Buying Advice - For CS4 use

Hello,
I am looking at the new iMac (lower-end) 21 inch with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics.
What is your opinion on running Photoshop CS4, Dreamweaver CS4 and Flash CS4 on that machine.
Money is a little tight.
Thank you in advance.

Rick is providing good advice however DO NOT purchase any additional memory from Apple. You can get a much better value if you purchase the same memory from Crucial or OWC. OWC currently is highly recommended and only costs $88.00. The link for OWC's memory is:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/8566DDR3S4GP/
If you take that route then you still have money to spend on AppleCare which is also highly recommended. Again you can purchase AppleCare for much less than what Apple quotes, just ensure you purchase from an authorized reseller.
Regards,
Roger

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Buying advice for MacMini

I will be buying a new Intel Mac soon and cant work out between iMac, Macbook or Mini and looking for advice.
I am currently using a Mac Power PC tower, 7 years old for design work. It has a top end NVIDIA graphics card installed and maximum RAM used with an expensive Dell 24" Ultra display.
Use is for Photoshop, some video using FCP X, email and web.
Don't need portability it can be the size of a truck
need good performance, I will use plenty extra RAM
I don't understand too much about hardware and trying to decide on what spec I need, specifically the difference between
1- low cost Intel 4000 or the better NVIDEA graphics card
2- i5 (low cost) or i7 (expensive) processor
from reading magazines and Apple discussions the consensus appears to be:
Mac Mini
good reliability, appeals for price and would connect to an existing 24" monitor
unsure about the spec of graphics, the Intel 4000 sounds very poor against the NVIDIA electronics
iMac
has good spec but is expensive for what it is, appears to be unreliable with numerous screen problems discussed in forums. Unsure about using a computer that is built in to a screen.
Macbook
don't need portability but has good reliability and good spec but again uses low end Intel graphics except on the most expensive model. There is a bewildering range in choice of spec.
thanks for reading

Hello, you have it covered pretty well, I'll just add...
Mac Mini
Not that the HD4000 is that slow, but myriad problems, mostly HDMI output, but several using TB port also. I'd never consider a computer with Intel Graphics.
iMac
Besides what you mentioned, the 21.5" is not serviceable even to upgrade RAM. Unacceptable in my eyes.
Macbook
Hmmm, reliability??? Don't they have permanently glued in Batteries that only Apple can Replce, & likely won't even be available 3-5 years from now? Is the Hard drive replaceable?
Both the iMacs & MBs seem like disposable computers to me, but if you can afford to replace them every 3 years I guess that wouldn't matter.
Not that I can afford anything, but If I had to replace my Mac right now, I'd only consider an older used, all be it slower iMac.
http://www.powermax.com/preowned_macs

Mac Pro buying advice for Graphic Design

I am going to be purchasing a Mac Pro and was hoping I could get some advice on the right set-up for what I do. I use CS4 heavily on the Mac for graphic design spending a good amount of time in Photoshop working with files that can easily go over a few gigs (when working on convention booth displays, etc.). I also use my Mac for casual video editing in iMovie, and use Apple's other great offerings like iWeb, iPhoto, etc.
My main questions are:
- I'm leaning towards the Quad. I keep my Macs for at least 5 years. Is that a good decision?
- If I do go with the Quad should I opt for the 2.66 or 2.93?
- At the moment I am running 8 Gig on my current Mac, should I configure this new one with 8 Gig?
- Is the Radeon the correct card choice for a heavy Photoshop user?
I hope these questions aren't ones that have been asked a thousand times. It's a lot of money to spend (especially right now) and I want to make sure I configure it correctly for what I do.
Thank you in advance for your input.

Hi hatter,
Thank you again for your responses. That really helps clear up the RAM situation. I think that is part of what swayed me towards the 8-Core as opposed to the Quad. Please correct me if I am wrong, but looking at prices of RAM on Crucial I see that if I wanted today to put 16 Gigs of RAM in a Quad-Core it would cost me $1200 (for 4 4-Gig chips using all slots). However if I was going to put 16 in the 8-Core I could do it for $400 (8 2-Gig chips using all slots. Actually it would only be $200 more since I configured my Mac with 4 2-Gig chips from Apple for an extra $100). Seems like having more slots open will save me money when I want to upgrade ram since I don't have to go for the 4-Gig chips. That coupled with the theory that Snow Leopard is around the corner and will take advantage of the 8-Core it seems like opting for a low end 8-Core vs a high end Quad is worth the $300 difference.
Side note: Are there any reports that say running more 2GB chips is worse than running fewer 4GB chips? Just curious.
Even though I understand that the processor speed makes a difference I am hoping that the advantages of more RAM slots and future benefits of Snow Leopard, CS5 and other apps that will take advantage of the 8-Core in the near future will make it the right decision. If I could afford a faster 8-Core obviously I would opt for that but with a jump of $1,400 to the next processor speed I am afraid it is out of my reach.
Regardless I'm sure I will feel very spoiled as soon as I unwrap this beast and get it up and running. Then in a year I'll give into the temptation of slipping a SSD in for the boot drive and I'll have to find a way to contain my excitement. I have a SSD on my laptop and WOW what an amazing difference it really is.
Wow, these forums are great. I can't believe how helpful all of your responses have been. I feel much more informed and was able to order my Mac today not feeling like I was shopping in the dark.
Thank you all again!

