications. Win 2k or Winnt4 will let you
make the most of the speed.
Hope this might help...
http://www.photo.net/photo/computers (12 of 33)7/3/2005 2:19:07 AM