Hi Sarah--
Your investment in a Mac will pay off in faster operation, greater reliability, and better customer support. Therefore, i urge you not to cut too many corners, but to invest what you can afford.
A large monitor is a definite asset. Get as much RAM as you can afford--probably at least 8GB; the Adobe products, combined with the Mac OS, can use more than the 4GB that were the previous maximum. Get a 1TB disc--you will be surprised how fast disk space is consumed. Also, a Mac Pro is preferable to a Mac Mini for expandability. All that will cost you closer to $2000+, but it will pay for itself in the long run.
I also use a Spyder II for calibration. It works fine.
Lots of luck with your new computer!
Fred
On Nov 29, 2010, at 10:06 AM, Andrew Darlow wrote:
> Hi Sarah:
>
> The best bang for your buck is a Mac Mini. They are surprisingly fast and quite affordable (as far as Macs go). I would check out the options on apple.com:
>
> If you configure one, I would recommend these options:
>
> 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
> 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
> 500GB Serial ATA Drive
>
> Cost will be just over $1000.
>
> If there is one with the options above on the refurbished section (not the Snow Leopard Server), I recommend those as well since you can save about 20-30%:
>
> http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac
>
> If you want a laptop that you can plug into a larger screen, almost any of the latest i5 or i7 MacBook Pros will do a great job. There are a number of them on the refurbished site. I highly recommend one with an anti-glare screen.
>
> In all cases, you will want at least 4GB of RAM. That is critical.
>
> There are many monitor calibration software options from ColorVision and X-Rite. The least expensive high quality option is the Spyder 3 Express. Below is a good review:
>
> http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/profiling/spyder3express_1.html
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> All the best!
> Andrew
>
> Andrew Darlow
> Editor, The Imaging Buffet
> http://www.imagingbuffet.com
> Author, 301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques:
> An Essential Printing Resource for Photographers - http://www.inkjettips.com
> and
> Pet Photography 101:
> Tips for Taking Better Photos of Your Dog or Cat - http://www.PhotoPetTips.com
>
> On Nov 29, 2010, at 9:10 AM, mercurius_1 wrote:
>
> > I think I'm finally going to jettison my PC and move over to a Mac. But I'm clueless about the best configuration and need your advice.
> >
> > I will need to run Photoshop, Dreamweaver, InDesign, as well as monitor calibration software (recommendations on this are welcome as well because I'm currently using an outdated product that only works on my PC). Also MS Office suite and maybe a video editing software. What do you recommend? I don't want to spend this much money and then discover that I didn't get enough horsepower, etc.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Sarah
> > www.sarahpollock.com
> >
> >
>
>
Frederick Beutler, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
EECS Department
University of Michigan
fjb@umich.edu
fbeutler@comcast.net
http://web.me.com/fbeutler
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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