An advice for an used Power Mac G5 dual core 2.3

Hello.
I used a Power Mac G5 PCI-X (sett. 2003) 2.0 GHz, working with Photoshop. It worked great for yeras, but now, due to its typical logic board lack, it got broken and is unable to boot anymore (three times flashing power light).
Now, I use software for PowerPC CPUs, so I can't get new computers, because I should replace all the software too!
I'm going to buy an used Power Mac G5 dual core 2.3 GHz:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermacg5/stats/powermac_g5_dual2.3.html
This is the configuration:
Ram: 5.5 GB
HD: 250 GB
SVGA: GeForce 6600 - 256 MB.
About 650 dollars.
According to you, is this a good product? do you know any issue or manufacturing fault?
Would you buy it if you were me?
Thank you!

I tried heating it (not with the hair dryer), after about 1 hour it booted and worked very well, as in past. But when I powered it off, it started again with the same problem: unable to boot and three times flashing light.
I need a working system.
Furthermore, I removed the hard disk (sata 160 GB), and installed it in a Mac Pro: but it recognized only the second partition (data). So I run the Disk Utility and gave immediately an error (wrote in red and big), writing that the hard disk had a serious physical problem, and that if the computer was able to see the disk, I had to make immediately a backup.
But the three-times flashing light error of the G5 was not given due to the hard disk, because I tried several times to boot it from the OSX DVD, also removing the hard disk, and it always gave the same problem.

Want to buy IPOD for G4 using Panther and the older USB port

I want to buy a used IPOD. I have the 800 megahertz G4 with Panther 10.39 and I guess that older USB port. I hear is isn't USB 2.0. Which Ipod should I buy that will work?
I want an ipod but I don't want to buy a brand new computer for a few months!
Thank you very kindly,
Tom in Arizona

Thanks very much. The only one that seems to be a good match is Ipod Shuffle. There remains, however, one problem. Its corresponding version of Itunes is 4.7.1, and I have 7.4.2. Is it possible to get version 4.7.1 and repopulate it with my songs so that I can use Ipod Shuffle? This would appear to be a real problem.
Gracias,
Tomás
PS: I'm assuming this old macitosh does not have the version 2 USB port. Here's what my system profile lists:
USB Bus:
Vendor Name: Apple Computer, Inc.
Product ID: 32773 ($8005)
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Bus Power (mA): 500

HT1879 Buy music for commercial use.

I have a question. If I buy a music (0.99€) I can use it to commercial videos, for example I want to make a video with 3 minutes and I want to show my film to others.
Thanks

No, you cannot. Tracks from the iTunes Store are sold for your personal use only:
USAGE RULES
You shall be authorised to use iTunes Products only for personal, noncommercial use.
Nor could you use any tracks, even from a CD, for commercial purposes without a license from the record company or whoever else holds the rights to the track. I'd suggest that unless you really, really want to use a commercially-released track and are prepared to pay handsomely for the privilege, you obtain your music from one of the several companies that sell royalty-free tracks.
Regards.

Can't buy Keynote for Mac using iTunes gift card

Hello there fellas.
I have an iTunes account with $21,20 credit that I got from a gift card.
For a couple days now I've been trying to buy the Keynote for Mac with no sucess.
After clicking the buy option at the App Store it opens a window to check my billing info, even thou my account has no credit card information. I confirm everything without entering any credit card info and it asks me again for my password. As I enter the password it asks for the billing info again and I can't buy the app at the end.
Have this happened to anyone else? What am I doing wrong here?
Why I can't buy a $19 app when I have $21 as credit?

