Steve Terwilliger, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire 2-12-99

Table of Contents

• Introduction & Establishing Needs
• Which Platform? (brief version)
• What Software?
• What Hardware: PC
• What Is a PC?
• What To Get In a PC For Graphics
• What Hardware: Apple Macintosh
• To Know About/Get For Your Mac
• Little Glossary of Computer Terms

When looking at current computer hardware and software advice, keep in mind how fast changing this information is. If you need this equipment for your work, however, don’t put off getting it. What is available now works very well. Remember that in less than five years you can expect to have completely changed everything you get now. We have little idea what the technology in this area will become years down the road. Keep generally current on the information, and, budget upgrades into your operation.

Start by defining what you need to be able to do with your system. Then make sure you get a system that will do what you really need done. It can be easy to get lost in the advertising hype and end up with things you don’t need. Be careful when shopping at a computer store. The sales people may have no idea what you need and not give the best advice, probably without knowing it. Remember, the store is interested in a sale and almost always assumes everyone wants: games, "multi-media," home business, an Internet connection, or writing-educational applications. A question about graphics needs will frequently draw a "say what?" or an unqualified attempt at advice. On the other side, however, most systems today by default are fairly graphics capable, even at the lower end.

Without preplanning and research, though, you might find that your system can’t do important tasks well, or at all, and possibly can’t be upgraded to meet present or future needs. Be sure in your list of needs to project into the future so that you get a system that is upgradable at a reasonable cost. Study and know basic computer mechanics before making your choice. Your library will have excellent books on the subject. Go to any mall bookstore and you will find inexpensive, well illustrated books on how computers work. Don’t be embarrassed to read a simple book designed for young people. For many, perhaps most, this is the smartest place to start (I did). An excellent, common title is How Computers Work, fourth edition, by Ron White. This new edition is a great improvement on an already great book. It comes with a CDROM (obnoxious-cut straight to the index).

For this guide I will break things into recommendations at the professional level and follow with economy configurations. To start planning, review the following simplified list. Cost estimates do not include software costs beyond the basic operating system and any bundled software. To go over a simple list of computer terms and concepts, see the Little Glossary of Computer Terms latter in this document.

Graphic artists will need to be able to do page layout, illustration and bitmap image work (photographs and "natural" drawing media. See Glossary at the end of this document and the software section). This guide is primarily written assuming these needs. You need 128 megs of RAM, a 450 MHz Pentium III or 350+ MHz G3 Mac, an 8+ gigabyte hard drive, 8 to 32 MB of VRAM for your video display, and nothing less than a 17" monitor (and you really should have a 20" or 21"). Students and beginning professionals should seek to get a machine at this level.

For a Mac:

Great News from Apple! New G3 systems are out and they are the most significant new Apple systems in many years! Hardware design changes are fundamental and really, at last, put Apple back in the performance game. The new cases are also a top design in appearance, replacing the so-so design of the first G3s. Apple is now puting a 16 MB AGP ATI video display card in all of their G3s! Better video display should have been done some time ago, but it now brings Apple up to the level of mainstream PC design. Remember, though, that this card is for playback acceleration and 2-D graphics. For true 3-D authoring you will need a dedicated video card like the Elsa line of cards from a third party and install it yourself. The mother board design has changed to 100 MHz speed from 66 MHz and the CPUs now go up to 450 MHz. All of these changes make current Apple computers very well configured for contemporary graphics needs out of the box. The new hardware design makes them about 30% faster at the top end. Are they faster than Windows/Intel machines? Despite all the advertizing hype the G3s have at best just caught up to Windows PCs in real world graphics speed. A 30% increase in speed will probaly leave the current G3s about where they were a year and more ago relative to Windows based computers (Apple "tests" are fundamentally mis-leading). Most published tests compare the highest end Mac to very inexpensive home model or outdated PCs. XLR8your mac.com has more meaninful tests but even they "plant" a couple of slow Photoshop filters in the Photoshop tests that Macs do better on to slant the results. If they had picked two filters that PCs do better on the overall Photoshop tests would look quite different (beware of putting faith in "mix of Photoshop operations" tests). The new case design is great in appearance and ease of service but the overall design of the system has some major flaws in missing components, poor ergonomics and limited upgrade potential for really high end work.

Go to Apple's current web site and find the fastest system you can aford. The "Good" configurations are all IDE hard drive based, do not include a monitor, a SCSI bus or floppy drive, and have just 64 MB of RAM. If you are going to do audio or video work or want extra speed, get one of the SCSI systems. IMPORTANT: if you already have or use SCSI devices click on configure and select the SCSI card option for $46. If not already part of the system, also select the ZIP drive option for $94. A modem is also selected here if you need one for $94. Get a system with a monitor if you like (17" = $469), but you can get a monitor of equal quality elsewhere for over $150 less (Sony or Mag Trinitron). The new Apple monitors are tops in performance/color accuracy and look great, but can be prone to tipping over. If getting a monitor by itself, go for an NEC or Trinitron monitor (many brands for a trinitron, Sony is tops). The more expensive SCSI based G3 systems have a high speed SCSI external port (like Macs should have had years ago). You can run low speed SCSI devices like scanners and CD-ROM drives on this bus, but they will slow down everything on the chain to the speed of the slowest device. This is why it is important to get the extra SCSI card (like all previous Macs) for any existing external devices you have. USB and Firewire ports are both outstanding additions. USB is just taking off and offers great advantages in ease of connecting less demanding external devices. If you are getting new scanners and lower speed exteranl drives get the USB models. Firewire is Apple's patented name for IEEE 1394 fiber cable connection and while not yet mainstream video cameras and some external hard drives are available. Also remember that despite the hype, USB and IEEE 1394 have been available on PCs for over a year. Apple is late into these game.

For a PC:

Buy Dell. Go to their web site (www.dell.com) and look at the pre-configured or build your own systems. You can change options as you like. Buy the largest Trinitron (Dell monitors are made by Sony) monitor you can afford. It would be hard to find even close to this low a price on such a top professional monitor elsewhere. They have special prices and buying programs for students, faculty and schools. Dell, Intergraph and Micron computer systems are simply the best graphics configured systems available and they are at steadily falling prices. Dell has the top quality and service ratings of all computer companies (Consummer Reports, and virtually all other ratings) Intergraph is right up there too but their systems cost a little more. The following systems were configured on 6-14-99 at Dell's home, not their educational web site (prices there were being updated):

• 500MHz Pentium III, with 17" Trinitron monitor, 128 MB RAM, 20 gig hard drive, 16 MB video card, 40x CDROM, high quality sound and speakers, 3Com v.90 modem, 100 MB Zip drive, logitec mouse = $1,888.
• 500 MHz Pentium III, with 21" Trinitron Monitor, 256 MB RAM, 22.6 gig hard drive, 16 MB video RAM, 6x DVD with video out, high quality sound and speakers, 250 MB Zip drive, 3Com v.90 modem, logitech mouse = $2,796.

These systems come with Windows 98 version 2. Windows NT4 is an option but I would advise waiting for Windows 2000 (Windows NT 5) and upgrade when it comes out if you like. The basic systems are all IDE hard drive designs. An upgrade to a SCSI system is $473. This this provides a 9 GB UW drive and high speed external SCSI port. Get SCSI if you are going to do audio or video work at a professional level or need a little more speed (high resolution photo editing or 3-D work).

Intergraph also makes top level graphics computers for both high-end 2-D and 3-D work. Micron is at the same level as Dell in terms of quality, service and performance and at similar prices.

USB ports have been on PCs for about two years and Ieee 1394 (Firewire) has been an option for about the same length of time. You need Windows 98 (or 95B) to take advantage of these.

