A SPECIFICATION FOR A PERSONAL COMPUTER (PC)
For DiGITAL IMAGING (DI)
By Mike Pill ARPS
This short article is purely technical in nature for which I make no apologies. Unfortunately the 'high' street sellers of PC's would have you believe they are standard 'white goods' just like fridges and washing-machines - they are not. They may be someday.
A number of club members are considering taking the plunge into buying a PC for many reasons including DI. Some of you will have already made the plunge. I suspect most of you who have already done so will have perhaps bought a PC with DI in mind. Lets be quite clear, that whilst there are certain ideal or optimum specifications for PC's for DI, most if not all PC's are capable of being used for this purpose. So:-
If your PC does not meet my criteria If it seems to be a lower specification.
Don't worry, It'll still be capable of producing A3 images on an A3 printer if that's what you want to do. It may not do it as quickly but it'll do it!
An ideal specification for a DI system?
Processor/CPU speed. Minimum of 300MHz, the higher the number the better. Make sure the 'motherboard' can take processors of a higher rate than this for any future upgrades.
Processor manufacturer. It doesn't matter who makes the processor they are all equally good, be they from Intel - Pentium, AMD - K6, Cyrix - M II, IDT - Winchip etc.
Motherboard. If You're going for Pentium II, make sure it's the BX chipset type. If its non-Pentium (Intel) i.e. using AMD, Cyrix CPU's go for Super Socket 7 boards that also support 100MHz memory and CPU's up to 500/550MHz.
Memory. 64Mb RAM (128Mb would be better if you're into layers, see Software).
Hard Disc. Minimum 6Gb come with Floppy drives which are next to useless for backing up images, as they are not large enough. Preferred types are the IOMEGA ZIP drives which support a type of floppy disc that is about 70 times the capacity of the standard 'floppy'.
Another similar sort is available - the LS120 system, which will support standard floppy discs as well but seems to be less popular. Tape systems such as HPs Colorado etc. are good for 'backup' in that they are relatively cheap in terms of storage costs but do not allow ready access to individual stored images/files. Another company called Syquest makes similar products but I understand from reading various magazines that the company is in financial difficulties. Writeable CD ROMS are another technology worth considering. The 'write-once' media is cheapest of all but is the most expensive in terms of hardware that attaches to the PC. If you want to make slides from your images then you will need to transfer them to either ZIP disc, CD ROM or equivalent and send them to an appropriate Imaging organisation or
transfer them over the Internet to such a company.
CD-ROM drives. You need one e.g. to load software and read Kodak Photo CD's.
PC case. Get a tower format with plenty of spaces on the front panel for extra disc drives etc. Do NOT buy slimline system. You will regret it.
Monitor. 17" is preferable. The monitors normally sold are usually 0.28mm dot pitch tube and a flat screen. If possible go for one with a smaller screen dot pitch e.g. 0.24 but they tend to be more expensive. Make sure that at whatever screen resolution etc. you wish to work at e.g. 1024*/768 pixels etc. the screen refresh rate is greater than 75Hz at this resolution, this minimises flicker. Personally I prefer a monitor using 'Triniton' tube but try and get one you are interested in demonstrated on your system.
Video Card, preferably with 8Mb of memory and preferably an AGP type (needs a motherboard capable of supporting this). A PCI based one is the next best option. This allows higher resolution and higher screen refresh rates. BUT make sure the monitor AND video card match in terms of resolution and refresh rate. Watch out for systems that use system memory (RAM) as video memory rather than a separate dedicated memory, as your 64M system can change into a 60M or 56M system.
Sound card. Useful, but not essential but it does allow you to play your favourite CDs as you create your images.
Printer. For image quality the answer seems to be EPSON be it A4 or A3. Hewlett Packard has the 1120C for A3 that is slightly cheaper and more soundly constructed than the Epson A3 equivalent but the EPSON has the edge in quality. However the HP has bigger ink cartridges and prints better on normal plain paper. For A4, Epson have the edge but also look at Canon and Lexmark printers.
Paper for printers. Glossy A3 and A4 (not the ultra high gloss) are available from many different manufacturers and most papers are compatible with most printers. Some are not e.g. Kodak lightweight glossy A4 is not happy with Epson Photostylus inks. The cheapest seems to be Jessop who make excellent A4 and A3 matt and glossy at reasonable prices BUT shop around and try different surfaces, finishes and makes. The choice and makes and surfaces is increasing almost daily.
Ink for Printers. Shop around. Top prices tend to be Dixons, PC World etc. I have had good experiences with filling black HP cartridges and bad experiences with their colour cartridges but I don't know if there are any options for the EPSON EX Photostylus yet.
Software. There are a lot of options. Go for something with layers. At the middle-lower end, the ones I have tried and would recommend are Picture Publisher 8 (PP8) and Paint Shop Pro 5 (PSP5) these are between £60 and £80. The top end is the ubiquitous Adobe PhotoShop at around £400, currently at version 5. Coral make a product that falls somewhere between these prices but I haven't tried it. Other products exist which are cheaper but I would recommend PP8, PSP5 or if you've won the lottery PhotoShop. But a word of warning, PhotoShop is very complex and not for the faint hearted. I would recommend starting with PP8 or PSP5. Generally a training course is recommended for PhotoShop to get the best out of it but its not essential. There are also many books available on PhotoShop.
Windows '95' or '98? Windows 95 is the maturer product although Windows '98' is now being sold but either will be suitable.
Modem for the Internet. Go for 56kb/s no less, or if you really want more speed go for BT's ASDN based Highway system at 128kb/s, but this is a bit expensive for casual use at present. The faster the better, as it saves on telephone charges. The Internet is useful for main reasons.
1) To find about photographic things on the World Wide web. 2) To get the latest downloads or bug fixers for the software you have just bought. 3) To transfer your image to a company that will make slides or prints (but likely to be time consuming even at modem speeds of 56kbps). 4) To transfer your images onto your or someone else's web-sight!
These specifications and comments reflect my own personal views and are by no means hard and fast. In most respects there is much flexibility and many options in all these areas above. A final point. Whatever you buy you will always be able to buy in three months time either the same thing a lot cheaper or a much higher specification system for the same price, usually the one you couldn't just afford!