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New Desktop Needed

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Wed, 2011-12-28 09:28
#1
mharrington
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Joined: 2002-09-07
New Desktop Needed

My 7 year old Dell XPS (XP SP3,3.2GHz, 2GB RAM) is showing its age and has recently suffered what appears to be a ZeroAccess rootkit virus infection which is proving very problematic to fix.

I had been planning to postpone a new purchase, but perhaps this is the time.

What are the generally accepted requirements for PS and DigitalPro 6 these days? I see Windows 7 Pro 64 bit mentioned elsewhere, what about RAM, CPU etc. Drivers for old stuff like a Coolscan IV?

Since the machine is also general purpose so I need a replacement in fairly short order so I'm leaning towards a Dell box. It seems that there is still a real computer store in NJ (www.microcenter.com) with actual inventory. For example a Dell Inspiron 620 (in stock) $630

Intel® Core™ i5-2320
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
8GB DDR3-1333 RAM
1TB 7,200RPM Hard Drive
16x DVD±RW Drive
8-in-1 Media Card Reader
Intel® HD Graphics 2000
10/100/1000 Network
Dell Wireless 1502 802.11 Wireless
Display Not Included

TIA for your comments!
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Thu, 2011-12-29 04:40
#2
David
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Joined: 2002-04-03
Mark--Sorry to hear about your machine, but 7 years is a good long time to get out of a computer these days.

The machine you've speced sounds fine, and will certainly be a big improvement. RAM is generally quite cheap right now, so you could even buy more, but I certainly would make sure the machine you get can go to 12GB or 16GB eventually if you're going to keep it for awhile--images are only getting larger.

You can always add a higher-powered graphics card later also, but what you've speced should be enough faster than what you have so as not to be a limit anytime soon. Similarly with the processor. The i7 will be even faster than the i5 (quad cores), but will suck down more power and might well be overkill.

Hope that helps!--David
--David Cardinal, http://www.cardinalphoto.com, http://www.nikondigital.org
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Fri, 2011-12-30 10:29
#3
mharrington
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Joined: 2002-09-07
David,

Thanks for the input. Some more investigation indicates the 620 series upper limit is 8GB of RAM. Having the flexibility to go above 8GB will definitely bump the price up and probably require a purchase direct of Dell.

Mark
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Fri, 2011-12-30 19:00
#4
David
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Joined: 2002-04-03
Mark--Always a tough call. 8GB sure seems like a lot, but I'm running 12GB on my 2 Photoshop desktops and if I get enough layers on a large image at the same time I have a bunch of other stuff going on, it is helpful. That said, it certainly isn't a requirement. I haven't felt the need to bother to open them up to go to 16GB though.

Windows 8 will actually reduce the memory taken by Windows in most cases also, which will help a little in the future.--David
--David Cardinal, http://www.cardinalphoto.com, http://www.nikondigital.org
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Mon, 2012-01-02 23:06
#5
sjarrett
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Joined: 2008-09-04
Mark, when you find the new computer you want and it has the RAM upgrade available as suggested by David, buy the computer and order the new RAM Gigs from Crucial.com. They work great and are much cheaper than what Dell and many other companies charge when you buy and upgrade RAM at the same time.
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Wed, 2012-01-04 01:47
#6
David
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Joined: 2002-04-03
I can second the recommendation of crucial. They often aren't the cheapest (although as Sue points out, much cheaper than Dell and other computer companies), but their configurator is excellent, as are their products.--David
--David Cardinal, http://www.cardinalphoto.com, http://www.nikondigital.org
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