Release of the new version of NT to be called Windows 2000 is being delayed. This new operating system has been said to be the replacement for both Windows 98 and NT, but some now talk about one more time for the old 95/98 system. When Win 2000 finally comes out it will incorporate all of the current features/needs for graphics: USB, IEEE 1394, font management, color standards, video, web, audio, multiple monitors, multiple processors, etc. For now, Windows 98 is the most advanced graphics operating system for Intel type computers. It will run multiple monitors but not multiple processors (this takes Windows NT or the BeOS or UNIX). Be sure to update your Windows 98 system with the current service pack from Microsoft (free download from microsoft.com) if you have not already done so. A new system should include this update. Be sure to ask as it takes care of some bugs and adds some functions.

For 3-D work get either a Dell or Intergraph workstation with an open GL video card. The current G3 Macs should show a significant improvement in performance for this type of work, but in this area, without the availability of the dedicated 3-D modeling video cards and the mainstream software programs, they are traditionally slower and less used than PC machines.

Multi-Media, Video, Audio, Animation Intergraph, SGI and Dell are recommended. The current G3 Macs show a significant improvement in performance for this type of work, but the shift for this type of work is towards the Windows/Intel platform. IEEE 1394 is built into the new Mac G3s and comes with video editing packages for Windows machines. This is where all of the video work is going to even for lower cost systems today.

The Mac Clones are completely gone now, but can still be purchased used. They were generally of higher quality and performance/design then the Apples. With Steve Jobs back at Apple, all the Mac Clone makers were put out of business through buy-outs or withdrawal of operating system licenses. The Mac Clone's higher quality, innovation, better performance and lower prices are going to be missed.

G3 upgrade cards are now available for almost any earlier Power Macs including Mac Clones. They range greatly in price and performance. Look up the Mac World reviews. Sonnet Technologies has a top rating. Although it is usually not very wise to significantly upgrade a computer, at $280 and up, this is one upgrade that might be quite practical. The performance increase can be profound. If you have a high-end Power Mac with that is fully SCSI, such an upgrade could be really worth it. For most cases, add up all the costs, though. Older machines may very well need bigger hard drives, more RAM and a new video display. This could add up to another $500 plus some skilled labor. These things would be included in the price of a new computer, already built in, and with a warrantee.

DO NOT buy an iMac. These machines are cute but substandard (no floppy or ZIP drive, a small monitor, low RAM, small hard drive, older style hardware design, no PCI expansion slots, etc). This machine is not for graphics work. It is also more expensive than much better configured Windows computers-and in reality-significantly slower.

300 to 400 MHz Pentium II, Celeron or AMD machines will be down in the economy range: $500 with 15" monitor to $900+ with 17" monitor. Quality brands can be found in local discount stores or catalogs: Hewlett Packard, Compac, Sony, Umax, and Toshiba. Other brands of more "medium" quality can also be found. Computers with the AMD processor chips are usually a bit less expensive than Intel chip machines. For graphics they are in about the same speed range at the same MHz level. Avoid Cyrix and WinChip processors at this time. They are somewhat to much slower than the Intel and AMD chips. Intel Celeron processors are now mostly as fast as the Pentium II chips. Be very careful not to get a computer with an earlier model Celeron chip, however. They lacked processor cache and were very slow. If you are brave/savvy, check the Computer Shopper for clone companies and find really low prices, or, go to Ebay or PC MALL (U-Buy).

For the best quality PCs, however, look for closeouts or refurbished computers from Dell or Micron. Dell and Micron have excellent web sites listing these special models. Often, though, the prices of these refurbs are not that much lower than a new machine, so compare objectively and for long term value. They can also be reached by phone or ads can be found in publications such as Computer Shopper. But it is best, though, to look on the web. Dell is the largest computer company and it has the best quality and service record of any computer company. Its computers are consistently at the front in best new design and performance. Since they only do direct sales their prices are very competitive. Micron has similar design and quality in their computers.

Wherever you find your PC these are the minimum configuration requirements:

• Processor chip. It must be MMX enhanced. Pentium II or AMD K-2 at 300 MHz or faster.
• RAM 64 MB or more
• Hard Drive 6 gigabytes or more
• VRAM 8 to 16 MB. Do not settle for a 2 MB VRAM machine unless you intend to upgrade immediately.
• 56K modem built in
• 32x CDROM, wave-table sound and speakers
• 17" monitor if included. Do not settle for a 15".

Note: if you already have a little older PC, you can easily and inexpensively upgrade to full graphics capabilities. See latter section on "PCs".

Emachines: Yes you can get a new computer complete with monitor for under $500. It is called the EMachine (www.e4me.com) and it is a significantly better value than the iMac for quite a bit less than half the price. The case looks like a bread box but a new design will be out very soon that is "retro" and an all-in-one computer and monitor just like the iMac.

In choosing between Macintosh and "PC" (IBM compatible or PC Clones or Windows or "Wintel") platform types, a lot of confusing advice can be found. There is an old saying in the computer field, "best to stay with the devil you know." If you already have familiarity with a particular platform, there is no need to switch to another type to do artwork. Each platform has its advantages and disadvantages, but at the current time the two systems are relatively equivalent in what they will do. Both systems run all of the same top-line software graphics programs. Both platforms are extensively used in publishing and visual media design work. What you learn on one you can almost immediately do on the other. For the most part, files can be transferred between platforms. The new Mac OSs (operating systems) have a file conversion utility built in. For the PC you need to get a Mac file conversion utility software (inexpensive) called Mac Opener from Data Viz, for some programs. Call Data Viz directly for educational pricing. Some PC vendors are now including a program of this type on their machines (Gateway & Intergraph). Both the Mac and the PC conversion softwares really work well-transparently-you don’t even know they are there.

You may have decided without question to buy one platform or the other. I would still recommend reading the information about the other platform to have a full picture of the field. You will end up working with people working on the other platform, or may find yourself offered a job in a studio equipped entirely with the other platform. What you learn on one, you can very quickly learn to do, or already really know how to do, on the other. Know both platforms. According to the June 1998 Publish magazine article "Cross Platform Publishing," 32% of graphic arts agencies are exclusively Mac, 24% are exclusively Windows and the rest are cross platform. In larger agencies over half are cross platform. There has been a strong movement towards Windows in recent years, particularly for in-house business graphic arts studios. It should also be known that the Mac platform has so strong a tradition and user base in the graphic arts that it is important to be entirely comfortable working on this platform if one is going out to seek one's way in the computer graphics world. If you are going to do web design, video, multi-media or interactive design it is essential to be ready to work in Windows.

Macintosh seems to have survived its near death experience but is still on life support. Some additional poor decisions have hurt its recovery and there are still some major hurddles it faces. Consumers seem to have a need for brand loalty and cheer for a winner and often want a loser. It is better for consumers, however, to have viable competition as this is the only thing that will keep inovation going, prices down and quality up. For this competition we need more than one dominate platform and operating system in both the home market and in all professional markets. This need for viable competition extends into the areas of software and networks.

There are alternative operating systems available. The number of graphics software programs available for them, however, limits their possibilities as viable competitors at this time. This could change in a relatively short length of time given the quick changing nature of software technologies. Both the Mac and Windows operating systems are based on "old code" software written as far back as the 1970's. Even Windows NT, a newer design, has elements that date back into the early 80's. The older beginnings of these systems result in their being more or less stable, memory hogs, and relatively slow for graphics operations when compared to the following two systems. For now, though, because of the particular software applications that graphics professionals need to use, the Mac and Windows operating systems are the only professional choices for the mainstream.

The BeOS is an operating system written fully from scratch in the last few years to be as up-to-date as possible. It is the newest system and has been written in particular to do graphics work. It just now getting a lot of press as an alternative to Windows. I have just started lookin at this system and it seems to be all that is claimed for it. Like all new designs it has one major limitation that remains to be hurddled: a need for mainstream graphics software to be ported over to it (written so that it can talk with this new operating system). There is major backing/funding being poured into this system so we may see this happen. There are small companies that have written excellent applications for it already: Becasso - like Photoshop, Gobe - like Pagemaker, Illustrator and Word together. The BeOS also has the most advanced music handling design. There are a full range of network and browser software for it, indead most of these functions are native. It works as a fully functional server software. Due to its new design it is extremely fast and extremely stable. Existing software can be relatively easily be ported to work on the BeOS and its cost is very low.

