New System Help

[ascarytiger]

I am going to be studying graphic design next year and I want to get my PC up to par. From what I hear Apple is better for graphics design, but I don't want to go that route. What sorts of upgrades should I look at making. Currently I'm running...

AMD Athlon XP 2800 Barton
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe
Gefoce FX 5900XT
1gig Corsiar
80GB WD
200GB WD

I wan thinking of upgrading to this:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (OCed to 2.5GHz)
ASUS N8N SLi Deluxe
Geforce 6600GT (until I can afford the next-gen NVIDIA GPUs)
Dual 160GB Seagate SATAs
and eventually add another gig of RAM

Any ideas?

 

[Kenazo]

if you're in graphic Design make sure that your school doesn't require you to run a mac.

 

[CMar]

Be careful on overclocking, you want stability. Nothing is worst than having your system crash while working on a project.
Also, Sli is useless, unless you do major gaming or intensive 3d modeling stuff. I have a Matrox 450 32mb. It works as good or better than any new card for 2d graphics using Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign etc. Save your money for software or a tablet.

Apple is only better because it is what most design firms and print shops use, but there is no problem with compatibility, except maybe with some postscript fonts.
I currently use a PC at home and a Mac a school. My school uses this font set, http://www.adobe.com/education/ed_products/typeclassics.html, so I just installed the same set at home.
Apple became the standard for graphics because they decided to license Adobe's Postscript, making them compatible with all the new direct to plate printing methods. Microsoft decided to wing it and clone the technology and fonts. Today with most fonts being issued in open type, and postscript emulation there is no problem.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Yeah, DROP THE SLI BOARD! I'd go with the MSI Neo-4 Platinum. It's a great board that's loaded with tons of great features. Everything else looks great. Don't change anything else.

 

[Parimal]

Get decent Quadro instead of 6600GT....they may be too expensive, but worth it..!!

 

[SVT Cobra]

is it possible for you to go operton?? wait for DC and you can get a killer rig...

 

[Kenazo]

Originally posted by: Parimal
Get decent Quadro instead of 6600GT....they may be too expensive, but worth it..!!

Quadro's not really going to help unless he's into 3d rendering or something along those lines, but i agree, it would be the more useful option.

 

[ascarytiger]

I'm not really sure what exactly I'll be doing, but I'm majoring in graphic design...at least I plan to. And yes, I still game....HL2, Doom 3, etc.