this is not the first app I bought, and all the past ones didn't have any hidden fees or taxes applied after the purchase
Taxes and fees are not applied AFTER the purchase. They are included in the total price.
They are not "hidden"... refer to the terms and conditions link I posted previously.
Pages is $19.99 at the U.S. app store.
You need to consider whatever the tax rate may be for the state you live in, add that to the $19.99.
but can not get it using my prepaid credit.
There's not sufficent funds available.
United States Sales Tax Site: Table of Sales Tax Rates

Advice For Someone Using A Professional Printer For The First Time

Hello everyone
1. I'm doing some posters and flyers for my club using Pages. We've got them looking how we want on my home inkjet printer but now we need someone to print out large quantities. I've never used a professional print service before. There are simply loads of posts on this topic but I wonder if there is anyone out there that does this a lot and can tell me how they do it. I was hoping to initiate the definitive Professional Printing FAQ thread.
2. Reading the numerous posts, there are lots of terms that I don't understand like 'bleeds' and 'pantone'. Understandably, print is a whole new world of technical terms. Can anyone recommend a good introduction to all this on the web?
Thanks

I don't know of a good basic FAQ for printing, but I can try to address some of your issues.
What is a "large quantity", IanB? Tens, hundreds, thousands? In my experience this is probably the most critical issue, since it pretty much determines the printing method used (and thus the cost). Anything under about a thousand copies will these days likely be printed "digitally", which essentially means run off on a colour laser printer. In my experience, as long as you are not fanatical about colour accuracy, this method is very forgiving of the way the source file is set up, and most houses will take standard PDFs. It is much more expensive on a per-unit basis than offset printing, but there is also little/no "set up" cost, which means that for short runs it is often far more affordable in terms of total cost.
Once you get to big runs, where you need offset printing (presses that use metal plates for different colour inks), things change a fair bit, as you have to deal with colour separations and possibly spot (Pantone) colours as well. The setup costs for this kind of printing can be very substantial (making metal plates is expensive), but once set up, the cost per unit is far less than digital printing. If this is your first time out, I'd suggest either avoiding going this route, or finding a very understanding print shop that is willing to hold your hand through the production process.
As for bleeds, that refers to when objects on your document go all the way to the edge of a page. The problem with using bleeds is that they require the printer to print the page on a larger physical piece of paper, with the bleeding objects slightly over the desired edge, and then trim that paper down to size, cut so that the bleeding section is cut through (to avoid a white unprinted edge). But because the cutting is not always absolutely accurate, you need to leave space between the edge of the page and any material that absolutely has to be on it (e.g., text), so that the trimming will only cut away some of the bleed, but not the critical material.
Bleeds make setting up (and printing) your document much more complicated, and you will be much better off if you can avoid bleeds for your first experience doing professional printing. If not, I'd again suggest that you shop around for a print house that says they'll be willing to walk you through the process of how to format your document to do this.
I'm sure others here that are more experienced in the printing process can point you to more comprehensive resources, or give you more detailed advice.

Dear Yoga 2 Pro owners - should I buy this for business use?

I'm a Lawyer and looking for an ultra book to do the majority of my work on.
My only requirements are good keyboard and trackpad, durability, high quality screen to make reading and creating documents as friendly on the eyes as possible, great wireless connection, speed, and for it to last hopefully 2 years before needing an upgrade.
I use acrobat pro and office 2013 extensively.
Will the Yoga 2 Pro be a good choice for me, or should I wait for the thinkpad x1 carbon to be released in my country? (UK).
Thanks for any help you can provide

