Best computer to use with tablet?

[inmygucci]

I have been using a PC all my life and I think it may be time to switch to Mac since I want to pursue digital painting more seriously.
I am considering getting an iMac but I am really confused with all the rams, memory options etc. etc.
It's overwhelming. I don't want to spend too much either, since I'm on a tight budget
Anyone have any suggestions, links, reviews?
Speed, of course, is important when it comes to digital painting. So that would be my number one priority.

thanks guys!

[Brashen]

You want speed? Stick with a PC.
You want it affordable? Stick with a PC.
You want it to be able to upgrade for cheap? Stick with a PC.

I didn't know that switching to a MAC will make you better at digital painting......could you possibly link me to your source of information? I'm sorry but if you think your choice in hardware will make you a better artist then you have no business in becoming one.
Being an a good artist doesn't mean becoming a sheep...was it inscribed somewhere on holy text that we artists must sell our souls to the Apple God to become better at what we do....honestly do yourself a favour and your wallet...stick with something you know
rather than gallivanting to join the flock.

[JeroKane]

I have been using a PC all my life and I think it may be time to switch to Mac since I want to pursue digital painting more seriously.
I am considering getting an iMac but I am really confused with all the rams, memory options etc. etc.
It's overwhelming. I don't want to spend too much either, since I'm on a tight budget
Anyone have any suggestions, links, reviews?
Speed, of course, is important when it comes to digital painting. So that would be my number one priority.

thanks guys!

When it comes to graphics and thus drawing. There is no reason to switch to Mac these days.

I have both PC and Mac myself.

I have a Mac solely for the music production, as when it comes to sound processing and quality. PC still sucks today.

Especially when you are on a tight budget, you better stick to PC.

For the Price of a 24inch iMac (the screen of the 20inch is horrible! So don't buy that one!!) you can buy a very good PC (quad core CPU, 8GB of RAM, large Harddisk and good graphic card (GeForce 9800GTX as affordable example) and a very good BenQ 24inch TFT screen!

Add a Intuos4 Medium tablet to it... and you end up on the price of the entry model 24inch iMac.

So for the price of a 24inch entry level iMac you got a much much more powerful PC, beautiful 24inch TFT screen and Intuos4 Medium tablet.

Jer

[inmygucci]

You want speed? Stick with a PC.
You want it affordable? Stick with a PC.
You want it to be able to upgrade for cheap? Stick with a PC.

I didn't know that switching to a MAC will make you better at digital painting......could you possibly link me to your source of information? I'm sorry but if you think your choice in hardware will make you a better artist then you have no business in becoming one.
Being an a good artist doesn't mean becoming a sheep...was it inscribed somewhere on holy text that we artists must sell our souls to the Apple God to become better at what we do....honestly do yourself a favour and your wallet...stick with something you know
rather than gallivanting to join the flock.

No where in my post did I imply that I want a Mac because it would make me a better artist.

[inmygucci]

When it comes to graphics and thus drawing. There is no reason to switch to Mac these days.

I have both PC and Mac myself.

I have a Mac solely for the music production, as when it comes to sound processing and quality. PC still sucks today.

Especially when you are on a tight budget, you better stick to PC.

For the Price of a 24inch iMac (the screen of the 20inch is horrible! So don't buy that one!!) you can buy a very good PC (quad core CPU, 8GB of RAM, large Harddisk and good graphic card (GeForce 9800GTX as affordable example) and a very good BenQ 24inch TFT screen!

Add a Intuos4 Medium tablet to it... and you end up on the price of the entry model 24inch iMac.

So for the price of a 24inch entry level iMac you got a much much more powerful PC, beautiful 24inch TFT screen and Intuos4 Medium tablet.

Jer

Thanks, this was very very informative!
I always kind of felt that you're overpaying for Apple's products because of their name.

[Penabled]

Speed eh? Speed of what? The CPU or the GPU? Or RAM speed maybe?

If you want the computer to be fast in general there are many things that influence speed....all of the above and what sort of things might be running in the back ground as well. There are all kinds of ways to increase speed without having to resort to bumping up processor speed. Reducing the amount of background processes for one...reducing the amount of apps running that don't need to be running also helps.

Ultimately I think what you will be happy with is the ability to multi-task and for that at least a Dual core is necessary....preferably a Quad-core. Include with it at least 4GB of Ram and a 64bit OS and you should be humming right along. Good luck! ;)

[Brashen]

I have been using a PC all my life and I think it may be time to switch to Mac since I want to pursue digital painting more seriously.