Linux is an fundamentally updated version of a very old operating system dating back to the 70's. A number of more user friendly version of Linux are available. Linux is being used widely as networking and internet server software because of its power, speed and extreme stability. In terms of more mainstream use Linux has significant limitations because of its command line basis of operation and the limitation of graphics software (and office software) available for it. There is an easier to use graphical user interface for Linux (X-Windows) but command lines are sooner or latter needed. All of these limitation to Linux could be overcome in short order with further development and applications can be fairly easily ported to it. Red Hat Linux is a top rated version of Linux with a graphical user interface. What's the cost? Linux is a free download from the internet. Boxed copies of Red Hat can be purchased for about $40 at Best Buy.

Remember!! Get your software from an educational supplier if you are a school, teacher or student!! Sources are listed at the end of this section!!

• Quark XPress 4.0 ($225/$750) is used by the majority of the professional market. There are gobs of extensions available (custom add-on software programs), more for the Mac, but a solid and growing group for the PC. This program was originally written for the Mac platform but has been available for PC for about seven years. They look and work the same on both platforms. This system is now used in the UWEC labs. We have Adobe Pagemaker on some machines. This is the program used by the rest of the UWEC campus.
• Adobe Pagemaker 6.5 ($170/$550) is used by an increasing segment the professional market. A great advantage of Pagemaker is that it is an Adobe program with great support and learning tutorials. It is fully coordination with all of the other Adobe products, which you will probably be using as well (Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, for example). Pagemaker also includes important features in the program that are expensive add-ons in Quark. Quark and Pagemaker are similar in design. If you have used one you can quickly learn to use the other. Pagemaker is fully 32 bit, and Windows NT and 95 ready. Pagemaker looks and works the same for Mac and PC. For a high school program it may be the better choice, as it does seem to be less troublesome than Quark.
• Ventura Publisher ($250). A good program for PC, and coordinated with the Corel Draw Graphics Suite of programs. Not in the running in the widespread professional market at this time.
• There are a number of less powerful but effective programs also available for both platforms. For the dedicated designer these are best not considered as they will not let you work nearly as efficiently as Quark or Pagemaker, which are also the mainstream programs to prepare your students to use.
• NOTE: Adobe Systems has just released In Design a new page layout program intended to go a step beyong Quark in its capabilities and integration with other software programs and press/web preparation capabilities.

There are only a few fully professional programs to consider, but many more very capable programs are available. Your particular needs may define what to get. The programs below are fairly equivalent in how they operate and in their level of features and power. These programs are all available in the same versions for Mac & PC.

• Adobe Illustrator 8.0 ($130/$363). Adobe Illustrator is a top program in how it looks and works. Easy to learn, a great interface and mostly simple, logical, intuitive tools. The learning tutorial and manual are also, as expected, great Adobe design. This program is a fully integrated part of the Adobe System softwares. However, it is somewhat behind the other two major programs (above) of this type in features. It has been suggested that when Adobe Systems comes out with K-2, the illustration part of that program will have cutting edge features.
• Macromedia Freehand 8.0 ($190/$380). One of the Macromedia graphics programs and a full-featured illustration program. Macromedia makes the most powerful and widely used multi-media software programs. They also make a full set of coordinated graphic design software programs. Many designers and design publications rate this program at the top as the most advanced and efficient of these programs.
• Corel Draw (Graphics Suite) 8.0 ($99/$360). Corel is probably the most used graphics software because it is PC compatible and hence has been widely used by business. It has also been around since the beginning of desktop publishing. Corel Draw has always been a leader in terms of state-of-the-art performance and is widely used by illustrators around the world. The other parts of the suite are mostly as powerful as other mainstream programs. With its connection to the PC platform and use by business, Corel has never had the high profile "image" of a Mac program, but it is now available for both platforms in the same version. At the educational price it is the most incredible of values. The bundle includes: Corel Draw (the illustration program), Corel Trace (it turns any bitmap image into a vector illustration and is perhaps the best of the programs that do this. Adobe's program that does this, by itself, is over twice the price of the whole Corel Suite), hundreds of fonts, Corel Photopaint (like Adobe Photoshop).

• Suggestions: Adobe Illustrator for layout if you are an all Adobe studio. Macromedia Freehand as a principle tool or if you are a multimedia designer (you will probably be using all the other Macromedia software). However, Freehand and Corel Draw will work fine with Adobe products, so you may go for the better and more productive features of these programs. For schools with a limited budget, the Corel Suite is hard to avoid because of its value.

• Adobe Photoshop 5.0 ($210/$450) is the current buzzword for doing this type of image work, and it is a very highly developed, professional tool. It has a steeper learning curve than some other programs because of a more complex user interface, but also because it can do more. The alpha-channel layering feature is an extremely important and powerful image making tool in Photoshop. A beautiful instructional program comes on a CD-ROM. The tutorial book and manual are truly great in design and learning effectiveness. Version 5 now has the best design for multiple levels of undo and full type control of any paint type program. The wait for these has been painful, though. Photoshop is now the industry standard that all others look up to. Get this program now or upgrade now from whatever earlier version you have. It is a centerpiece of graphic design and computer based art.
• Painter 5.0 ($160/$257) by Meta Creations. This has been another of the must-have programs for computer illustrators and photography manipulation. It has a great range of tools and effects and is preferred by many artists and designers. Included in its features are tools for doing computer-based animation work, from scratch, or by reworking imported video. The tools imitate a vast variety of "natural" media and surface types. Version 4.0 and above also combines a vector layer (like having an illustration type program as well) that can be integrated directly with the bit-mapped work. It also has 20 levels of undo and alpha-channel layering like Photoshop. It does work more slowly than Photoshop 5.
• Macromedia X-Res. Dropped by Macromedia.
• Picture Publisher ($80, or $115 with Micrographics Designer), by Micrographics, is the oldest, and has been the most widely used program of this type. It has an easy to learn and use tool design and user interface. The manual, while good and very complete, needs more high-powered design, on the order of Photoshop. The program has only been available for PC and there are no plans for a Mac version at this time. The major missing feature in the program is alpha-channel type layering. It does have the easiest to use object-layering feature. Recently upgraded and improved and a strong competitor with Photoshop in the business market.
• Live Picture ($695) by Meta Creations who also makes Kai’s Power Tools. Only available for Mac. It has been used by many Mac based artists because of its ability to work in near real times with very high resolution files.

Get Adobe Photoshop 5.0. This is a truly great program that is now the defacto standard in the industry. It has the features and performance everyone needs. Also get a Wacom Art Pad for $129 educational and street (this is a small 4"x5" digital drawing tablet, favored by many pros over larger tablets) or the new Intuos for $70. Take a look at Painter and see if you like it/need it. Many artist/designers say this is the best of all these programs.

There are a large number of programs available for work in these areas. I will only list some of the top performance/most popular programs for each area.

• Macromedia Studio ($300/$900). A suite of coordinated multi-media production tools for Windows and Mac that are the most powerful and widely used. It contains Director 7, the authoring program as well as: Flash (for multimedia file preparation for the web), SoundEdit 16 plus Deck II (Mac) or Sound Forge XP (Windows).
• Adobe Premiere ($180/$450). Version 5 for Windows and Mac is a video editing program for digital video work. It includes very able sound and titling tools.
• Adobe After Effects ($295/$850). To go with Adobe Premiere for Windows and Mac. This is a very popular and powerful effects program that works to coordinate Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere special effects.
• Ray Dream Studio ($180/$255) Windows and Mac. 3-D modeling and animation suite of tools. Powerful and easy to use.
• Caligari True Space ($349). A more powerful/advanced Windows program for 3-D modeling and animation that takes advantage of the PC’s power and speed.

While you are a student or teacher you can purchase almost every leading software program at great discount. Here are three sources:

* The University Bookstore. They may not have it on the shelf, but they can probably order it for you.

