Ronald M
Veteran
People who wrote the photoshop instruction for Popular Photography Magazine series use the small Mac, no screen.
¥ou can buy screens from $100 to $2000 depending on size ,color accuracy, ability to properly calibrate, etc. A room properly darkened is required.
I see no reason to tie the screen to the computer like an iMac.
I use a Mac Pro and EIZO 27" Color Edge.
¥ou can buy screens from $100 to $2000 depending on size ,color accuracy, ability to properly calibrate, etc. A room properly darkened is required.
I see no reason to tie the screen to the computer like an iMac.
I use a Mac Pro and EIZO 27" Color Edge.
wjlapier
Well-known
Dave, I didn't see a budget in the original post, but I also didn't read every post after--some, but not all.
The link above to Brad Husick's Mac would be a excellent place to start if you can afford it. Brad is a good guy.
If budget is low, I 2nd/3rd the suggestion for a Mac Mini. My first Mac was a Mini and eventually led to a Macbook Pro, albeit, an older one. I can't afford a new Mac. My son started with a mac mini and my daughter has my old unibody macbook--white plastic wonder. FWIW, I paid about $200 for the mac minis we have. $500 each for the MacBooks. Go to OWC and see what they have available used.
The link above to Brad Husick's Mac would be a excellent place to start if you can afford it. Brad is a good guy.
If budget is low, I 2nd/3rd the suggestion for a Mac Mini. My first Mac was a Mini and eventually led to a Macbook Pro, albeit, an older one. I can't afford a new Mac. My son started with a mac mini and my daughter has my old unibody macbook--white plastic wonder. FWIW, I paid about $200 for the mac minis we have. $500 each for the MacBooks. Go to OWC and see what they have available used.
BillBingham2
Registered User
Did someone say it was hard?
Actually the CMD window under windows 10 can now be resized pretty much as you like.
To get to the run program you can use the Windows key and the R key.
Another way to find the CMD program is the search for CMD as a file. Not as pretty but it works.
PF keys weren't hard either, but people seem to feel they should go the way of the dinosaurs.
B2 (;->
BillBingham2
Registered User
I spent all Saturday morning teaching six kids about binary, hex and some aspects of how computers work. Kind of like saying "Let's go to the Video Tape" (ala Marv Albert), ain't no tape no more.
The speed at which the ubiquity of fast internet access for some of the world is mind-blowing.
B2 (;->
dave lackey
Veteran
Wow! So many great posts I can't thank each of you individually but I assure I read and am considering each one in depth.
The good news is today I finally found a way to get my email back up and running on the computer! Yay! Now I can access my D drive with all of my photography files and actually post/send them whenever I desire. It also means, I can continue working with the present computer on my current project at Emory University.
But the handwriting is on the wall... you guys are amazing as the resources you are! Thank you all so very much.
The good news is today I finally found a way to get my email back up and running on the computer! Yay! Now I can access my D drive with all of my photography files and actually post/send them whenever I desire. It also means, I can continue working with the present computer on my current project at Emory University.
But the handwriting is on the wall... you guys are amazing as the resources you are! Thank you all so very much.
Jamie Pillers
Skeptic
I'll ditto this... I've been using a Mac Mini for several years now with zero problems. I've got it hooked to a Samsung monitor and an Apple Time Machine for back-up.
Darthfeeble
But you can call me Steve
I scrolled past most of the comments, if no one has already I wanted to point out that if you switch to Mac none of your programs will work on it. I don't know if they will work even on Microsoft W-10 which is all you are going to get with new Windows machines. Therefor, if you have to buy all new software the platform issue isn't too much to worry about, except that you will have to add the expense of that to everything else. I like the Mac Mini idea, and was going to do that but found that all the new ones are only (!) dual core processors. That makes the large files of the modern digitals rather slow to process. Also the 8 gigs of RAM is on the puny side with a dual core. I got the quad core 21.5 iMac with 8 gigs and it's sufficient but not earthshaking in speed. Learning curve wise, you probably will have as much unfamiliarity with W-10 as you will with the Mac OS. Neither is a big leap. Good luck.
photomoof
Fischli & Weiss Sculpture
A system with a faster dual-core will feel faster in Photoshop, than a slower quad core, but the quad core will benefit you -- when you run a app like Final Cut Pro, or multi-task.
e.g. A mini with 3 GHz Intel Core i7 will outperform an i5 quad core running PS.
And more ram is clearly better for PS. 32 is really a reason to buy an iMac, but I get by with 16 on my mini, since I am not in a huge hurry, I just use it for personal work.
Obviously a Mac Intel Xeon E5, would probably a better choice is one was do a lot of rendering, but I don't need it.
Some tests and opinions:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2406293,00.asp
http://www.techetron.com/1216/quad-core-vs-dual-core-macbook-pro-a-real-world-benchmark/
http://9to5mac.com/2015/03/25/how-t...s-pages-for-imacs-macbooks-mac-minis-mac-pro/
philipus
ʎɐpɹəʇɥƃı&
Unless you definitely want to buy new the silver tower Mac Pros are good machines, and very upgradeable and easy to service. One of those (say a 2009-2010 model) with a matte Apple Cinema Display (23" or 30") is a good combination.
I believe Photoshop CS2 is now free, but I'd advise against using it because the newer versions are much better. Getting CC or CS6 will then be a very large part of the cost to switch to Mac.