If that doesn't imply it I don't know what does...

[tandy1000]

I didn't know serious artists used macs?!

[JeroKane]

I didn't know serious artists used macs?!

There was a time (80's, 90's and early 2000) when this was indeed the case.

In the 80's it was the Commodore Amiga and Apple Mac that were far far ahead when it came to graphics. They supported VGA years ahead of the PC!

As we all know... Commodore went R.I.P. in the 90's and when drawing programs matured... Apple Mac was the only platform that could support it back then, because the PC market didn't take that market serious (yet).

So I understand where inmygucci is coming from and how she(?) got this perception.

These days there are still some big Art studios and Advertisement companies that still use Mac's..... but it is absolutely not nessessary anymore.

The sole reason they still use it, is they want to show off as ofcourse the Mac's look good! That was always Apple's strong point. Great designed hardware!

But under the hood, PC's have already surpassed Mac's when it comes to capabilities.

With Mac's you still restricted by the hardware Apple provides, while with PC's you can now go as far as the current technology allows you to go (and your wallet ofcourse lol).

To answer Gucci's last question. You are welcome and the reason Apple's are overprices is because you pay for design. Just like with other products wich have great design.

Jer

[Brashen]

A better idea would list your requirements and budget....

[bumskee]

A quadcore would be nice..
maybe Q9xxx from intel if you are on a tighter budget AMD PH2 quads, as they would be slighty cheaper but Intel CPUs perform slightly better with graphics and encoding. if your budge allows you could get I7 from intel, top of range CPUs and performs better than bother of above but it's rather expensive, especially with the motherboards as well as DDR3 rams too. well at least more than the other options.

4gb of RAM since the prices are much cheaper..

as for GPU, I think it's a mixed bag..
TBH cs4 and all that GPU stuff I think it's overrated, at least for the moment. Maybe CS5 will have better support and usage, so for the moment I think it's not that important. But of course if you do either games or 3d, it's another story, in which case you would need a better graphic card, otherwise as far as 2d is concerned onboard graphics are enough. tho having a GPU even a cheap one gives you two advtanges, running a bigger screen (dvi for 24 or larger screens) and dual screens. well u could always grab one later down the track if you need it.. it's no biggie I think.

if you are keen you could always head over to tech forums like anadtech and get more recommendations. good luck!

[SIMPLEatLife]

I'm sure Brashen will trash this. But it really does come down to price I spent 400 on a tablet and almost 2800 on my 3.06 iMac. For me the Mac is the only choice. I do enjoy using PS for digital painting but also use the entire suite for print design and web design. I have had 0 issues with CS4 all the features work flawless to the point that it just seems to work better on mac.

I use a dual processor PC at work with CS3 as we are not updating PC's anymore. It works fine but it does crash every now and again and it took a long time to patch after they released the programs, but still do all the design on the Mac.

Price is the issue. Macs are so expensive but I have replaced 2 PC's in the amount of time I replaced a Mac. And I only did so cause I wanted a new machine. There is one bonus to a Mac right now. PC's are having alot of issues with all there 64 bit OS either XP or Vista. And who knows the issues to come with windows 7. The bonus is that the upgrade to the new Mac OS is only 25 bucks to get a 64 bit system built off of an already rock solid OSX.

But this is just my 2 cents. I'm a Mac user because I don't like having issues when it comes time to pay the bills. But if this is a hobby there are many options in the PC market.

[Brashen]

I have just one thing to say.....you haven' the slightest inkling of what you're talking about.

If I were to post your comment on a tech site you'd be laughed off the internet....go....go crawl back to your measly existence before I stomp it out for good.

[SIMPLEatLife]

Like I said, thank you Brashen for the lashing.

I would just go to the store and try them out. The apple store should have PS CS4 loaded on all machines. I can only speak for the system I enjoy working on. They should really make an argument thread just for Mac vs. PC cause if you ask this question this is usually the result. Or if like Brashen you enjoy spending all your time in the Painter 11 or PS forum talking about lag and Open GL doesnt work on my netbook get the PC. Me i'm going to enjoy the over priced system I purchased using all the benefits that Adobe has to offer while Brashen trys to find which driver is going to fix the new windows bug this week. :)

[ikken]

I have just one thing to say.....you haven' the slightest inkling of what you're talking about.

If I were to post your comment on a tech site you'd be laughed off the internet....go....go crawl back to your measly existence before I stomp it out for good.

Are you offended by the fact that some people just don't use custom built monsters with hitler-minded OS, or what?

