As a graphic designer how much ram should my macbook have, 1 or 2 gb?

Question

also, how much memory should my hard drive have.

Answer 1

"The average computer user will never need more then 640k of Memory" - Bill Gates. ;)

Personally I always tell people you can never have enough RAM. The question is which is more relevant, processor or RAM. I would skimp a little on the processor to increase the RAM. I administer 3D CAD/CAM workstations here at my company. I've always heard that CAD and GD packages are pretty comparable in their resource requierments. So I would suggest at least 4GB of ram for your machine although you could probably get by with 2.

Answer 2

Short Answer: 2GB

Long Answer:
My Fiancee is a graphics designer and she runs Photoshop, InDesign and dreamweaver. The nature of this type of work requires you to have lots of programs open at once and for this you need as much memory as possible, especially because of the memory footprint that these programs require.

Whenever someone complains about their computer running slow the first hardware upgrade I recommend is memory. Not only is it the cheapest and easiest upgrade but it will also give you the biggest performance boost.

If you are trying to put together the computer on a tight budget then I would suggest a slower processor as an additional .17 GHz doesn't buy you that much. Also if you are going to get a laptop then I recommend the Pro 15" laptop (http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/61134001/wo/Wb4FX33jRCgv2tghKOK255tbyzx/2.?p=0) and the 23" cinema display (http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=9F8FBAD3&nclm=AppleDisplays) ... it will cost about as much as the 17" pro and having dual monitors is far more helpful than one big one not to mention a heck of a lot more portable. I have a 18" Dell XPS and I have to use a backback because they don't even make laptop bags big enough. Though I suppose the thing is so heavy I wouldn't want to carry it on my shoulder anyway.

p.s. the config above is what i plan to buy my fiance for christmas, thus the extensive research/advice from a pc guy ;-)

Answer 3

In general, the more RAM the better. If you are asking about minimums, it depends what you are designing and what tools you are using.

Web designers, using low resolution images do not require as many resources as print designers who work with high resolution.

Vector graphics programs like Freehand/Illustrator require less resources than Photoshop (Note the Adobe creative Suite will not run native on intel Macs until the next version expected in the Spring and is actually slower on newer intel Macs than on older macs!)

In short get the 2 Gigs

Answer 4

Stick figure design? :-P

RAM generally equals performance as your machine will not have to page as much memory (write less active data from RAM to the HD). Applications are becoming more and more resource intensive by the month. I would not recommend purchasing a system with less than 2GB of RAM.

Answer 5

The more memory the better usually. The size of the images and the software you are using to manipulate the them will really be the determining factor.

Answer 6

i would recommend 2 gB.