I believe Photoshop CS2 is now free, but I'd advise against using it because the newer versions are much better. Getting CC or CS6 will then be a very large part of the cost to switch to Mac.
BillBingham2
Registered User
Dave, I have an older Mac Mini that I can loan you for a few months (as long as 12) if that will help. Any USB keyboard and mouse will work. PM me with your address. It has an small SSD, but it boots and I can include a VGA cable.
This should get you through till you select you new 2nd best friend.
B2
This should get you through till you select you new 2nd best friend.
B2
Dwig
Well-known
btgc
Veteran
I read it's not, it's meant to be easy activated for those who had purchased licenses, and now activation servers don't process CS2 anymore. Free slice of cheese only when you buy a bottle of wine.
photomoof
Fischli & Weiss Sculpture
I have maintained a friend's Mac Pro, and it is still going strong running Final Cut Pro. An amazing machine room for 6 internal drives!
The main advantage of the older tower Pro, is that you can use SCSI with it, and like all intel Macs you can run Windows.
Just looked at one on eBay looks like it will go for $700. Xeon Quad Core 3.2Ghz - 8GB - 1TB HD - 5770 GPU
David Hughes
David Hughes
Hi,
You may blow a fuse mentally going from Windows to Mac. I'd stick to Windows and try and get Windows 7 as it looks and runs like the previous versions. They say that about W10 but I have my doubts at times.
Or you might get away with a new HD and have Windows 7 loaded on it. Changing (or up grading as they say) means a lot of little things change and not always the way you want. F'instance, my old computer had the usual SD card slot but also a CF slot but the latest hasn't.
And an external drive for back ups is a good thing. If my computer was stolen or damage the external drive might just save me a lot of heart ache.
Regards, David
You may blow a fuse mentally going from Windows to Mac. I'd stick to Windows and try and get Windows 7 as it looks and runs like the previous versions. They say that about W10 but I have my doubts at times.
Or you might get away with a new HD and have Windows 7 loaded on it. Changing (or up grading as they say) means a lot of little things change and not always the way you want. F'instance, my old computer had the usual SD card slot but also a CF slot but the latest hasn't.
And an external drive for back ups is a good thing. If my computer was stolen or damage the external drive might just save me a lot of heart ache.
Regards, David
Merlijn53
Established
ChrisLivsey
Veteran
Edited:
Atto was is see link one of the last companies to make Mac OS X compatible PCI SCSI cards.
There may be boxes out there with the card.
http://www.scsi4me.com/scsi_hba-controller-cards_for-macs.html
Merlijn53
Established
I wanted my scsi Imacon scanner working on my 2010 macpro and tried eveything including this atto card. It cost me a lot of money and effort to find out that the best thing is to get an old g4 and it all works fine. Or, as I finally did, get a Ratoc scsi to firewire converter (around $300 nowadays) . It's working fine now with a g5 imac I had lying around.
Problems you will encounter if you try are:
-apple stopped supporting scsi somewhere along the road
-you need an old operating system (no later than snow leopard) to get the software for the scsi scanner working
-the oldest system you can use on a mac, is the system it came with
- the fact that it works, does not mean that it keeps on working tomorrow or next week
My advice is don't even think about it!
But my point in the earlier post was, that you should not go telling someone, who obviously knows nothing about these things, that it works, because if you get it to work, it is only under very special circumstances.
You could ie install snow leopard on a separate disc on your macpro, get a Ratoc converter and you have a good chance it works. But in real life there are a lot of problems if you want the rest of your computer working on a newer system. The SL system does not recognize the disks with the newer system, so try to startup your main disk
But it is getting a bit off topic I'm afraid.
Frank
photomoof
Fischli & Weiss Sculpture
I only used SCSI hard drives on a Pro, which has not been updated OS wise. I was most decidedly not trying to set up an Imacon scanner!
I do not miss SCSI, the only hard drives which were problematic, awful experience with scanners.
You lost me there Frank, why would a system stop working (other than hardware failure)? Assuming one boots to the original supplied OS what would change? After all one can boot several versions of OS.
I guess it is important to note, if one gets an older computer working with something like an Imacon scanner don't change anything in the software?
Dwig
Well-known
At work, I still using an older "late 2009" MacPro (dual Xenon w/ 12gig RAM). It ran 10.6.8 when I started working there and has since been upgraded to 10.8.x. Some of the external drives are SCSI 800 and our Imacon 848 is SCSI. All worked fine under 10.6.x and still work fine under 10.8.x. Admittedly this old beast isn't quite as fast as my personal off-the-shelf 2013 vintage Dell XPS8700 (quad cord I7 w/ 8gig RAM) when working with larger Ps files (large=600mb+). The old hard drive as lethargic by today's standards and are the main bottleneck.
We'll likely replace the MacPro in the not too distant future and the replacement is likely be a top model iMac stuffed with at least 32gb RAM and a new Thunderbolt external drive or drive array. Our off-site backup drives are USB3, which a new iMac can make good use of but the old MacPro requires that they fall back to USB2 speeds making a full backup take some 30+ hours (3 nights).
The budget restricted user should seriously consider using Windows. Mac's are great, but the cost more for the same quality and performance.
Merlijn53
Established
Well, as you remark, scsi can be problematic. I suppose that, combined with hardware that is not meant to be used with scsi, gives problems.
It all works better on a G4.
Frank