[tandy1000]

Like I said, thank you Brashen for the lashing.

I would just go to the store and try them out. The apple store should have PS CS4 loaded on all machines. I can only speak for the system I enjoy working on. They should really make an argument thread just for Mac vs. PC cause if you ask this question this is usually the result. Or if like Brashen you enjoy spending all your time in the Painter 11 or PS forum talking about lag and Open GL doesnt work on my netbook get the PC. Me i'm going to enjoy the over priced system I purchased using all the benefits that Adobe has to offer while Brashen trys to find which driver is going to fix the new windows bug this week. :)

This is ridiculous, just because you don't know how to use your windows machine doesn't constitute the fact that Macs are better than PCs. I'm no software mogul, I'm merely another home PC user but I've never experienced any of the ridiculous things you've posted. Only reason you would be having problems is if you had no idea how to install or find the right drivers in the first place, hardware was faulty, or you downloaded virus infected porn.

I'm sorry you had a pretty bad experience with PC's but it's hardly due to the fault of windows, the problem lies with your inability to use it correctly. I've had my PC for 4 years now and it runs perfectly, I reformat every 6 months or so and keep my bios updated when new releases are put out.

It should be more like this.... If you don't know how to use a PC pay an extra $1000-2000 for the MAC with similar specs. I don't have that liberty so I actually learned how to use my PC instead of going down the MAC route.

[Rinthe]

macs are made for people who don't know too much about computers, its simple and works, that's why people who don't know anything about computers buy into it, plus it looks really good. you are also paying for the design.

PCs are made for people who knows more about computers, it's a lot more customizable, you have more control over things. You can get a PC with equal hardware to a MAC that cost much much less.

[inmygucci]

Brashen, your work is quite impressive.

&
Maybe my wording was off, but that's not what I meant at all..

[Brashen]

inmygucci, thanks and I understand I didn't mean to be overbearing with my remarks...but as you can see there are some that still believe the opposite..so for those who think that OMG MACS DONT CRASH AND HAVE NO PROBLEMS....Tsk Tsk (http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/apple-desktops/)

[Rist]

inmygucci, thanks and I understand I didn't mean to be overbearing with my remarks...but as you can see there are some that still believe the opposite..so for those who think that OMG MACS DONT CRASH AND HAVE NO PROBLEMS....Tsk Tsk (http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/apple-desktops/)

Your anti-mac hate speech is starting to make ca.org smell a little. Go rant about how much you loathe them elsewhere.

And for the record I have not had to clean cache/defrag/anti-spam and adware, had no viruses, and no heat issues since I bought my macbook PRO. And the machine has NEVER EVER EVER crashed. I am a testimonial to the statement of they never crash.

This guy is always debating about something here. Why don't you join an AOL discussion, they seem more like your kind of people.

And before you call me a name, I also use WINDOWS XP on bootcamp everyday, which runs as smooth as the store bought machines.

[Brashen]

Boo freaking hoo....sticks and stones mate..even with factual proof in front of your own eyes you still see it as the perfect machine..hey if you've never had a problem with your computer more power to you....the world doesn't revolve around you tho...the fact that you use windows xp everyday and that you dont have to defrag/ whatever else you typed up there prooves my point and only makes you look like a douche....If you weren't so insistent in starting an argument with me you'd have realized that we were discussing the product as a whole and not just the os....Macs are basically PCs with an added markup price....but please go ahead share more of your ignorance with us :)

[Rist]

No mate, you want to argue with everyone else. Every topic I have seen today with you in it has been about you argueing with someone else.

And of course I defrag my XP whenever possible, only a fool wouldn't. I NEVER need to defrag my Leapard though.

But any ways, I'm back to drawing and studying. Waste time argueing with strangers all you want and throw away the time.

[Brashen]

It's ok I'm waiting to receive payment on a commission so I can argue with you all day. Is there even an option to defrag leopard?? So you've looked at three topics today how quaint....but you started this argument and you don't have the gusto to finish it tsk tsk. Stay awhile and plaaaay.

