Finally buying my 2.66GHz Dual-Core at work - extras for design work?

[JoeM]

I finally got my $ negotiations concluded favorably at work and have accepted a management position there running the design dept. Since they wouldn't give me a title of AD,(silly, long story) I took the title of creative design manager (ta-da!) which translates, I guess, really to chief cook and bottle-washer.

Good thing is I got the $ I wanted, paid the way I wanted it, and was able to refuse taking the marketing manager part of the job, staying with managing the creative side. I also get to basically set my own goals and while not getting a second designer yet, I'm getting a college intern to help me + outside help. I have 2 marketing coordinators reporting to me so my little creative fiefdom is off and running.

My G4 867 is going to the intern so I need to buy a new Mac + software. I've decided on a 2.66GHz Dual-Core with the ATI Radeon X1900 XT and one optical drive. Software will be Adobe CS2, and Quark 7. Will still use my Intuos2. I'm not sure yet if I will get new monitors as I have a Diamond Pro 2060u and a nice 17" samsung pallette monitor. Dreamweaver and Flash get done on PC so I will upgrade there, as well.

Questions:
I'm thinking of 4 GB of RAM for the 2.66GHz. Is that enough?
Also will finally get some basic screen calibration. I'm thinking of the Pantone Huey but don't know if something like Eye-One or Spyder are better options.

Anything else you guys can suggest as needed for the 2.66GHz in this type of system?

TIA!

[mattkime]

4GB of ram should be good.

DON'T get the Huey. Its by far the least accurate of the bunch. Get the Eye-One.

I'd prefer to look at a Dell 2405" LCD if it could be worked into the budget.

[JoeM]

I was thinking about a Dell 2405 too, if I do go for a monitor, that would probably be what I'd look at first. Good to know that the Huey is not accurate, I will look into the Eye-One.

Thanks

[MacArtist]

First, congrats on the promotion. Sounds like the negotiations worked out well for you.

Another vote for Eye-One. Very happy with it. You can start with basic software (Express2) and upgrade later to the Spyder Pro software to use with the same calibration unit.

4 gigs of RAM should be enough for your current needs.

[Silencio]

I've been buying stock Mac Pros for my clients and adding 4GB third party upgrade kits, typically 2x2GB, for a total of 5GB. All has worked very smoothly so far, with the exception of a number of workarounds I had to find to get After Effects 7 to play nice.

Dell makes good displays for the money, but I'd opt for the Apple Cinema Display 23" if getting the most accurate color within the budget was important.

[jdc]

in my studio i have a dell 2405 (1920X1200, now replaced by the 2407) paired with a dell 2001 (1600X1200 now replaced by a 2007) and its the best 2 screen combo i have worked with

at home i run 2 2001s (both 1600 X1200) but im always wishing my main monitor was a 2407

that could be from the fact that i have had a 1920X1200 main screen for 6 years or so, even had a huge sony CRT that ran that resolution for a long time.

but it will take some time to get used to the CRT vs LCD thing, or at least it did for me...

just a random thought, since i have been thinking about doing this myself -- but how about a 24" iMac? i mean, once you start getting some production people under you (or maybe even now) how much "trench" work are you doing?

i find myself doing less and less busy work, and just "concept" work -- far more than actual production work. in fact, the last few times i upgraded i gave my senior designer the brand new mac cause she did the most processor crunching work, so she got the fastest.

im thinking that i will be replacing my dual 2.0 with a 24" imac, start with 2 gigs ram and see how it goes from there. its got FW 800, so dropping some fast external storage is easy and hopefully it wont heat up my home studio like the G5 does...

[JoeM]

Thanks, everyone for the help and good wishes.

Silencio: I like the Apple Cinema monitors but I believe the Dell is 1 inch larger and about $250 cheaper. I remember reading a comparison for Dell vs Apple LCDs for graphic design somewhere and Dell stacked up favorably beating the Cinema in some things.

jdc:
I'll be doing the brunt of the design work for right now but I agree that the iMac is the way to go when the G4 867 goes (probably to our tech support group to test OSX software). My sister, who is also a designer is actually picking up an iMac for her home work. I've always had Diamond Pro CRTs for my main monitors so I will have to see how moving to the LCDs will be. Hopefully the Eye-One will help.

My company management was never concerned about color correctness in print before me. As long as "blue was blue", they were happy. When I spec'd out my original system 5 years ago they turned down my request for a screen calibration system. They were basically sales and tech guys and thought even buying a Mac was not necessary "because you can get quark for a PC, right?"

Over the 5 years I've been there they've seen positive results from my efforts to brand the company with a corporate identity so that's why I have been given this opportunity and hopefully the budget to buy this new stuff. They keep saying the $ are there for me.

Let's see tomorrow when they get the Excel spreadsheet with the $ request

[Silencio]

1 inch larger doesn't mean much unless you prefer bigger pixels. The 24" and 23" widescreen LCDs all run at the same resolution, just like 17" and 19" LCDs do. Seems like the industry has standardized on 24" panels, though, since most of the cheaper displays in that range are now 24" instead of 23"; see also the 24" iMac.

[JoeM]

[quote Silencio]1 inch larger doesn't mean much unless you prefer bigger pixels. ...
At my age, my old eyes definitely do

[MacArtist]

[quote MacArtist]Another vote for Eye-One. Very happy with it. You can start with basic software (Express2) and upgrade later to the Spyder Pro software to use with the same calibration unit.
Need to make a correction. The Eye-One is from Gretag-Macbeth. I was referring to the Spyder system from Colorvision. I am impressed with the results from the Spyder system.