New set up for high graphics design

Akima

Akima

Akima

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Joined
7 Aug 2011
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7
Location
Stoke-on-Trent
Hi guys. A bit of advice is needed.

My wife's graphics design/art business is really picking up and I'd like to update her set up with something with a little more kick. At the moment she uses an 2013 13" Macbook Air with a graphics tablet, but with the resolutions she works with (35" x 30" @ 300dpi), the MBA is just not big or strong enough.

I'm going to replace it with a Windows based system as that's what shes most used to.

Now, when it comes to graphics design i'm a little unsure on what hardware configuration she needs.

What takes priority on a system focused around graphics design? Is it the GPU performance? Memory? Storage?

The general framework i'm building around is a mid-level Haswell chip, 16GB memory, a 120GB SSD, four 2TB drives in mirror for storage, and a mid spec graphics card capable of supporting one or two 4K displays.

Any suggestions, especially from other graphic designers, would be much appreciated.

EDIT - My budget is around £1K excluding monitors, keyboards etc.
 
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You'll need at least a 256Gb ssd as you'll soon run out of space with a 120.
You may want to consider a 27" 1440p display and a large 4k display instead of 2 4k displays, as the 1440p will be easier on the eyes due to issues with small text sizes on the 4k monitor.
Do the monitors need to support hardware calibration?
One of the new nvidia's (ie 970) would be an ideal graphics card 4Gb mem, connect using dualink dvi to the 1440p, and display port to the 4k monitor.
 
i7 would be nice, 16GB RAM. Looks like X99 would be a nice option

You require 4x 2TB hard drives however? That's about £260 right there
 
Cheers for the response guys.

She uses Adobe CS6, but it looks like she'll be swapping to CC soon. In terms of the work she does, she rarely works with text.. its more fine arts and concept art - graphics design probably isn't the best way to describe it.

For storage, shes currently working with the 120GB SSD in the MBA and that seems to be doing her fine. I'd like to add extra mechanical drives in it for backup and large volume storage as all her life work is on the SSD with no backup, and that scares me!

Whether i have local storage in the computer or invest in a NAS i'm not sure yet.

So are you guys suggesting to get a lower res but higher quality display VS standard 4K?
 
If she uses any accelerated filters then a GPU would be worth investigating but I wouldn't buy one until you've seen how it runs with the IGP.

I'd get a 4790k cpu if only because you don't need to overclock it to get 4.4ghz on one core. Photoshop can use more than 4 cores but only for certain features...not sure what. Adobe themselves say 6 cores and above aren't cost effective for most usage scenarios.

120gb ssd is indeed fine as all you need it for is windows, photoshop and active projects.

Without knowing how big her PSDs get it's difficult to make a ram recommendation.
 
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McGraw said:
If she uses any accelerated filters then a GPU would be worth investigating but I wouldn't buy one until you've seen how it runs with the IGP.

I'd get a 4790k cpu if only because you don't need to overclock it to get 4.4ghz on one core.

120gb ssd is indeed fine as all you need it for is windows, photoshop and active projects.

Without knowing how big her PSDs get it's difficult to make a ram recommendation.
Click to expand...

The PSDs can scale between 500MB to 2.5GB depending on the size. She's been working on 30" x 28" @ 300dpi artwork lately.

I think i might be over-thinking things slightly.. if the MBA can do most of what she needs, i don't think I'll need anything overkill. Saying that, shes starting to look into 3D modeling, so i may need to futureproof whilst i have the budget.
 
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