Task 6a (P4)
Write a report in which you recommend a computer system for the marketing department to purchase.
You must consider ALL the hardware and software needed to complete the designs, think about the software minimum system requirements before deciding on components.
Explain why you have chosen the components and include the current cost of each component.
Choosing a computer you want to buy depends entirely on the consumer. You may be used to specific operating systems like Windows or Mac so changing your operating system may not be a good idea if you don’t want to try something new. But if you do want to change you need to make sure that you have fully research how the operating system works and whether it would be ideal for you. As well as that you need to decide what make and model you would like to have and also how you want your computer to run. And most importantly how much money are you willing to pay for it.
With the cost of your computer being the most important you also need to find the computer with the best specification to suit your budget. As technology is always being updated and developed it would probably be best to buy a computer that is fairly up to date, if not then your computer will go out of date pretty quickly.
I am recommending an Apple Mac computer because Macs are often used by designers and each Mac is best for different types of work. Most graphic designers work on a digital format and Mac offers a wide range of software support.
Graphic design is also a varied subject and the computer need to be able to use Photoshop, interactive design, animation and even 3D design. All of these need different computer skills and different computer setups.
Graphic Designers need a big canvas to work on , or in this case a big screen. Naturally Macs are better for this as well as the quality of the images on the screen are displayed. A MacBook Pro with a Retina Display or a 27-inch iMac are the ones that naturally lead us to this. Design work can use up a lot of the computers processor and memory especially when it comes to designing work in 3D, also the sizes of the files are very large and need a lot of room to save so for this kind of work you need to have a fast running system and a lot of hard drive room. Thankfully you can get additional hard drives so you have extra room to save files.
However Mac's are not suited for every designer. Apple computers come with a 'glossy' display and these are best for video and digital graphic design work, but these displays do not offer the same quality of printing as 'matt' displays so print designers tend not to use Apple computers.
If you work in magazine, leaflet/flyer creation or product packaging development then you may prefer to use a high quality matt monitor.
Traditionally designers have chosen Mac Pro computers, and the new Mac Pro's are powerful - maybe a little more powerful than anyone need.
Specification
Apple Mac Pro is £2,499 and that's before you add a monitor. For a more cost-effective option is to choose a Mac mini and connect to a second screen.
3.7GHz
Quad-Core
Intel Xeon E5 with 10MB L3 cache and Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz
Configurable to 3.5GHz 6-core processor with 12MB L3 cache, 3.0GHz 8-core processor with 25MB L3 cache or 2.7GHz 12-core processor with 30MB L3 cach
12GB
DDR3 ECC memory
12GB (three 4GB) of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC memory
Configurable to 16GB (four 4GB), 32GB (four 8GB) or 64GB (four 16GB)
Dual AMD FirePro
D300
graphics processors
Dual AMD FirePro D300 graphics processors with 2GB of GDDR5 VRAM each
1,280 stream processors
256-bit-wide memory bus
160GB/s memory bandwidth
2 teraflops performance
Configurable to dual AMD FirePro D500, each with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM, 1,526 stream processors, 384-bit-wide memory bus, 240GB/s memory bandwidth and 2.2 teraflops performance; or dual AMD FirePro D700, each with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM, 2,048 stream processors, 384-bit-wide memory bus, 264GB/s memory bandwidth and 3.5 teraflops performance
Starting from £399.
1.4GHz
1.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 2.7GHz) with 3MB on-chip shared L3 cache
500GB (5400-rpm) hard drive
Configurable to 1TB Fusion Drive.
4GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 memory
Configurable to 8GB or 16GB
Intel HD Graphics 5000
WACOM Intuos Pro Medium Special Edition PTH-651S-ENES Graphics Table
Ambidextrous design
Customisable key
ExpressKeys
With stylus
Other features
Stylus with eraser
GENERAL
Colour: Silver and black
System requirements- Windows 8
- Windows 7
- Windows Vista SP3 or Windows XP
- Mac OS X 10.5.8 or higher
- Intel®-processor
Software included Driver
Box contents Wacom wireless kit
Minimum Software Requirements:
Photoshop:
- Multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support
- Mac OS X v10.7, v10.8, v10.9, or v10.10
- 2 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended)
- 3.2 GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on removable flash storage devices)
- 1024x768 display (1280x800 recommended) with 16-bit color and 512 MB of VRAM (1 GB recommended)
- OpenGL 2.0–capable system
- Internet connection and registration are necessary for required software activation, membership validation, and access to online services.
LightRoom:
- Multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support
- Mac OS X Server v10.7, v10.8, v10.9, or v10.10
- 2 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended)
- 2 GB of available hard-disk space; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on removable flash storage devices).
- 1024 x 768 display
- Internet connection and registration are necessary for required software activation, membership validation, and access to online service
Illustrator:
- Multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support
- Mac OS X v10.7, v10.8, v10.9, or v10.10
- 2 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended)
- 2 GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on removable fl ash storage devices)
- 1024 x 768 display (1280 x 800 recommended)
- Internet connection and registration are necessary for required software activation, validation of subscriptions, and access to online services
InDesign:
- Multicore Intel processor
- Mac OS X v10.7, v10.8, v10.9, or v10.10
- 2 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended)
- 2.6 GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on removable flash storage devices)
- 1024 x 768 display (1280 x 800 recommended) with 32-bit video card; supports Retina display
- Adobe® Flash® Player 10 software required to export SWF files.
- Internet connection and registration are necessary for required software activation, validation of subscriptions, and access to online services
Nikon D3200 specification highlights:
- 24MP CMOS sensor
- ISO 100-6400 (plus ISO 12,800-equivalent Hi1 setting)
- Expeed 3 processing
- 3.0", 920k dot screen
- Full HD 1080p30 video (with 25p and 24p options)
- Microphone socket
- Twin IR remote receivers
- 4 frame-per-second continuous shooting
- Guide mode
Epson Perfection V370 Photo 4800 dpi scanner with ReadyScan LED technology
£89.99
- High resolution - 4,800 dpi for high-quality
- Transparency unit - scan slides, film and negatives
- Flexible - scan bulky books and 3D objects
- Convenient - scan-to E-mail or cloud storage
- No warm-up time
Epson WorkForce WF-3520DWF 4-in-1 Printer with Double-sided Printing - £79.99
- Print, scan, copy and fax with ADF
- Print up to 15 pages per minute
- Wi-Fi and Ethernet
- Comes with 6.3 cm LCD screen
- Freedom to print and scan anywhere