* USI (Universal Software, Inc.), 301 E. Liberty, Suite 120, Ann Arbor, MI 48104

(313) 996-4500 Fax: (313) 996-4544

* The Software Source, 2517 Highway 35, Bldg. L, Manasquan, NJ 08736

(908) 528-0030 Fax: (908) 528-9378

Compare prices between these sources. What one may not have another will. You will need to send a photocopy of your current school ID and perhaps a letter from another source (teacher or department chair) verifying that you qualify. Quark X-Press is particularly picky about these requirements and you must buy directly from them, not one of the companies above. Once you have an ID on file, however, you will not need to send it in again. We have researched and have good experience dealing with the companies above. USI is the company we usually go with. You may find other sources for the educational discount as well. PC Mall and Mac Mall are now advertising educational discounts on software. The Computer Shopper is an excellent place to find ads for such companies (www.computershopper.com).

The PC (which simply stands for Personal Computer) is basically a design standardized on the IBM platform from the early 1980’s and extensively updated since. This is an open platform, which means that it is not a company but just a set of compatible design specifications for computer components. Any company can make computer parts that can be interchangeably used to build this type of computer. A particular company buys components from any number of companies and then assembles finished computers. This is why it is important to know a basic amount about computers so that you can determine what to look for. Indeed, some people buy the individual components themselves and make their own computers. In practice this costs more than getting a fully assembled one with a warrantee, however, and should not be attempted by the novice. The process of doing this is greatly educational though, and perhaps a best way to learn about how computers work.

PC platform computers come in a great variety of performance levels. Looking at the basic components of a system can help in finding a higher performance graphics machine. If you already have a little older PC type computer it is also relatively inexpensive, and can be relatively easy, to upgrade it to graphics performance level. This is one of the great advantages (or nightmares, if you have trouble) of this particular design. Software as well as hardware is pretty much backward and forward compatible. However, when Windows 2000 (NT 5) comes out, all older programs that run in DOS or Windows 3.x will no longer be supported (no longer run).

Picking a brand of PC is probably the first question and one of gigantic proportions. Instead of one company, as with Apple Macintosh, you have hundreds to sort through. To make things simpler I will talk about representative brands and sometimes refer to the mammoth world of PC clones as a group.

Recommendation #1: Stay with a brand that has a strong reputation unless you are basically computer savvy. The brands with an "A" rating include: Dell, Micron, Intergraph and Hewlett Packard. Those with a "B" rating include: Compac and Gateway. When you get a machine through a catalog and from a smaller clone maker you can save some money, but not as much as in the past. With the lowest cost clones you get slim manuals, if not just a collection of component-part instruction booklets and sheets. The warrantee and service support become more remote as well. Most of these companies do have extended technical support 1-800 numbers, though, and I have usually found them to be prompt and professional in supplying advice and parts if needed. Best to spend a few more dollars for a top brand and the quality, service and warrantee.

When you buy from a near-by store you may find you have access to local support service. This may be of importance to you. For example, Best Buy in Eau Claire has an excellent technical staff. When you purchase certain "A" level brands of computers you pay a little more but usually get excellent technical support. For example Dell, Micron and Intergraph have the highest rating of all computer companies. Hewlett Packard also has a top quality and service rating at this time, but their performance/design is a step behind Dell, Micron and Intergraph.

(For more of an explanation of what the following are, see the Little Glossary of Computer Terms at the end of this document)

To start out, I will give you the short-form description for a basically capable system. To find out more details, read what follows the short advice.

Basic PC system for graphics work: 300 MHz or higher Pentium II or AMD K-2 CPU, 64+ megs of RAM

8+ megs of Video RAM, 6 gigabyte or larger hard drive, 17" or larger monitor. An IDE (EIDE) system will work fine for still graphics work, and a fast system can even handle good quality video. For top performance get a SCSI system or add SCSI to your system. SCSI configured machines will not be found in local stores, however: you will need to order one (recommended: Dell, Intergraph or Micron). At these company web sites you will find that the SCSI option costs around $475. This includes a high-speed external port (where you can plug in all types of SCSI devices).

The Details:

CPU: This term means central processing unit and can refer to just the computer chip or sometimes to the whole contents of the computer case less the monitor. Here I refer to just the processing chip. Get at least a 300 MHz Pentium II. The AMD K-2 chips are OK on a budget.

Intel has been the maker of the highest performance computer chips for the general consumer personal computer market. Newer faster chips come on the market every few weeks. This makes it hard to wait for the fastest one. The chip one or two steps back from the fastest is also a great buy, often with not that much real speed difference.

Mother Board: If you get a machine already built from a store you don’t need to think about this item, as the choice has been made for you. Current bus speed is 100MHz for Wintel machines (the speed information travels around the computer). Close out models may still have the older 66 MHz boards. Be sure to check to see what you are getting.

If you are a little more advanced and want/need power and speed, you can get dual processor computers that can operate at half again or more of the speed of single processor models in specific programs and on certain tasks. Windows NT is required to run multi-processor systems. Many high-end vendors build these machines (Intergraph, Micron, Dell). To get one you could also buy a clone directly from a manufacturer who would build the machine for you. This option will cost about $200 plus the price of a second chip. You can also just get the dual socket motherboard with only one chip and add a second one latter. Think this option through though. In a few months your dual processor machine may be no faster than the new single processor model.

Operating System: There are two systems available for PC computers:

• Windows 98 version 2, This is a very easy to operate, usually stable operating system. The machine you get from a store today will have Windows 98 pre-installed. This may be the last version of this software. The next version of Windows NT may replace it and be called Windows 2000. Windows 98 is a little more graphics friendly than the current Windows NT and may be the best to have for now. They look and operate very similarly. Windows 2000 will have the little design/appearance updates of Windows 98 as well as all of the graphics features.
• Windows NT 4. Windows NT is perhaps the best, most advanced operating system available for running the most advanced graphics and media programs (short of some Unix programs costing many thousands of dollars each). The current version, Windows NT 4 Workstation can be purchased from educational discount software suppliers for about $90. This program has been under-utilized since it was written. Today, however, almost all new Windows 98 software and hardware must also work with Windows NT. You can get NT rather than Windows 98 if your computer vendor will load NT instead of Windows 98. They might charge you more than the cost of an educational copy though, so in that case, get Windows 98 and upgrade on your own. NT4 looks and works mostly like Windows 95. By summer of 99, however, it will look and work like Windows 98 (Windows NT 5.0, which is to be called Windows 2000). Remeber that until Win 2000, NT does not support USB, DVD drives, multiple monitors and some types of specialized graphics and sound hardware/software.

Operating System Advice: Windows 95 forced most software and hardware manufacturers to make their products work with Windows NT. If you are getting a new machine and software, get the Windows 98 option for now and wait for Windows 2000 if you want an NT operating system. Windows 98 is still a little more graphics friendly than NT 4 (support for DVD and multiple monitors). At the time of this writing, be sure your sound card and other hardware are on the list of compatible types for NT 4 if you are thinking of getting NT now. Sound Blaster is the best bet and be very wary of "Sound Blaster Compatible." NT 4.0 has Direct Draw and Direct Sound to boost graphics and multi-media performance and compatibility. Different versions of Windows can have problems coexisting on the same machine, so it is probably best to stay with one at a time. Postscript 4 is now available for Windows NT 4 if you need to have it for printing and font control.

OS/2: IBM’s operating system for the PC platform. It is not widely used and there are few graphics programs written for it. Get Windows 98 or NT4.

BeOS: probably the best of them all, but needs more mainstream applications - it may happen.

Linux: Stable, fast and free, needs mainstream applications, harder to install and lingering command line operations.

