PowerBook + CS2 , how much RAM?

[raincoat]

Hello! I am looking to move from 35mm photography into digital and have the following dilema:
I have a PB 17" 1.33 with 768Mb of ram. I'm deciding whether or not to get CS2 but was wondering if my PB would be too slow? Do i have to get a Dual PM for CS2 to run smoothly, or could i upgrade the ram in the PB to cope?

Has anyone had any experience with CS or CS2 on a PB?

 

[Jonnie]

Max your ram and you will be fine. A powermac will always be faster, but i have a powerbook 1.5 ghz with 1gig (planning to go to 2 gig) and i can run CS just fine. Waiting for my upgrade to CS 2.0 so i wonder how that will run.

 

[Bear]

I've used Phoptoshop 7 & CS on a Powerbook and I wound up getting 2GB in my current Powerbook.

I doubt CS2 will really suck up more processing power, however, for various reasons, unless you want or need the new features in CS2, don't upgrade until you need them.

 

[raincoat]

I've used Phoptoshop 7 & CS on a Powerbook and I wound up getting 2GB in my current Powerbook.

I doubt CS2 will really suck up more processing power, however, for various reasons, unless you want or need the new features in CS2, don't upgrade until you need them.

I only have Photoshop Elements 2.0 at the moment so CS2 would be a fresh start. Also, i should be able to get an edu discount.

Loading say 30 shots in photoshop takes a little time. With CS, is it possible to batch process photos?

 

[andrewfee]

I've used Photoshop on the same Powerbook with different ammounts of RAM, and I'd say get as much as you can.

512mb was usable, but only just - I saw a big jump in performance when going to 1gig.

I then put in my other 1gig stick (should've put the 512mb back in to test 1.5gig I suppose) and saw another increase in performance and how well the application ran, although not as significant from 512mb > 1gb.

I've only had it set to use 50% of my RAM though, I believe CS2 defaults to 70/75%

I prefer to have the extra RAM available for other applications though, I usually have a lot open at once.

 

[Blue Velvet]

With CS, is it possible to batch process photos?

Yes, with Actions, Droplets and the Automate function.

 

[Bear]

I only have Photoshop Elements 2.0 at the moment so CS2 would be a fresh start. Also, i should be able to get an edu discount.

Loading say 30 shots in photoshop takes a little time. With CS, is it possible to batch process photos?

CS has batch processing, but if you're buying fresh, get CS2. On the other side of the coin, check to see if Photoshop Elements 3 can do what you want, it has a lot more features and there are ways of turning on some other things that the full Phoshop has - plenty of hints and details on the net for that.

One of the reasons I was saying not to go for XCS2 is due to the new activation requirements on the Mac and a lot of people won't need the new CS2 features. However, you may as well get the latest if you have to buy a version.

 

[Horrortaxi]

Adobe is going the way of Microsoft with freuent forced upgrades and hostile treatment of customers. For that reason alone I'd say to take a look at CS rather than CS2--CS2 is a huge step toward the dark side unless you need it's new features (unlikely unless you're a pro with a lot of experience with older versions).

Elements will do most anything, so that's also worth looking into.

 

[raincoat]

Many thanks for all of the advice. I think i will spend a little more time on Elements 2.0 and then check out Elements 3.0.

One thing that i am primarily looking for is the function to create books (similar to iphoto 2.0 but more advanced). I generally shoot weddings and want something different from the traditional album. I want to be able to arrange collages of photographs with layers etc on an A4 size page. I'd like to develop a series of pages and then get it printed and bound. I have seen this around. Does anyone know anywhere in the UK that does this sort of printing and can i do this in photoshop on my powerbook? what version of photoshop would i need?

many thanks

 

[Jo-Kun]

I learned that using photoshop at good speeds take this in mind

what's the size in mb of your commonly used file and multiply by 3, that's the amount you need to run photoshop at its smoothest...

a Pb with 2GB ram will normally eat a PMG5 alive if that one has only 512MB ram and both using the same file in photoshop, especially when running batches the PB will be faster, but probably the PM might reduce its loss due to higher harddisk writing speeds...

ideally for Photoshop get a good processor, fast drives and lots of ram.

if you can only spend ram on one part: go with more ram first, that will make the biggest difference anyway...