[arttorney]

I have been using a PC all my life and I think it may be time to switch to Mac since I want to pursue digital painting more seriously.
This could as well be interpreted as a statement that the original poster might consider the Mac environment to be an industry standard. I do not think it necessarily implies anything about the quality of the original poster's work, or even in fact the quality of work either OS can support. If the original poster hasn't already run screaming for the hills, let us know if by "serious" you mean as in "get a job" serious.
I am considering getting an iMac but I am really confused with all the rams, memory options etc. etc.
It's overwhelming. This is why I didn't chime in about the $80 reconditioned XP box I just bought and converted to linux (free OS), with gimp (free), Inkscape vector illustrator (free), and Blender 3D modeling program (free). Obviously the price is right, but it is very hands on to set this up.
I don't want to spend too much either, since I'm on a tight budget
Anyone have any suggestions, links, reviews?
Speed, of course, is important when it comes to digital painting. So that would be my number one priority.

thanks guys!Suggestion: Tell us whether you are trying to enhance your employability or portfolio and, since speed is your number one priority, tell us whether you mean the speed the machine can comprehend and implement your input (which I believe was your point) or something else such as the speed at which you can figure out how to work the programs. Other posters are right in saying that the machine's apparent speed can be affected by different things. An inexpensive laptop may seem slow when it is really not, due to factory installation of a bunch of applets you don't need (giving you 90 day trial versions of accounting programs etc. and hassling you to buy the full version before the 90 days expire). That stuff grabs the computer's attention away from what you really want it to do.

[JeroKane]

Your anti-mac hate speech is starting to make ca.org smell a little. Go rant about how much you loathe them elsewhere.

And for the record I have not had to clean cache/defrag/anti-spam and adware, had no viruses, and no heat issues since I bought my macbook PRO. And the machine has NEVER EVER EVER crashed. I am a testimonial to the statement of they never crash.

This guy is always debating about something here. Why don't you join an AOL discussion, they seem more like your kind of people.

And before you call me a name, I also use WINDOWS XP on bootcamp everyday, which runs as smooth as the store bought machines.

I am not really interested to mingle into this heated debate.

But as an IT professional. Let me tell you one thing.

You Mac fetishists... you better keep praying to your almighty Apple god every day that your beloved Mac doesn't become popular enough for the hackers and crackers to shift their focus to the Mac OSX platform.

As when that day arrives, it will be the end of Apple.

And that's all I have to say about it. As like I said. I have no interest to mingle in this heated debate.

It's derailing this topic.

Jer

[Brashen]

Jero=Sex

[Arshes Nei]

Don't make me lock this topic.

To the OP it doesn't matter other than what the chip of the processor can do, memory and storage. The only other things to consider is availability of certain programs you may want to use. bunskee provided that information what is good.

Painter, Photoshop are definitely industry standard applications and work on both platforms. For 3d since I'm less familiar I do know at least the major ones like Maya and 3d studio are also cross platform.

Now apps like Open Canvas, Easy Paint Tool Sai are Windows only. If you've tried and enjoyed those apps you won't be able to use them to their full extent with a Mac (even if you're using bootcamp).

I have no hate for Macs, but I am a bargain hunter when it comes to computers. Since technology has been improving rapidly it's just easier for me costwise to work with a PC environment than a Mac one. It's not that I go for the cheapest parts either, just the best bang for my buck.

You can still do fantastic work as an illustrator with a Duo Core machine, a Quad Core is even better but I don't think the major illustration programs have been taking advantage of it just yet, but it's definitely getting there, so it's definitely a factor to look out for. I also don't immediately go out for the fastest processor until I know what I'm using my PC for.

The only thing that you may want to worry about is what kind of tablet you'll be using to become a better illustrator. It's not that a tablet will make you a better artist, but rather the features of the tablet will you utilize the most. Intuos or Cintiqs would be the way to go if you're a serious illustrator. A Bamboo or Graphire is good to start out with if you're on a tight budget.

[Rist]

You Mac fetishists...



Calling names is just.......... :harbl:

Obviously if the person defends anything by apple they automatically become labelled as a, what was it again? Mac fetishists, or sometimes fanboys/z, mac worshippers etc.

Obviously I cannot say anything positive about a mac in case someone calls me names and throw stones too to make sure it stings.

thread needs: :mod:

[Rist]

It's ok I'm waiting to receive payment on a commission so I can argue with you all day. Is there even an option to defrag leopard?? So you've looked at three topics today how quaint....but you started this argument and you don't have the gusto to finish it tsk tsk. Stay awhile and plaaaay.

Well why not do ANOTHER commission instead of waiting? :wtf:

[Arshes Nei]

Ugh...dammit

Z1eFdUSnaQM

Locked.

[Elwell]

Reopening just to say...
inmygucci, you're going to be at SVA next year, right? SVA is very mac centric, so you'll probably have an easier time with support etc if you go that way (plus you may want to wait until you're registered so that you can take advantage of student discounts).