System Bus: A bus is literally the path information travels on between components in a computer. These are the ones to know about:

• PCI bus. The current, most advanced, industry standard bus. All new computers should have this type. This is the same bus now integrated into Mac systems. The PC platform has been using it for about 5 years. Your system should have at least 3 such slots. One or two may be filled.
• Local Bus. The now replaced former industry standard. A very good design, but PCI won. If you already have such a machine you can best upgrade with a new motherboard, chip and components.
• ISA bus. The industry standard before local bus and PCI. This bus is only half as wide and 1/3 as fast as the PCI. Most PC computers still have one as it may be used to run many types of system hardware that do not need the speed of PCI, such as sound cards, CD-ROMs, scanners, etc. Your system might have one or two such slots that could be filled. The new trend is to do away with these slots as all new devices go to PCI design.
• IDE. While not really a bus but a type of inexpensive component design, IDE devices connect directly to one of the buses above through a controller card or built-in motherboard controller. Most PC type computers, and all ready-to-go store PCs have IDE hard drives and CD-ROM drives. The new Enhanced IDE standard of design, called EIDE, has made these components faster and it has made it possible to add up to 4 EIDE components to any computer. The old limit was 2. All new machines now have EIDE.
• SCSI bus. This is another type of bus specifically for add on components. It is connected to anyone of the above buses (PCI, Local or ISA). While most store-bought PCs have IDE hard drives and CD-ROM drives, you can get what is called a SCSI based system from many clone manufacturers directly (Dell, Intergraph and Micron for example). Many will build you one even though their ads may not describe them (Gateway for example). These machines will have SCSI hard drives and may have SCSI CD-ROMS as well.

• USB The Universal Serial Bus has been put on PCs for about two years now. This is a type of external bus or plug-in port for all types of external devices. The design has a relatively high speed transfer of information compared to the serial and parallel ports it is designed to replace and allows a large number of devices to be hot plugged (plugged and unplugged while the computer and devices are running). USB has been very slow to take off and few devices have been made for it. Now there are many appearing and the early bugs are being worked out. In a year this will perhaps be the most widely used method of connecting devices like scanners, digital cameras, key boards, drives, etc. It has great advantages.
• IEEE 1394 or Fire Wire This is an even faster type of external (and internal) bus design based on fiber optics. It will allow hot plugging and up to more than 100 devices to be chained together. It is starting to be seen in professional level audio and video devices as well as external and internal hard drives.

RAM: You will need a minimum of 64 megs to get started, and go to 128, or better 256, when you can. 64 Megs of RAM from third parties has been running about $75 (this price fluctuates almost daily and often by great amounts). It is a simple but careful job to add RAM, but you might want help from someone with qualified experience. Remember that vector software can run on lower RAM. For simple projects 64 might do. If you intend to do bit-mapped (draw-paint-photo) work though, you must have 128 megs of Ram to get seriously started.

New systems are using 100 MHz SDRAM for the new 100 MHz motherboard design in 168 pin DIMMs only. Recent systems or those with AMD processors may still use DRAM, either 72 pin SIMMs or 168 pin SIMMs.

For older systems: Know if you need parity RAM or non-parity. More recent systems used non-parity which is cheaper. If you still need 30 pin RAM its time to get a new computer or motherboard and chip. 72 pin can be purchased and installed in any number of sizes or in pairs only (be sure to check this out). Check to see if you need EDO RAM or DRAM.

When upgrading RAM check carefully to see what you need. Dell systems, for example, use a particular type of SDRAM DIMMs. Ask your supplier specifically if they have RAM for your specific computer make and model.

Suppliers I have had good experiences with for RAM:

Memory 4 Less: www.memory4less.com

Chip Merchants:

Video RAM: Called VRAM, this type of RAM is dedicated to just displaying images on your monitor. It is faster and more expensive than the DRAM above. On PCs, the video controller is a separate card, which can be changed for any other type or performance level of video card. For graphics work 4 megs of VRAM is the minimum. This will allow 32 bit (millions of colors) at 1024 x 768 lines of resolution display on a 17" or smaller monitor at 75 Hz refresh rate. You can not get by with less. Most store PC computers now come with relatively high-performance video display cards. This is the result of new consumer game and multi-media demands. The spin off is professional graphics level performance at the lowest cost. This was not true even a short time ago. If you are buying directly from the company, specify the level of graphics performance you need. They will subtract the value of the standard card from the upgrade you want. Get at least an 8 meg card. This is the level now found as a default on most systems. Note: WRAM is short for Windows RAM a faster bi-directional video graphics display RAM used by Matrox and now some other manufacturers.

Monitor: Almost all PCs will come with a monitor. You can, however, delete the cost of this monitor and get one from another source, or upgrade a 15" unit to 17" for another $75+. Don’t even think about anything smaller than 17 inches! Get an NEC $400, or a Trinitron $400 (Sony, Radius, Apple, etc.). These are industry standards for color matching and quality of manufacture. The cost of a monitor is much lower when bundled with a new computer purchase.So think about looking elsewhere. The top companies will offer a top performance monitor as standard or as an inexpensive upgrade.

Keyboard: Your computer will come with an inexpensive, standard key board. You might want to go to the local computer discount store and get a personally chosen one for $25 to $50 that has an infrared or USB connection and just the key touch you like.

Hard drives: Most PCs come with inexpensive IDE type hard drives (compared to SCSI type drives). If you are doing non-AV (sound and video) work these will work quite well. If you want or need a SCSI based machine, you will need to add a SCSI adapter or get a machine from a company that offers a SCSI configuration (most do, but you may need to ask because they might not appear in their ads). With a SCSI bus add on hard drives can be external and just plugged into the SCSI port or added to the internal SCSI chain. An external version of any drive will cost you about an additional $50-$100.

Removable drives: As a working professional you will need to have a drive of this type to transport files to your printing service and just for basic storage needs as your jobs add up. Remember, your finished files will commonly be at least in the 20 to 100 megabyte range and you can’t just leave them on the computer. File compression software for storing inactive files might also be useful (but don’t use it on active files). Iomega Zip Drives, at the time of purchase or $100 to $150 are a must today. They are the graphic artist's floppy drive. Disks can be found for under $10 in bulk from the discount catalogs. Some designers take or give Zip drives to printers so that they can take their files. Syquest drives have been the industry standard drive type for transporting files to printers. The old 200 meg Syquest type drive reads and writes 44, 88 and 200 meg cartridges. Today, much larger and much higher performance drives are available. The two most popular are the Syjet drive and Iomega Jazz drive. Check with your printer or service bureau to see what arrangements/drives you need.

To archive (store) your files when they are finished or as image resources, get a CDROM writer which are now very inexpensive. IDE units are about $200 with the needed software. The disks only cost about 50 cents.

Graphics tablet: The Wacom Art Pad is a current favorite among graphic artists. It is compact and easier to hold and use than larger tablets, and it only costs about $120.

The new Mac G3s were a necessary and very welcome improvement. They are somewhat faster to three times as fast as the Apple Macs they replace. System 8.5.1 is, at last, a fully-native Power Mac OS. The current educational/ "street" price for the system 8.5.1 upgrade is $49/$99. Mac is back to one company and you have few choices to make on systems at this time until you start to get upgrades and external devices.

(For more of an explanation of what the following are, see the Little Glossary of Computer Terms at the end of the full Computers for Artists document)

RAM: You will need a minimum of 64 megs to get started, and go to 128 or 256 as soon as you can. It may be wise to get more from Apple at the time of purchase, but you will pay more. It is a simple but careful job to add RAM, but you might want help from someone with experience or a qualified technician Remember that vector software can run on lower RAM. For simple projects 64 megs might even do. If you intend to do bit-mapped (draw-paint-photo) work though, you must have 128 to get seriously started on the Mac.

Ram for a Mac costs significantly more than for a PC, but prices are quite low right now. This is the most important single upgrade for graphics work and productivity. It is FAR more important to spend an extra $300 on more RAM than on a slightly faster processor chip.

Video RAM: Called VRAM, this type of RAM is dedicated to just displaying images on your monitor. It is faster and much more expensive than the DRAM above. On Macs, VRAM was integrated into the motherboard along with the monitor control hardware. For graphics work 4 MB of VRAM is the minimum. This will allow 32 bit display (millions of colors) at 1024 x 768 lines of resolution display on a 17" or smaller monitor at 75 Hz refresh rate. You can not get by with less. If you got a G3 Macs with 2 megs of VRAM it is ESSENTIAL that you get an 8 to 16 MB VRAM up grade card for about $150-$200.

