The computer must be able to run Microsoft Office ’07. I will be using this for basic graphic design work, to edit and store short video clips, store archives of digital photos and to create multimedia presentations. Can anyone reccomend a computer or suggest what I should look for when shopping?
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Microsoft Office 2007 must be the Pro edition to have all capabilities to include a full Powerpoint and also Microsoft Publisher. Other editions have limited capabilities.
For graphic design you need a high end graphics card with a minimum of 256 Meg of video memory or more.
Your CPU should be 2.66Ghz or higher and dual core would be helpful.
You should find a system with a motherboard that can accept more than 2Gig of onboard RAM. This would probably be a 64 bit system rather than a 32 bit system.
This combination is not going to be cheap.
As an alternative to a PC system like this which would also be suitable for hard core gaming, you could look into an Apple System as they tend to be better with graphic design and the other areas you are looking at.
You have a lot of research to do.
Sarge
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my niece is doing graphic design now … a A MAC the only way to go …
In todays world of computers, purdy much any new ‘off the shelf’ ‘puter will do fine.(by that, I mean it runs on ‘recently’ released technology)
The only thing that is a major issue, is storage. This you will need lots of. It matters not what ur pc comes with, because you can add and/or replace existing drives with larger, faster access models.
The rest(ram aside, the more you have, then the more you’ll be able to do at the same time)will only really affect the speed of what you do, and it all boils down to how much money u wanna spend. For a couple o £k y’can git a pc with 4 nvidia grphx cards in – More than enough processing power, and with 1/2 a gig o ram on each card – thats some pretty complex piccies that it’d takes to fill them.
But on the phlipside, y’can spend couple o hundred £ onna pc, an it will suffice your needs.
Look @ some upper-echelon pc’s ie: alienware. damn gud, but pricey.
fo ‘bou £1.5k, http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/reviews/137871/cyberpower-gamer-infinity-xt-ultimate-ddr3.html
will more than fill your needs
a cost effective apple solution:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/reviews/137874/apple-20ghz-mac-mini.html
@ only £4-500 this should also fail you not. I don’t know about upgrading the hard-drive in such a little package…
Look @ the specs fo both these systems, use it as a guideline, although if any part of a system you look at doesnt cut the mustard – dont worry. before you buy it, it is a gud Idea to find out the maximum capacity of the motherboard for:
processor
ram
ide/sata connectors(to add mo hd’s when u enevitably fill them)
As these will b the components you would needs to replace to makes it more functional.