The 1800p resolution is a gimmick since programs are not really capable with this resolution. That said, you will probably reduce the resolution to at least 1080p or worst. I use 900p because some programs even struggle with 1080p.
This model has wifi issues which is present on certain models of routers using 2.4 ghz band. Many have been lucky to be around new routers. However, you cannot tell a hotel, airport or coffee shop to change the router just for you. I personally suffer from wifi issue at my school. I have already made a batch file to reconnect instantly but, this is utter BS for a $1200+ laptop (don't forget tax).
The yellow issue is better but not perfect. In some modes, the mustered color is still present. I solved the issue by deleting those power plans from my computer. However, this is not an acceptable solution. That said, even on the fixed power plan, there is a slight green tint on the yellow. Also, Microsoft Office yellow (like the highlighter) looks like crap on all power plans.
The backlight on the keyboard is really dull compared to many backlit keyboards.
The trackpad deselects what you selects, if you crank up the trackpad speed. For me, the default speed is too slow. (However, it can be fixed by using a dell driver)
The micro HDMI slot is too recessed. You will need to buy special cables or cut your cables to fit the yoga.
The SD slot has little depth. This means there is not a SD card in the market that will sit flush with the laptop. This is a deal breaker if you want to have an SD card act as a semi-permanent extra storage solution.
The trackpad is a grease magnet and will look bad within 72 hours of use.
You cannot lock this version of OKR. This means that unlike the previous version (which cannot be installed), anyone can be a di** and reformat your computer with a push of a button.
The fan goes crazy within about 30 min of light use.
The screen flickers at low brightness.
Almost everyone has light bleed on their screen, to some degree.
It is impossible to clean smudge marks on the yoga's back shell.
There is an overheating issues when the yoga is placed inside a bag, while in sleep mode.
The edges chip easily.
The Bluetooth constantly disconnect and a Bluetooth mouse is practically un-usable, useless you have a USB receiver (taking up 1 of 2 USB ports).
Speaking of which, 2 USB ports.... Really? Also, why can't they both be USB 3.0? Or the USB 2.0 also be an eSATA/USB combo jack?
Part of the keyboard driver, built into the Utility.exe file of the Power Management software, sucks. There are certain keys that will do nothing 1/2 the time they are pressed. The airplane mode key is one of them.
Lenovo custom install makes upgrading to a different version of windows difficult. To upgrade to Windows 8.1. Pro for example, you will need to jump through hoops and suffer from a failed update(s) to actually get Windows 8.1 Pro. I am lucky the feature I wanted works (in spite of the failed updates) but, I would not be surprise if certain features don't work since the upgrade failed 3x.
Oh and if you are a Dargon users, I hope you don't plan on updating your program. However, I will leave it at that since software can be uninstalled, like the buggy phone companion software (which sporadically works on limited ICS versions and rare JB versions).

'Suggested' System Parameters for CS4 used with TCS 2?

Greetings,
We've upgraded to Illustrator CS4 to be used along with Technical Communications Suite 2.
Our graphics are often engineering drawings which we receive as PDF files. We open them in Illustrator to manipulate them.
We import (by reference) the images into our FrameMaker files, which means we generally have FrameMaker open and open Illustrator as needed to work with the images.
Unfortunately, while our systems seem to have the minimum requirements for each, we find that they're MUCH slower with the new programs running, even when working with just one or the other, not both at the same time. Before we upgraded, scrolling down in FrameMaker often meant either shutting off view of the graphics or sitting and waiting as each page loaded, but now it's really bad. The PDF's in Illustrator involve clicking on something, pausing while the system works, moving it, pausing while the system works.
So, are there 'suggested' system requirements that would let us open a 250 page manual in FrameMaker (assume one graphic on every other page) and, while doing so, open a linked-in line drawing in Illustrator without freezing up?
If I can find out suggested processing, RAM, and Video RAM values, I have something to take upstairs.
(I put our current system information below)
Thanks,
Solon
Our systems are:
XP sp 2
Dual Pentium 4 (2.8 GHz)
1 GB of RAM
224 MB of Video RAM (Video is Intel® 82945G Express Chipset Family)

The 2 Ghz is the requirement for DV (digital video) work. The same is
true for the speed of the hard drive. 1.2 Ghz will be slow, v e r y s l
o w.
More importantly is how much RAM and how much free hard disk space do
you have? Which CS 4 suite are you interested in? What do you want to do
with it?
Mike

Best Cooling Pad for Desktop Use

If anyone has an opinion, please weigh in. I'm curious if anyone has ever used one of those many laptop cooling pads/mats out there. I'm considering buying one for desktop use with my 17" MBPro. When running intense apps for hours on end (FCS, Adobe everything, StarCraft 2) I occasionally push it to the brink of freezing and nothing will save it except a hard-reset.
So if you've ever purchased/used on of these, which are the best? Consider price to be no object. Thanks!
Chris

@Scott - Been in post-production a long time friend. Laptops are everywhere. Get with the future.
@MacMedic - Thanks for the recommendation, I'll definitely be looking in to it.
@Lyssa - It's only been recently that my Mac has been having the over-heating issues. I'm thinking it's just a combination of getting old and summer months with no A/C. With regard to my specs you're somewhat close. It's the MacBookPro2,1; Introduced October 2006 discontinued June 2007 and I was unfortunate enough to have purchased mine April 2007 shortly before they were phased out. It has the 2.33GHz Core-2 Duo with 3GB of Memory.
Used to run all my programs just fine with the fans kicking into overdrive, but lately things just get sluggish when it's hot. I typically only have one program running at a time, occasionally two (like Final Cut and After Effects) but not for long periods of time. With the exception of StarCraft 2 the amount of free ram is still in the 100's and I've got just over 100GB free on a 500GB HDD. It's not slow for things like Word Processing, Browsing the web (unless I run into something Flash based in Safari ha ha) or doing Mail.
Anyway, thanks for all the help. Keep the suggestions coming in.