Monitor: Don’t even think about anything smaller than 17 inches! Get a Trinitron $400-$650 (Sony, Radius, Apple, etc.) or an NEC, $400-$650. Apple’s Colorsync is $625. Any monitor will work with a Mac. 21" monitors are now under $1,000. The new Apple 17" and 21" monitors are top performance and design appearance.

Keyboard: Apple now includes one with every computer. Great design-quality-feel.

Hard drives: Apple machines have IDE hard drives at this time except for the higher-end models. Get the largest one available. You will never find you have enough drive space. IDE or SCSI drives can be added internally. External SCSI drives can be added if you get a SCSI system. To add SCSI hard drives to an IDE system you will ned to get an add-in controller card for about $300 and a trip into the casr or $$$ for professional help.

Removable drives:

As a working professional you will need to have a drive of this type to transport files to your printing service and just for basic storage needs as your jobs add up. Remember, your finished files will commonly be at least in the 20 to 100 megabyte range and you can’t just leave them on the computer. File compression software for storing inactive files might also be useful (but don’t use it on active files). Iomega Zip Drives, at the time of purchase or $100 to $150 are a must today. They are the graphic artist's floppy drive. Disks can be found for under $10 in bulk from the discount catalogs. Some designers take or give Zip drives to printers so that they can take their files. Syquest drives have been the industry standard drive type for transporting files to printers. The old 200 meg Syquest type drive reads and writes 44, 88 and 200 meg cartridges. Today, much larger and much higher performance drives are available. The two most popular are the Syjet drive and Iomega Jazz drive. Check with your printer or service bureau to see what arrangements/drives you need.

To archive (store) your files when they are finished or as image resources, get an external SCSI CD-ROM writer for about $400+ (did you remember to add on the SCSI adaptor?!). The disks only cost about 50 cents to $1.

Graphics tablet: The Wacom Art Pad is a current favorite among graphic artists. It is compact and easier to hold and use than larger tablets, and it only costs about $120.

This is not intended to be a complete glossary, but just brief, basic introduction.

CPU: The central processing unit. This term can refer to just the computer processing chip or to the entire "box" that the chip is located in. The CPU (here referring to just the chip) can be called the heart of the computer. All processing tasks pass through it or are directed by it. Although many other parts help out or boost performance, it is central to the performance and capabilities of a computer. Generally, the higher the Megahertz rating the more potentially powerful the computer. The other hardware components, how they work together, and the operating system software, however, will all decide how it lives up to its potential. There are complex instruction set CPUs called CISC, such as the older Intel and Apple-Motorola chips (Macintosh Quadras and earlier), and reduced instruction set chips called RISC, such as the new Power-PC chips used by Apple and chips used by SGI and SUN Systems. The new Intel chips are actually both CISC and RISC to keep them backwards and forwards software compatible (CISC written software is about 10% slower than RISC software). A RISC chip is potentially significantly faster than a CISC chip but only when software is written (or rewritten) specifically for it. Read "Operating System" below for important information on this.

The CPU chip is found either in a large computer chip socket directly on the mother board or on a removable card that plugs into the motherboard just like other plug-in hardware devices. Most computers use a single CPU. However, some computer systems can make use of multiple CPUs running in parallel to multiply system performance. An operating system software must be written specifically to be able to do this. A current example of such a system is Intel Pentium chips run by Microsoft Windows NT.

When new, faster CPU chips come out, some computer designs can take advantage of them by unplugging the old chip and plugging in the new one. The PC platform provided this option for the last several years with its ZIF CPU sockets. Current PC and Mac computers have a processor card slot to allow this type of upgrade. Check out true compatibility, though, before you buy.

RAM: More completely called system RAM. RAM stands for random access memory. When the computer is operating the following types of software and data information is taken from storage and kept here ready for instant use: first, the operating system, second, the software program you want to use, and third, any file you create or ask the software program to retrieve from storage. What RAM is, physically, is a group or groups of memory chips on a little circuit board or boards that plug into the motherboard. System RAM is used as temporary memory and can be changed at any time in any way while the computer is operating. When the computer is turned off, all information in RAM ceases to exist. This is why you must save everything you are working on to a permanent memory storage device like a hard drive or floppy disk. Ram is many, many times faster than other types of computer memory and must be used to do all actual work. It is also about 15 times more expensive than permanent memory storage devices.

For the graphic artist, you can never have too much RAM. The amount of RAM on a computer can be added to by plugging in more RAM chips of the right type. You need to know the following about RAM:

Amount Needed: The amount of RAM a computer needs to perform adequately has risen over the years and varies according to task. RAM is measured in megabytes (megs for short) or millions of instructions that it can store. 64 megs of RAM is the new general minimum standard for computers. For the graphic artist, however, 128, or more properly 256, is the professional starting point. For the computer to be able to hold large and complex image files to be worked on in RAM, space is needed. Remember to that the software to operate the computer and the program do the work must also share this space. This is an operating "overhead" that must be assigned whenever you work. This is also why adding RAM can so greatly increase the potential of your computer. The new RAM only adds space for file work since the computer and software operation is already accommodated by the initial amount of RAM.

Type: To add RAM be sure to know exactly what your computer requires. For Macintosh, have the model information from your manual. For PCs do the same. If you have a clone, the motherboard manual has this information. You will need to know: DRAM, EDO RAM, SDRAM, etc., 72 pin or 168 pin, parity or non-parity (less expensive and most common on new machines), SIMM or DIMM, and speed (you can add faster RAM but you can not add slower).

System Support: Each make and model of computer id designed to handle a particular maximum amount of RAM. this is controlled by more than the number of RAM slots. The system BIOS also has a permanent software written record of how much and what type of RAM the computer will accept.

System Bus: A bus is literally the path information travels on between components in a computer. It is defined by its size or width stated in terms of bits. You might think of these as being like lanes on a freeway. An 8 bit bus is ancient history, a 16 bit bus is now only used for undemanding tasks. The main, current buses are now all 32 bit. Each one of these carries twice the width of information of the one before it. The next variable in bus performance is the speed at which it can transfer information. This is defined in terms of megahertz (MHz). This term refers to the pulse or rhythm waves that information travels in. The new 32 bit buses run at 66 or 100 MHz. All buses have ways to connect needed hardware components to them.

These are the types of buses used in computers:

PCI bus. The current, most advanced, industry standard bus. All new computers have this type. Your system should have at least 3 such slots. One or two may be filled with hardware devices that have the highest performance need such as the video controller card and SCSI or IDE controller card (on some machines these are built into the motherboard). To add PCI components you take the cover off the CPU box, find an open PCI slot, plug the card in, close up, load the controlling software and go to work. The PCI bus is the "plug-n-play" designed system that all platforms went to. This means that all new devices designed to work on this bus are so easy to install that you can just "plug-n-play."

Local Bus. The now replaced industry standard on the PC. A very good design, but PCI won.

ISA bus. The industry standard before local bus or PCI. This bus is only half as wide and 1/3 as fast as the local bus. Many PC computers still have one as it can be used to run many types of system hardware that do not need the speed of PCI, such as sound cards, CD-ROMs, scanners, etc. Your system might have one or two such slots.

NuBus. This is the old standard component add-in bus on Apple Macintosh computers. It is of a slower type than PCI. It has been discontinued.

SCSI bus. This is another type of bus specifically for add on components. Apple Macintosh adopted it as their standard. While most store-bought PCs have IDE hard drives and CD-ROM drives, you can get what is called a SCSI based system from most PC manufacturers directly (Dell, Micron and Intergraph for example). Many will build you one even though their ads may not describe them (Gateway for example). These machines will have SCSI hard drives and may have SCSI CD-ROMS as well. On a PC the SCSI bus can be connected to anyone of the above buses (PCI, Local or ISA) through a controller card, or, in some cases, it may be built into the motherboard.

