Hello all!

 

Here's a simple question. I bet (hope) it brings in a bit of debate...

 

What do you consider the ideal spec for a PC for carrying out design and web development work?

 

What would be your minimum spec for processor / RAM etc.?

 

....also which software do you consider indispensable?

well i would say you would need. well maybe not need.. but to future-proof and make sure it can carry the task out a core 2 duo (i just prefer Intel and anyway AMD don't have anything that can compete yet) and at least 1GB of ram, maybe 2 to be safe as i have 2 and it is perfect... and if you can afford it... (in my opinion) you can't be without some Adobe stuff

on the note of processors, AMD has a range of actually useful speeds at good prices.. whilst Intel may have the high-end fast stuff, the only people who actually need that sort of power are 3d render farms and the like. AMD is half the price, especially when you take into account the price of motherboards.

 

Anyway, this is what I would go for at the current "sweet spots":

- AMD 64 5000+ (dual core, approx 2.4 GHz per core)

- 2x 1 GB RAM 800 MHz (PC 6400)

- 250 GB (or 2) HDD

- XFX GeForce 8600GT

 

that rig would cost about (inc mobo and case) £300 to build, plus Windows XP/Vista (£100/£200) and KVM (about £150-£200)

 

it would run just about anything you cared to throw at it, and with the right case at the start would be seriously expandable (space for 2 more sticks of RAM, 3 more HDD)

2Ghz CPU

2GB RAM

250GB HDD (min)

128MB Graphics

 

Software I use every day

Dreamweaver

Photosop

Paint Shop Pro

Notepad

Fireworks

FireFox

IE (puke)

Acrobat Pro

 

Of course, this is just my oh so humble opinion and pref's lol

it would run just about anything you cared to throw at it

 

hmmm.. not sure... if you are running Photoshop and then Dreamweaver at the same time.. then maybe looking on the net/downloading stuff... it soon gets clogged up..

 

PS. you can now buy a Core 2 Duo for £42 !! you just can't complain at that !

My PC specs are:

 

3.0ghz pentium 4 duo core processor

2gb ram

512mb Radeon X1650

300gb main HDD

120gb secondary HDD (just used for back up just in case)

 

Software:

Dreamweaver

Photoshop

Notepad

Windows media player (used to be winamp but WMP has gotten better now)

Firefox

IE 5,6,7

Flash

XAMP

 

 

(More than likely there is more, but that's from the top of my head )

Any computer you can buy these days works fine for webdesign. It's going to be the graphics making that push your computer so if there's one thing you might want to opt in for a little extra is the RAM. The more the merrier!

4 sticks of 2gb anyone? shame 32 bit windows can only handle 4gb total...

i was thinking a while back about getting 4gb but i don't think it is worth it really and the fact windows 32 bit does not support it

Any computer you can buy these days works fine for webdesign.

 

I've seen pretty old computers (P3) quite happily run Photoshop (CS) and Flash. So long as they're kept well maintained.

 

It's not necessary to have the latest spec machine to run your web design stuff. Most of the people I know that are obsessed with the latest spec do so in order to play 1st person shoot 'em up games online - for which they need the spec.

 

Edit - the only problem with machines that are too old is the inability to run even XP to it's potential - which cuts out installing IE7. But a lot of people I know still run IE 6.

Another thought - it may be worth deliberately getting an old computer to check your web design on as well as your regular machine to simulate the viewer who is using an old computer = accessibility.

I've seen pretty old computers (P3) quite happily run Photoshop (CS) and Flash. So long as they're kept well maintained.

 

It's not necessary to have the latest spec machine to run your web design stuff. Most of the people I know that are obsessed with the latest spec do so in order to play 1st person shoot 'em up games online - for which they need the spec.

 

 

I agree with that, the reason why my pc is quite good, if because a couple of my friends update their PC's all the time for games or the latest 3d software...so I get their cast offs for free

Another thought - it may be worth deliberately getting an old computer to check your web design on as well as your regular machine to simulate the viewer who is using an old computer = accessibility.

 

not much need really as you can just download stuff like the older IE's (3, 4, 5 and 6) that will run perfect on your machine so you can check how your site looks in older versions for no extra money

hummm where to start... ok.

 

So it all depends on what you gonna work with on that computer, if you just make design/coding you dont really need a top powerful machine, so heres a basic and ultimate set, the basic one can run easyly photoshop CS, flash 8, dreamweaver 8. if your going to do big 3D render/environement, mapping, games and such you will need to verify the program specs and might get a better processor, some extra gb ram and a better video card.

