photoshop cs6, new desktop?

fishing-girl

i have been trying to run cs6 on my laptop, dell xps L502x.core i7.
but it keeps crashing.
i think i will need to get a pc as i know i should have some powerfull hardware to run cs6, but not sure where to even start,
i found this http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/askjack/2012/jun/01/adobe-pc-process-photographs.

2 questions
1, can i tweek my current laptop?
2, if i need a new desktop pc what do i go for?(budget £1000 max including monitor)

i would mostly be using it for photo editing, gaming not an issue.
thanks

santer_2

The article you link to has this

" When it comes to memory, it depends on the size of the photos you want to process, but 8GB is the minimum, and 12GB is probably the "sweet spot". You could go for 16GB if it's within your budget, and if possible, get a motherboard that supports 32GB or more. You will obviously need a 64-bit version of Microsoft Windows 7 to exploit this much memory. "

You could ask on the Adobe forums

http://forums.adobe.com/message/4412711#4412711

http://forums.adobe.com/community/photoshop/general

Or their support

http://www.adobe.com/uk/aboutadobe/contact.html

Check with Dell as it should run CS6 or be configured to

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/index.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn

WhiteChristmas

Your system is more than capable of running CS6 - I'm running it perfectly happily on a much lower spec Dell. Maximise your RAM for best performance.

If you're actually crashing, make sure all your drivers are fully updated and all hardware connections are secure.

If you've already been "tweaking" your settings, some of that might've made the laptop unstable. Restore Windows (I hope you're on 7 and not Vista!) to factory settings or do a fresh install.

And, don't take offence to this, I have to check - is it a legit copy of PS? There are more hacked versions of CS6 than I've ever seen of previous versions of PS and some of them are very, very ropey.

fishing-girl

it is a legit version,im a student so its the education package.
im new to photoshop,only used element before, so it maybe the way im using it that may be at fault rather than an underpowered laptop.

thanks for the replys, im going to update drivers etc and see how it goes.

pogofish

Your machine is more than adequate for CS6. I'd guess that something else in your software/hardware setup is conflicting with it.

Yes, update your drivers but also check what else is loading at startup and strip it back to the bare minimum you need for operation and security.

yangptangkipperbang

If you are fairly well acquainted with Elements the shift to CS isn't TOO difficult. Of course CS is a lot more powerful and does a lot more than Elements - BUT - there are a few things that Elements does that CS doesn't, so keep Elements on your machine.

My biggest query is: why have CS on a laptop ? It is a bit like buying an Aston Martin when the only place you can drive it is round Tesco's, speed hump infested, car park all the time.
A lap top doesn't have a big enough hard drive to deal with many photographs. Once the drive starts to fill this will slow down the performance of CS. More so with CS as it uses the normal Windows file structure. Each of my saved photographs is 30 - 40mb: if you are not intending to keep your photographs at this sort of quality, you don't need CS. If you start saving layers as well the size of your photographs will rocket.
What about back-up drives ?

The biggest one of all: CS enables you to get colours, tints, balances, sharpness, etc, etc just right - you cannot do this on a lap top screen. You need to be viewing your screen from the same height/angle, it is very difficult to do this on a laptop, so each time you look at it you will not be seeing the same. Do you calibrate your screen ?

The article you link too is good but is a little bit OTT. 8Gig of memory is fine (as long as you aren't gaming at the same time !) If you buy a Desk top PC, I would suggest you buy one without a monitor - buy that separately, so you can see it in operation first, and buy a good size - 22" at least. If you are really keen, have two monitors, this makes using CS a lot simpler (and Elements !)
AND get another hard drive to back every thing up.

Sorry to sound a bit negative but CS is not just another piece of software.
"Congratulations on buying one of the most complicated pieces of software ever created" so opens the Missing Manual for CS6 - it does need the right hardware to support its huge capabilities.

Good luck