A major advantage to a SCSI equipped machine is the ability to add any mixture of up to 7 or 15 components in a daisy chain. These components are simply plugged into one another in a row with connecting cables. Since each device has its own built-in software directions, these add-ons are plug-and-play (usually). You can add and remove devices at any time in any order (when the system is turned off). Read the manuals on this, though, for the details. Make sure the SCSI adapter you are getting has an external port to plug external devices into. If it does not you can get one but it will cost you about $50 and some installation time. Graphic artists often need to connect to or exchange external drives and scanners. The SCSI bus is the industry standard for doing this. This is why Apple-Macintosh settled on this design years ago. PCs have always had this bus option as well, but you have always needed to know what it is and where to look for it.

The SCSI bus and components designed for it are generally faster than IDE type components. Many graphics applications can benefit from this speed. Serious video and audio artists need a SCSI system. If getting this type of system, be sure its fast SCSI, in one of the current, faster versions of the SCSI standard. If you have a PC and do not have a SCSI bus you can add one. For fast SCSI, you will need a PCI bus controller card. These run $100 to $400. Major Advice: get the Adaptec brand of controller, probably the model 2940U or higher. It comes with excellent Adaptec software and is easy to install. If you don’t need the higher performance SCSI adapter, the Adaptec 1505 is an ISA card (runs at 1/4 the speed of the above card) and software that will let you add SCSI CD-ROMs, external SCSI drives like a Zip drive or Syquest, and scanners. It is about $50, comes with excellent Adaptec SCSI software, and is easy to install (it will not run the boot drive <the hard drive that starts the computer>, though). The model 2902E is a PCI bus SCSI controller for low demand devices that can be substituted for the ISA bus 1505. SCSI controllers and devices now come in so many variations that it is beyond the scope and space of this document to define them all. Fibre channel is the most advanced and highest speed version (see Firewire below).

• USB The Universal Serial Bus has been put on PCs for about two years now. This is a type of external bus or plug-in port for all types of external devices. The design has a very high speed transfer of information and allows a large number of devices to be hot plugged (plugged and unplugged while the computer and devices are running). USB has been very slow to take off and few devices have been made for it. Now there are some appearing but many have serious performance problems. This is due to bugs that need to be worked out of any new design. In a year this will perhaps be the most widely used method of connecting devices like scanners, digital cameras, key boards, drives, etc.
• Firewire or 1394 This is an even faster type of external (and internal) bus design based on fiber optics. It will allow hot plugging and up to more than 100 devices to be chained together. It is starting to be seen in professional level audio and video devices and now in SCSI type hard drive connections as well.

Operating System: This is the software that runs the computer. All software you add to a computer must work through this software to talk to the computer. PC users need Windows NT or Windows 98. Apple Macintosh users need System 8.5. IBM wrote a very fine operating system called OS/2 for the PC platform, but very little software exists for it and very few people use it. For better or worse, it will probably soon disappear. Windows NT4 has power, speed, features, stability, ease of use, and overwhelming dominance in familiarity of use because of number of installed Windows systems. Unix is an operating system that is very clean and stable but not used very often except in servers and highend graphics workstations from SUN, Silicon Graphics and DEC Alpha RISC based systems. However, a variation called Linux is becoming more popular and widely used. For graphics the consideration is always: what particular software applications run on what operating systems? Unix has almost none of the mainstream programs written for it, hence it will not be in the running until all the major graphics software companies convert their current software to run through the operating system. Windows and the Mac OS are the only two operating systems that run all of the current graphics programs.

The new Mac operating system, System 8.5 finally is fully optimized for the Power PC chip and works at full speed. Its visual design is updated and is really quite nice.

To run software written for one type of operating system on another type of machine running a different operating system, another piece of translation software is needed to rewrite information in a way that the other operating system can understand it. This process is at best very slow. To give three important examples: older Macintosh software will run on the new Power-Macs, but no faster than the older machines will run it because it is not written for the RISC type CPU and must be translated. Windows programs will work on Macintosh machines that have SoftWindows or some other brand of translation software, but not at any speed that is useful. These programs run at about half the speed of the Mac which is probaly running at about half to 3/4 the speed of a Windows machine.

Hard Drive: This is the main permanent storage component for digital information on the computer. It is either IDE or SCSIand connects to the appropriate bus through a controller card or "hard wired" motherboard controller. Physically, a hard drive is something like a record player. It has a small metal disk or layers of disks spinning at very high speed (4,000 to 10,000 RPM). A small light-weight arm with a reading and writing recording head flutters over the disk surface reading or writing microscopic magnetic impressions. The written information can be changed anyway at any time, but remains when the computer is turned off. The information must be rewritten or erased to alter it. The drive machinery is sealed in an air-tight shock-resistance case and a ribbon cable of wires plugs it into its controller.

Hard drives are the fastest type of mass storage devices and all computers today have one. The first or main hard drive is called the boot drive, for this is where the operating system is stored that automatically is sent into RAM so you can start working. Computers can have a number of hard drives, if needed, for additional storage. IDE can have two devices on each of two buses for a total of four devices. Since all computers have a CD-ROM drive as well as a boot hard drive, this leaves two more places for IDE drives. If you have an internal ZIP drive this will almost certainly be another IDE device leaving one more spot for a second hard drive in an IDE machine. Very inexpensive add-on IDE controllers can add 2, 4 or 8 additional drive connections. IDE is becoming fast enough in the best drives to support higher end multi-media and video. In a SCSI based computer there can be up to 7 devices on a fast SCSI-2 machine or 15 on an ultra SCSI bus. Any CD-ROM or ZIP drvies that are SCSI take places on this chain.

Hard drive storage space is measured in megabytes, or megs, just like RAM. The first hard drives were 10 or 20 megs which seemed gigantic at the time. Now about 6,000 megs is the entry level drive size for computers (1,000 megs is called a gigabyte or gig).

Hard Drive Controller: This is the section of the motherboard that connects the hard drive to the system bus and moves information out of or into storage. It is important to know about the type and performance level of this device as it can be a real bottle neck if it is not up to the level of the rest of your components. In this day and age, a SCSI controller must be a PCI bus SCSI-2 or better and have a 32 bit bus path. The only exception is for external removable drives and other devices many of which still operate on a 16 bit path. For IDE the controller will be 32 bits wide. This means a PCI controller. If you are getting a new machine it will also be the new Ultra IDE type controller and will be built into the motherboard.

Virtual Memory: A critical topic for graphic artists to understand, virtual memory is a way that hard drive memory can be used as a very slow version of RAM. The operating system software directs this function. Why is it important? Because, when you run out of RAM space to work on a project, your computer would crash without it (lock up and not do anything). When a system crashes, you basically can only reach for the off switch and loose anything you were working on. When working file sizes and software programs started to become large enough to cause this to happen, all operating systems were rewritten to be able to assign virtual memory to a part of the hard drive so that it could be used as a type of emergency RAM. All systems by default assign some hard drive space for virtual memory. The amount of space can be increased but only if available. Space so assigned becomes unavailable for data storage. A general rule of thumb/warning: make sure you have 200 megs of free hard drive space at all times for doing serious graphics work. Windows 95/98 and NT have very good memory management and assign virtual memory as needed. If you run low, they give a warning and allow full recovery options. The Mac OS has not handled this feature as well and under-powered or overtaxed Macs are notorious for crashing. For the Mac turn off virtual memory in Photoshop-it assigns its own to take care of this. Check to see how other programs deal with virtual memory on your Mac. And use it or turn it off as needed.

Monitor: A monitor is a very high quality TV set that displays what the computer has been instructed to do. They come in a range of sizes the most common of which are 14", 15", 17", 20", and 21". It is important to get an easily visible screen. 14" monitors are too small and mostly not offered anymore. 17" has become the entry level standard, and is the smallest size for artists to consider. 20" and 21" are important for serious designers to have for efficiency and quality of production. In a monitor look for these essential performance specifications:

Resolution: This refers to the number of pixels or points that can be drawn to make up a screen image. The screen is divided up into a grid of tiny squares called pixels. Resolution is defined as the number of vertical and horizontal rows of pixels. The maximum screen resolutions that you will need at the various sizes are: 15" 840x768, 17" 1024x768, 20" and 21" 1620x1280.

