Reader's Comments - Index of - Free

Choosing a Computer System for Digital Imaging
SCSI vs. IDE/ATA: I think that most people would benefit little from SCSI. Its
main advantages -- faster seek times and the ability to handle multiple access
requests intelligently -- are of use where one needs to get lots of little files spread
all over the disk(s) rather than loading one big image file. Modern IDE/ATA
controllers often use less cpu time than SCSI. A 7200 rpm ATA-100 or ATA-133
drive will give decent performance and double the capacity at half the price of a
10000 rpm U160 SCSI drive. Better to spend your money elsewhere. Seagate and
Maxtor make dependable drives. Avoid IBM; they have had some reliability
problems recently with their IDE/ATA drives.
dual cpu -- Here is a review where they compared Intel and AMD systems using
photoshop and a 50 MB file:
http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=45000321
Notice that the dual-cpu setup doesn't provide much benefit. It may be that the
system is limited by RAM bandwidth, or Adobe didn't optimize very well for 2
processors. This may not apply to Mac systems, for which Adobe is known to
optimize photoshop. If you are trying to run many programs at the same time, a
dual-cpu system would probably be more responsive. If the memory performance is
really the limiting factor (as the reviewer claims), then Macintosh systems should
be at a disadvantage relative to the systems in the above article. I haven't seen any
comparisons involving large files on both modern Mac and PC though. Probably
best to pick whichever operating system you feel more comfortable with.
software -- Microsoft started putting useable color profiling in Windows with
Windows 98. It is reportedly identical to what was used on Macintosh at the time.
The Mac version may have been improved since then but I don't know how or what
effect this would have. Adobe Photoshop Elements reportedly *does* support color
profiling. It is limited to sRGB (appropriate for output to a web page) and Adobe
RGB (what you would use to print on your color inkjet). It doesn't support things
like CMYK, which is what commercial printers use. Photoshop LE, etc. do not
support color profiles.
Note that Windows 98 (and possible ME as well) may limit the amount of RAM
you can use to 768MB. Windows XP has a number of drawbacks, mostly related to
security. Windows 2000 is probably the best of the bunch for photo editing.
printing -- With inkjet printers, you aren't buying a printer. You're buying an ink/
paper system. The printer is cheap and not intended to last decades. Would you
want a Leica M2 if you could only use 1950s film with it? Using the latest inks
usually requires the latest printer. Printer companies reportedly don't make money
http://www.photo.net/photo/computers (23 of 33)7/3/2005 2:19:07 AM