If you had 600 quid to buy a PC for digital photography and editing?

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What spec would you buy?

My dad, likes photography as a hobby and is soon to purchase a digital camera (a decent/serious one, not sure which yet).

What PC would you get with 600 quid? What would be the most important parts for a PC used for Photographic editing and word processing and internet browsing?

Thanks for any advice, I sense there are other threads like this one, but started this for it to get up to date technological responses.
 
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Spec as follows

- At least 1GB Ram
- The biggest Hard Drive you can afford (300GB+) and an additional Hard Drive for backups
- A DVD Writer to backup
 
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I'd definatly get a Mac :)

My parents have been using PC's for years, and i convinced them to get a Mac Mini at Christmas, and it really is great for them.

Personally i got my MacBook this week, and that's great too. The only slight issue with Intel based Mac's at the moment is that Photoshop (for example) hasn't been converted to run on them, and so is slow :(

Do not just ignore the Mac's though. If you're a student then you could get him about 15% off them too!
 
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Matt said:
I'd definatly get a Mac :)

My parents have been using PC's for years, and i convinced them to get a Mac Mini at Christmas, and it really is great for them.

Personally i got my MacBook this week, and that's great too. The only slight issue with Intel based Mac's at the moment is that Photoshop (for example) hasn't been converted to run on them, and so is slow :(

Do not just ignore the Mac's though. If you're a student then you could get him about 15% off them too!

Are Macs generally more expensive though? I am a student, do teachers get discounts too?
 
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Maniac618 said:
Are Macs generally more expensive though? I am a student, do teachers get discounts too?

Uni students get about 15% off (i ordered over the phone, and they didn't even ask for proof!).

The base MacBook is £643 for students, however, the costs could rise if you want more RAM/external HDD, etc... But to get started it's a very good price for what you do get.

I'm not sure of iMac prices though, so you'd be best off just phoning and asking.

[edit] If you have NUS, you can go through the NUS site to the Apple Store, and it shows the discounts
 
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Matt said:
Uni students get about 15% off (i ordered over the phone, and they didn't even ask for proof!).

The base MacBook is £643 for students, however, the costs could rise if you want more RAM/external HDD, etc... But to get started it's a very good price for what you do get.

I'm not sure of iMac prices though, so you'd be best off just phoning and asking.

[edit] If you have NUS, you can go through the NUS site to the Apple Store, and it shows the discounts

I'll have a look, thanks a lot for the help.
 
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for 600 notes you can get a very good computer, you will want 2gb of ram, a fast processor and a good fast hd. Maybe raid 1 a couple of hds so that you will never lose pics and get a dvd burner.

Easily had for 600
 
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I got Mac and it is lovely, the only downside is the lack of free (decent) raw software.

Lightroom runs very slow. Adobe is bit slow and Aperture will struggle on my iBook G4.

I wish Raw Shooter came out on Mac.

If you gonna be shooting photos as Jpeg then Mac would be good if Raw I'd stick with the PC as it has more software options.
 
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mac mini's will basically be an old g4 or a intel duo core which is nice but basically a laptop based chipset.
600 notes including a monitor!?
I'd get a P4 based system with lots of hdd space, 160gb plus at least, 1gb ram
don't need special graphics although make sure the motherboard has an AGP or PCI-e 16 slot on it for future proofing
that's all you need really
if you can get a dual core system, even better
monitor wise, decent tft is okay, 19" is nice
something with a good contrast ratio
600 notes is enough
 
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just had a look...there is a high street retailer for example that do a nice xerox monitor, fair machine with 512megs ram and dual core pentium for £630 inc
there must be similar or better deals out there too
 
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Intel dual cores may be coming down in price in next few months - if they do then I'd suggest basing around one of these and overclocking.

2 GB ram is a must with Photoshop
Large storage disk and separate app and scratch disk locations
DVD burner
 
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PC is the best option for your budget.

I built PC for friend yesterday and his budget was £600.

bought him from OCUK

Acer 19 inch WS, 120GB HDD, DVDRW, 1gb Ram, Geforce 6600, Asus AH1 Barbone, AMD 3000 and budget Logitech Speaker.

if you buy cheap GFX and get Intel Dual Core and 2GB RAM, it will all come to around £600-650. (not including mouse, keyboard).
 
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Matt said:
I'd definatly get a Mac :)

My parents have been using PC's for years, and i convinced them to get a Mac Mini at Christmas, and it really is great for them.

Personally i got my MacBook this week, and that's great too. The only slight issue with Intel based Mac's at the moment is that Photoshop (for example) hasn't been converted to run on them, and so is slow :(

Do not just ignore the Mac's though. If you're a student then you could get him about 15% off them too!

Why aren't you dual booting XP and MacOS thats what im doing if not in the initial stages cos i got a MacBook pro 17in yesterday! i've almost got it all sorted...2 reformats later lol...S from what im hearing until a universal binary is out for adobe apps they are far faster on XP...Gutter huh..S
 
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DeathCab4Stuie said:
Why aren't you dual booting XP and MacOS thats what im doing if not in the initial stages cos i got a MacBook pro 17in yesterday! i've almost got it all sorted...2 reformats later lol...S from what im hearing until a universal binary is out for adobe apps they are far faster on XP...Gutter huh..S

I am, but i only use Windows for .NET development, i just don't like it anymore :( It doesn't work how i want an OS to!
 
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