Refresh Rate: This refers to the number of times images are redrawn every second on the screen and is expressed as Hertz (Hz). At the maximum resolution you need for your monitor, this number must be 75 Hz or higher. If not, you will have a flickering screen and eye strain.

Number of Colors or Bit Depth: This refers to the maximum number of colors that can be displayed on screen at one time. 2 bit = black or white. 8 bit = 256 colors. 16 bit = 65,000 colors, 24 bit = 16 million colors. At the maximum regular working resolution and at the lowest acceptable refresh rate you will need to be able to get 65, 000 colors and preferably 16 million.

Remember that the performance of your monitor needs to be matched to the performance of your video display controller found in the CPU "box." See the next item.

Video Display Controller (or "Card"): This is a hardware item that may be a card plugged into the mother board or a part of the motherboard itself. This piece of hardware translates information sent to it by the CPU into an image that can be seen on the monitor. A cable is plugged between it and the monitor. The controller card has the same three basic performance variables as the monitor described above. A video display card must be correctly matched to the monitor so that they can both achieve their potentials. The basic performance description for video display is stated as the amount and type of installed RAM on the device. There are several types of RAM that are used:

DRAM: The basic, least expensive type of RAM and the same type used most commonly on the motherboard. It is fast, but the slowest of the types of RAM here.

Video RAM: Called VRAM, this is a faster, more efficient, and more expensive type of RAM just used for video display work.

EDO RAM: This is a type of RAM primarily used on the motherboard, but since it is faster than DRAM and cheaper than VRAM, some manufacturers have cleverly used it for their video cards.

WRAM: This stands for Windows RAM for some funny reason (probably to connect it with the Windows 95 hype) but has no specific connection to Microsoft Windows. It is used on a growing number of video cards because it is the fastest of this group. It is bi-directional so can operate, theoretically, at twice the speed of other types of RAM. This means less RAM for equal or better performance. This can be significantly important for image work, particularly 3-D and animation.

A general rule of thumb is that it will take at least 4 megs of DRAM and preferably 4 megs of VRAM to run a monitor at the minimal graphic artist’s performance needs (65,000 colors at 1024 x 768 lines of resolution display on a 17" or smaller monitor at 75 Hz refresh rate). For just doing word-processing or database work, 2 megs might get you by on a small monitor. For a 20" or 21" monitor 8 megs of VRAM is the minimum. Today, most new PCs and now the Macs too come with 16 meg video cards.

Floppy Drive: This is the old original type of personal computer data storage and operating drive. Like a hard drive, it consists of a small rotating disk and a reading/recording head. It works at a comparatively low RPM and the disk is made of recording material much like audio tape. The drive is also open so that disks can be changed. 3 & ½ inches is the only size now in use. The current drives all use High Density or HD floppy disks. Be sure to get this type only (unless you have a prehistoric Mac or even more prehistoric PC). Keep disks away from all magnetic fields! Also keep them dry, dust free and free from pressure or shock. Keep them from getting cold as well. If they have been in the cold, let them warm up slowly and fully before putting them into a computer!

Floppy drives are very slow compared to hard drives and only hold a small amount of information (1.44 megs). For the graphic artist they have minor use. All machines must have one, though, as it is a frequent way to bring in new software and written information. Students can use them for storage of compressed image files.

Removable Drives: There are many types of removable drives. All graphic artists need one (or more). See advice under the Mac and PC platforms for specific recommendations. These are the major types of drives:

Syquest: This is the graphic industry standard for removable drives and one that has been around for about the longest time. There are the older 5 & ½" and the newer 3 & ½" Syquests. The 88 meg 5 & ½" was the most common for the printing industry. Today, get a Syjet (1.5 gig) from Syquest or Jazz ( 1 or 2 gig) from Iomega. These drives can be external in their own case that plugs into a SCSI port at the back of a SCSI computer, or parallel port for PCs that only have that type of external port. They can also be internal, requiring installation. The cartridges consist of just the metal hard disk in a sealed case that opens when it is put into the drive. Other companies make similar type drives.

Optical and Magneto-Optical: Basically the same idea as the Syquest type, but the disk is written and read optically instead of magnetically. This type of drive is not as commonly used by industry but is becoming more common.

Tape Drives: This type of drive uses a ribbon of recording tape much like an audio tape to write information. They are internal or external and fairly inexpensive. They work great for backup or large files that will only be read whole, but since the information is located in a line (linearly) it is not very useful for general storage or working files. For these reasons, this drive type is not used much by graphic artists except for back up or archive storage.

Raid Drives or Drive Arrays: This is a drive type used for very large, very fast access storage needs such as audio & video work. A raid device is a stack of large, fast hard drives which are coordinated to work together in an external case. These devices are always SCSI designs, but in a year or so we will see 1394 (Firewire) become the raid design connection.

CD-ROM: This type of drive is similar to the Compact Disk or CD audio drive. CD-ROMs add written and visual information to the format as well. Drives of this type mostly read only. CD-ROM stands for Compact Disk-Read Only Memory. The reading is done by a laser beam instead of a magnetic head. These drives keep getting faster and faster. The first ones were "single-speed." Next came 2X (twice as fast), then 4X, 6X, and now 40X. Even at the highest speeds today, a CD-ROM drive is way slower than a hard drive, and is mostly used to transfer information such as software, photographs and educational programs (OK, and games and the rest of it). The current disks hold 650 or so megs of information, but the new high density, multi-sided, multi-layered CD-ROMs called DVD (Digital Video Drives) that have 4, 8, 12, and eventually 24 gigabytes of information. These disks will contain several entire movies at extremely high quality and will replace the laser disk and the video tape in this large commercial market. These drives will also come in writable and re-writable versions for a little more and basically replace all other types of video and sound recording devices. Don’t worry about all your existing CD-ROMs, they will play on the new drives.

All computers need a CD-ROM drive and almost all new ones have one. Software is now mostly sold in this form. This makes loading software much easier and makes the packaging more compact. The CD-ROM is also much more protected and resistant to deterioration than floppy disks. 32 to 40X is the standard speed of drives on new computers.

This is a fast changing type of drive and standards will change profoundly with the new high density design. Most CD-ROM materials at this time are still written to work on a 4X drive because this is what most people have. New types of program writing are allowing better graphics performance as drives get faster, particularly when playing movies and audio.

Another type of writable and readable CD-ROM drive is also available. The cost of these drives has come down in the last year from several thousand dollars to under $250. These drives can be used to write your own CD-ROMS, and this is a major new outlet for graphic artwork authoring. Many artists put their portfolios on CD-ROM for self-promotion. These drives operate at 2X or 4X speed at this time and come with operating software. They are internal or external. A program is written on a computer’s hard drive and then transferred to the CD-ROM. The blank disks only cost about 50 cents. Look for the speed of these drives to increase and the cost to decrease as they are replaced by the DVD drives.

Vector: This is one of the two major types of graphics software. To make an image, vector software only records geometric information mapping locations for elements. This type of information requires a very small amount of instructions, comparatively. Artwork produced by this type of software has a typical "hard edged" look, or consists of solid or simple color blends. Type is constructed from vector information. A major software program typical of this type is Adobe Illustrator.

Bitmap: This is the other major type of graphics software. Bitmap software must have a full set of directions for how each pixel of an image must look. This requires an immense quantity of information and hence very large file size.

Metafile: A metafile contains both bitmap and vector image information and typically is the largest of these three file types.

Postscript: A type of file format used in most graphic file preparation for print based graphic work. It is a standardized file type that can include all of the elements of a page layout. The printers used to print such files are also called postscript printers as they are standardized to read and print out this high-quality, high-resolution type of file. Postscript printers are more expensive than non-postscript printers. A less expensive model can be converted into a postscript printer by a hardware addition. A non-postscript printer can also be instructed to print postscript files by special software installed on the sending computer.