 

Basic set up(around 400$ CND)

Pentium 4

1.8GHz

1Gb ram

nVidia GeForce 256mb(got it for 50$ CND... what a joke )

300gb hd

an extra 120 for backup

 

Ultimate set up(For rich kids)

Pentium 4

Intel® Core™2 Quad

3 Gb RAM

NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 SDI(1.5GB - 384-bit - 76.8 GB/sec. - PCI Express x16)

NVIDIA - Power & Cooling T1KWSR 1000w Turbo-Cool Power Supply

Creative Sound Blaster LIVE 5.1 Surround

and many other expensive parts...

 

I'm not a kid of rich so my set up is the basic one

Is most of the posts in this thread really on topic? All these machine specs are big overkills for just webdesign work. What people's current machine specs are wasn't really what he asked for.

I'd be thinking about the sort of files I'd be dealing with. For everyday coding, graphics work pretty much any standard spec PC will be fine. But if you're going to be editing lots of big video files and large images like tiff's you may want to look at getting extra memory and processing power.

I used to build my own machines, because at one time it was cheaper.

 

However, my last PC and Laptop were purchased from Aldi - the Medion brand.

They give you so much technically for little money and it is backed up with a 3 year guarantee - therefore I don't bother too much about minimum specs.

 

(p.s. there is a special offer this Sunday 2nd - a PC with Blue Ray/HD DVD Player)

Anyway, this is what I would go for at the current "sweet spots":

- AMD 64 5000+ (dual core, approx 2.4 GHz per core)

- 2x 1 GB RAM 800 MHz (PC 6400)

- 250 GB (or 2) HDD

- XFX GeForce 8600GT

 

that rig would cost about (inc mobo and case) £300 to build, plus Windows XP/Vista (£100/£200) and KVM (about £150-£200)

 

it would run just about anything you cared to throw at it, and with the right case at the start would be seriously expandable (space for 2 more sticks of RAM, 3 more HDD)

 

My personal view is that you can't really buy a good computer for design work, to balance between cost and spec... you need to have one built.

 

I've just had my new PC built this week:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 S775 2.66ghz 4mb Cache 1333FSB (I think it was this one!)

2GB of PC6400 Ram

1 x 200 GB HD - (my second was DOA )

XFX GeForce 8600GT (Good list Penguin )

Funky case with side window and leds (didn't realise this when I ordered it!)

Big Artic Cooling Fan for chip

Big Artic Cooling PSU with dual fans

Motherboard came with on-board firewire - woohoo!

Lots of USB ports, and PCI or PCI-E or whatever expansions sockets

 

 

Me = Very Happy Chappy. I agree you could do web design stuff on a slow machine, but I do a lot of audio and video editing so I need a faster machine.

Im gonna get a 3ePC.. or possibly on OLPC - they can both run a text editor might struggle with Apache though...

i love my p4 1.8GHz

Thanks to all of you for the brilliant set of responses. There are some small agreements between the specs!

 

I read somewhere (else) that RAM is most important (i.e. that you can't get enough of it) and that the processor speed is not so important.

 

I think my present desktop PC spec is probably as basic as it gets these days:

 

800 MHz AMD Duron processor

512 MB of RAM

 

This is running Dreamweaver MX and Paintshop Pro on Windows XP, and has the added feature of giving me a tea-break between every keystroke and mouse-click!

 

Very soon, I will definitely be getting a new laptop with probably 2GB of RAM and maybe Core 2 Duo.

 

Can anyone make any recommendations?

I think at the end of the day it's always best to buy the best you can afford

800 MHz AMD Duron processor

512 MB of RAM

 

This is running Dreamweaver MX and Paintshop Pro on Windows XP,

 

Perhaps 512mb is a bit tight to be running XP on. You may find your best investment at this point is upgrade your RAM to 1gb. Others may disagree. The processor speed - also tight, but I'd try the memory first and see how you go from there.

The problem here (IMHO) is the mixture of spec and OS. The spec is a bit tight for that OS.

 

Edit - if you get a new machine with a radically new spec does that leave you with a problem with registering XP? Or would you get it free because it simply counts as an upgrade?

i would not go under 1GB of ram

Thanks to all of you for the brilliant set of responses. There are some small agreements between the specs!

 

I read somewhere (else) that RAM is most important (i.e. that you can't get enough of it) and that the processor speed is not so important.