I want to buy a refurbished Macbook Pro solely to use 'protools 8' on-nothing else. I am being told there are only certain year Macbooks Pro that will run this programme. I know I need 8gb, can anyone give me advice on what to buy/look for?

I want to buy a refurbished 'Macbook Pro' solely to use 'protools 8' on-nothing else!.
I am being told there are only certain year Macbook Pro that will run this programme.
I know I need 8gb, can anyone give me advice on what to buy/look for please?

It appears to depend upon the version you will be using:
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Compatibility/en352429
Based on what I can tell, you may have to go to the second hand market in order to get a MBP that will run a compatible OSX.
Ciao.

Where to buy serialnumber for photoshop cs4?

where to buy serialnumber for photoshop cs4?

Adobe doesn't sell CS4 anymore. It hasn't done it for years.
The only way to obtain a legitimate s/n would be to buy an unused old-stock copy of CS4 that some reseller may have in their stock room, or to buy it from a private party that has never used that particular copy of CS4 to upgrade the application.
Both methods bring with them a very high likelihood of your getting ripped off.

I am considering a base 21" iMac ($1099 @ Best Buy) for home use. It would be my first Mac. Is the base model powerful enough for everyday home use and some light video editing or should I upgrade the CPU, Ram and to a Fusion drive?

I am considering a base 21" iMac ($1099 @ Best Buy) for home use. It would be my first Mac. Is the base model powerful enough for everyday home use and some light video editing or should I upgrade the CPU, Ram and to a Fusion drive?
Purchasing with the upgrades through Apple would add about $800 over the Black Friday deal at Best Buy. Just looking for some advice if I will be satisfied with the based model.

All models will do what you want. Upgraded models will do it faster than the standard models.
Just why are you thinking of switching to a Mac?

Advice on CS4 system config for AVCHD/Blu-Ray

Hi,
I need some advice for a CS4 system config.
I am currently building this system for editing uncompressed SD/HD/AVCHD video and authoring Blu-Ray, Flash, SD DVD's.
This is being built a local comp store and parts are already coming in, so any changes would be extras, and I'm on a budget. I know I should have posted this before, but reading conflicting reports on config/drive issues raised some questions and concerns.
Here's the current specs.....
750W Corsair ATX Power supply w/140mm fan
GlacialTech SilentBlade II 120mm case fan
ASUS P6T motherboard w/Triple Channel mem support
Intel Core i7 920 2.66 Ghz processor
Kingston SSD(Now V-Series) 128gb, SATA 300 boot drive
Seagate ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200RPM HDD X 2 in RAID 0 Stripe (Internal)
2GB DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333MHz) Memory X 6=12GB RAM
nVidia Quadro FX1800 graphics card w/Elemental Accelerator
LG Blu-Ray SuperMulti Blue DVD Burner
2TB USB External HHD (attached via USB)
2TD Firewire External HHD (attached via Firewire 800)
4 Pin Molex to 2 x SATA power adapter
4 live squirrels with hi-power hot peanuts in hamster wheel
Windows 7x64bit
I'll be using CS4 Production Premium (upsell package) for Windows.
1. Is it possible to run CS4 on an SSD drive (as the OS boot and app's drive)? I've heard mixed reports that CS4 does not play well with SSD's.
2. When configuring CS4 for a project, which drive should each project element/asset go to maximize speed? After seeing so many conflicting articles, I'm completely lost on cache drive vs. media/project files vs. backup drives.
3. Should I use RAID 0 for my scratch discs (for performance) and just manually backup the project to an external HDD? (I hear horror stories of these drives freezing in RAID).
7. Should I wear boxers or briefs while editing?
Thanks in advance!

1. Yes, you can use a SSD as a boot disk for OS & programs. No problem.
2 & 3. Make sure you do NOT get the 7200.11 Seagates. You MUST only use the 7200.12 version. I would NOT put them in a (R)aid0, especially not with Seagates. Instead of two 1.5 TB disks, you can consider to get one 1.5 TB for source/media and two smaller disks, one for projects/scratch and one for exports.
Not all P6T mobo's have FW800 on board. You may be limited to FW400. For external (backup) storage you are better off with eSATA.
7. Definitely boxers. It fits better with your climbing boots and real editors always wear climbing boots when sitting at their editing station, just in case a mountain suddenly appears on the monitor.
Also have a look here: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/525263?tstart=0

Buying Advice - For CS4 use

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