I am a design student in need of a computer for the coming semester. I will be using the Creative Suite and later on Macromedia. I have decided to get a PowerBook with 1 gig RAM SuperDrive 128 meg video card. I am just curious about the video card, is that overkill? Are there any other options I might explore? And finally, how is Crucial's RAM? Their RAM is much cheaper than Apple's RAM upgrade. Thanks.
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Graphic Design Student
- Thread starter TheHorseKilla
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sounds like a good choice
128 mb video ram is more than enough for your standard graphic design uses
the powerbook has a port where you can connect a large lcd screen so you have that option
...and you won't want to do homework all day, so the 128 mb of video ram will come in handy for gaming
128 mb video ram is more than enough for your standard graphic design uses
the powerbook has a port where you can connect a large lcd screen so you have that option
...and you won't want to do homework all day, so the 128 mb of video ram will come in handy for gaming
you are forgetting one thing though...
Hard drive space.
I have a 200 Gb drive in a PC acting as a fileserver for my powerbook and it's right full by now. I have multiple 1.5 GB photoshop files left over from my Digital Compositing class alone. And If you ever do video, DV is almost 4 meg a second and uncompressed out from after effects is like 30 or so.
Time to get that new 500 GB seagate that everyone's raving about...
Hard drive space.
I have a 200 Gb drive in a PC acting as a fileserver for my powerbook and it's right full by now. I have multiple 1.5 GB photoshop files left over from my Digital Compositing class alone. And If you ever do video, DV is almost 4 meg a second and uncompressed out from after effects is like 30 or so.
Time to get that new 500 GB seagate that everyone's raving about...
Don't forget either that as a student you'll be eligible for the educational discount that should help your budget a little. 
64mb is more than enough.
I manage the design department in a busy magazine publishers.
OK we are about to upgrade to PMG5s but we are using
PMG4s at the moment 32mbVRAM, 1gb ram, OSXPanther (Tiger in a few months)
... and we're running fine at the moment.
Graphic design isn't as power hungry as it used to be.
It's only if your doing a lot of heavy Photoshop and Distilling (actrobat) you need something with a bit of grunt.
The Adobe CS2 does rely on Quartz quite heavily, but 64mb is more than enough to run it.
Don't waste you're money on extra VRam - spend it on an external firewire HD
- you'll need storage rather than VRam.
All laptops have quite slow drives for battery and heat issues - so a quick external HD will speed you up considerably when you're not on the move.
And finally RAM
Crucial seem a bit pricey at the moment.
I try and get Kingston when I can. Good prices at the moment.
- and the old saying is true. Buy as much as you can afford. 1GB should be enough.
I manage the design department in a busy magazine publishers.
OK we are about to upgrade to PMG5s but we are using
PMG4s at the moment 32mbVRAM, 1gb ram, OSXPanther (Tiger in a few months)
... and we're running fine at the moment.
Graphic design isn't as power hungry as it used to be.
It's only if your doing a lot of heavy Photoshop and Distilling (actrobat) you need something with a bit of grunt.
The Adobe CS2 does rely on Quartz quite heavily, but 64mb is more than enough to run it.
Don't waste you're money on extra VRam - spend it on an external firewire HD
- you'll need storage rather than VRam.
All laptops have quite slow drives for battery and heat issues - so a quick external HD will speed you up considerably when you're not on the move.
And finally RAM
Crucial seem a bit pricey at the moment.
I try and get Kingston when I can. Good prices at the moment.
- and the old saying is true. Buy as much as you can afford. 1GB should be enough.
How long will you have your computer?
If this is only a short-term solution, 64mb of vram will be fine. If, on the other hand, you will be using the computer that you are buying now in five years time, you might think that the extra vram is a good investment.
If this is only a short-term solution, 64mb of vram will be fine. If, on the other hand, you will be using the computer that you are buying now in five years time, you might think that the extra vram is a good investment.
TheHorseKilla said:
Stay with 128MB VRAM. More VRAM = more performance. Plus, what you buy now is what that PowerBook will always have in it- can't upgrade it later.
Thanks to everyone for the replies. I was feeling a little unsure about my decision with all the speculation about upgrades. My confidence is up, and I'm ready to purchase. I will be going to order the PowerBook today. As for the V-RAM, 64 megs seemed like it would be enough, but the upgrade is onle $90. That almost feels like pocket change when you're spending $2,000+ on a computer.
Also, I found Crucial to be about $7 dollars cheaper than Kingston. What do you guys use?
Also, I found Crucial to be about $7 dollars cheaper than Kingston. What do you guys use?
Crucial, but it's just my opinion. Many others may agree though.TheHorseKilla said:
Good luck/Congrats on the purchase!
Where will you be attending?
I matched the RAM that came with my PowerBook, which happened to be Samsung. I had 512 as 2 x 256 sticks and bought a 1GB Samsung stick, to come out with 1.25GB total. It's been working great for almost a year now.