 

I think my present desktop PC spec is probably as basic as it gets these days:

 

800 MHz AMD Duron processor

512 MB of RAM

 

This is running Dreamweaver MX and Paintshop Pro on Windows XP, and has the added feature of giving me a tea-break between every keystroke and mouse-click!

 

Very soon, I will definitely be getting a new laptop with probably 2GB of RAM and maybe Core 2 Duo.

 

Can anyone make any recommendations?

 

 

Doing coding, meaning writing text doesn't require anything at all.

But it's the graphics work that'll demand the most of your machine. And also that you'll usually have quite a few various applications running at the same time while you work.

The RAM is something you'll never get enough of. On your old system you'd feel a noticable performance gain just by sticking in some more RAM.

The other major impact on performance would be to have a Hyper-threaded or multi-core processor. They are much better at keeping your system responsive when you do multiple tasks.

So a 2GB Dualcore comp would be a very good setup. If you're getting Vista on that machine I'd recommend that you don't go less than 2GB if you're planning to do graphics work on it as Vista will consume more RAM than XP. But in return, Vista makes better use of the RAM. (I've used Vista since it was in Beta 2 and I feel much more comfortable with it than XP.)

800 MHz AMD Duron processor

512 MB of RAM

 

This is running Dreamweaver MX and Paintshop Pro on Windows XP, and has the added feature of giving me a tea-break between every keystroke and mouse-click!

 

I forgot to say that this PC also have a whacking great 10GB harddrive. The motherboard is pretty old which makes finding the sticks of RAM (which fit) quite difficult at reasonable prices. I will have a look on eBay as I have seen then on there before.

 

...but this PC really has had its day. I want to get a laptop, so I will probably clean this one up (delete all the junk on it), try to beef up the RAM on it a bit and then let my wife use it. (She only browses internet and occasionally uses MS Word).

Edit - if you get a new machine with a radically new spec does that leave you with a problem with registering XP? Or would you get it free because it simply counts as an upgrade?

Depends if it's a Retail or OEM version. OEM versions can only be used on the system they where originally installed on. This is usually what you get when you buy a computer with pre-installed OS.

Retail can be transfered as it bought separate from the machine.

I forgot to say that this PC also have a whacking great 10GB harddrive. The motherboard is pretty old which makes finding the sticks of RAM (which fit) quite difficult at reasonable prices. I will have a look on eBay as I have seen then on there before.

 

...but this PC really has had its day. I want to get a laptop, so I will probably clean this one up (delete all the junk on it), try to beef up the RAM on it a bit and then let my wife use it. (She only browses internet and occasionally uses MS Word).

10GB? How on earth have you not run out of disk space allready?

by not keeping music or movies i guess... about half my HDD is movies (ones i legally own, before you ask) and the rest is everything else (pics, music, and work files). If i didn't have my movies or music, I could fit onto a 10gb no problem.

My graphics file quickly consume alot. I make many versions I keep as backup so I can revert back to previous or older versions/ideas. And I'm a layer maniac so my PSD files quickly grow large.

Not to mention when I do 3D graphics...

But I suppose that smaller storage space force you to be stricly organized and throw away the truely old stuff.

My graphics file quickly consume alot. I make many versions I keep as backup so I can revert back to previous or older versions/ideas. And I'm a layer maniac so my PSD files quickly grow large.

Not to mention when I do 3D graphics...

But I suppose that smaller storage space force you to be stricly organized and throw away the truely old stuff.

 

I'm the same, I have lots of backups of backups of backups - so they can take a few GB quite quickly.

Just to conclude this thread, for £601.26 I eventually got :

 

DELL XPS M1530(N0115352) Laptop (in Midnight Blue)

 

Intel® Core 2 Duo processor T7250 (2.00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2-cache)

 

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English

 

Memory 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]

 

NVIDIA® GeForce Go 8400M GS with 128MB dedicated graphic memory

 

160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive

 

Fixed 8x DVD+/-RW Slim Slot Load drive, including SW

 

Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini-Card - Europe - Core 2 Duo Processors

 

Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 Module (up to 3Mbps) with Enhanced Data rate - Eur

 

15.4" UltraSharp WXGA (1280x800) CCFL Display (220nits) with "TrueLife"

Not too sure about Vista (it's slow and not widely supported yet), but the rest of the spec will be more than you need for web development. Nice one!

My laptop is running Windows Vista Home Basic and has 2GB RAM. It can cope with anything I throw at it... including MS Word, Firefox, IE7, Safari, Flock, iTunes, notepad, and GIMP... all at the same time. That's enough for me.