What is the Best computer for graphic design.?

Conscidering this system:
Lenovo D30 XEON E5-2609 Workstation
2nd processor: INTEL XEON 2.4G 2011 10M
NVIDIA QUADRO 4000 (2GB)
16GB ECC DDRIII RAM
Intel 520 Series SSD + WD Black 72k HD for storage
Windows 7 x64 Pro
Dual 24" 1080x1920 HD LED Samsung Monitors.


Hardware Questions:
- Am I better to put the money into one high end processor, or dual processors?
- Am I better to use workstation Xeon processors or Desktop i7 processors?
- ECC RAM or regular RAM? Is ECC worth the extra money?
- Video Card - is the Quadro 4000 worth the money, or am I better to go with something cheaper and spend more on RAM and processor, or go with two Quatros?

Thanks in advance for taking the time to give me a hand and help recommend what hardware to use.

I'm just using a PC core i 5, 4gb ram and everything's goes well..

etch-a-sketch

mac, hands down.

Consider investing money in fonts, or taking the time to download free fonts.

If you don't think that's important, any old mac or pc that can handle photoshop will be just fine.

It definitely makes sense to invest in the best hardware set up you can afford if planning on multi tasking. If your working conditions are good your productivity will be increased. Nothing like a slow computer to kill our speed and quality of work

The Mac, of course. It's used by the pros.

A good ole Mac. Sure you could do the same with a pc but I appreciate the overall experience of owning a Mac. Everything about it to me is sharp & beautiful.

Platform wise...it's not that important. What matters is having enough RAM and HD space for the kind of work you are doing, (which varies greatly depending on what area of graphic design you are in), a video card with enough punch to handle that work, the right software and 2 of the biggest monitors you can afford. Even on a large monitor, 1 screen kind of sucks for graphic work. 2 is great because you can move all your tool palettes to one screen and your work on another screen so the tools don't get in your way. (Mostly graphics gurus are using keyboard shortcuts anyway!).

The Brain

No need fancy pc or mac, as long as you have skills and creativity.. Anything will work.

But off course if you have no problem with budget, I would say the more powerful more better.

Tight on cash, a PC is a good solution and a visit to your favorite torrent site is the cheapest solution. Once you make money recommend that you invest in the software license or take a look at Adobe Cloud if a monthly is more tolerable. Of course if you stop the monthly you can't do anything with your files but there is always that torrent site.

Don't be a filthy casual and go for Linux! Spending all the money you make on tylenol is worth it! j/k

There is nothing a Mac can do that a PC can't. One of my biggest regrets was shelling out $1250 on a macbook for my graphic design course and finding out towards the end that Windows works just as well. As for specs, doesn't really matter unless you're doing 3D rendering.

My personal pet peeve is when Mac people say it's a no-brainer for Mac because Macs can run Windows. The fact that Mac users need Windows and Windows users don't need Mac OS makes it a no-brainer indeed, but for Windows.

Its not so much about the best configuration. I think a normal computer and with decent amount of RAM will do the trick, 4G-8G. It is the creativity thats going to do the job. I know a fantastic designer working from a Intel Pentium with 2G, and the work is fantastic.

depend on your software if you would like to use latest grphics design software so you need at least Core i5 for best and fast work otherwise you can core 2 due and etc

I dont agree with those who say a mac is needed.

I use both macs and pcs and dont see any difference because it is you that creates a design and not the computer....

As with hardware, it depends what applications you use.... if you only use ps, or illustrator, you dont even need to have the latest cpu or vid card.

What makes a big difference besides some decent hardware for doing the heavy stuff (after effects, hd rendering, and etc.), is probably a good calibrated ips monitor. What you do, how you see it, can help the quality of your work.

Hey guys..forgot about this thread. recently I bought a machine.
Configuration as follows
Processor i7 GHz
8 GB RAM
2 GB Nvidia Geforce 640
1 TB hard
24' monitor

Working super fast. thanks for BHW.

I believe that the screen must have the capacity of displaying the graphics at a very good shade which of course is characteristic to Mac. Even though the specs are not that good, if you try to open Adobe Photoshop on a good PC and on a Mac with lower specs then it will do it faster on the Mac. Even small things like that are quite important to a graphic designer.

What type of graphic design are you doing? Print, web, video, animation, 3D, gaming?
There are lots of different types. I recommend Intel over AMD, simply because I don't feel AMD have kept up with things.

Processor
i3 processor is low range, i3 denoted by figures after it like i3 150 would be a 1st generation, i3 2xxx would be 2nd generation and i3 3xxx would be 3rd generation.
You then have i5, mid range and then i7 which is the highest range.
Ideally you want to go for the 3rd generation models.
You can compare models on Ark Intel by searching for the processor number, ie., i5 2350 and then compare it to other models, like i7 3630

RAM
If the operating system is 32 bit - then 4GB is max as it's all it can read
If the OS is 64 bit
- 4gb is plenty for day to day stuff, illustrator, Photoshop, in design etc. not working with large files etc.
- 8gb is plenty working on large images and lots of photo editing etc. and large illustrations
-16gb+ for any video editing and/or 3D/animation things.

Graphics Card
more and more new pieces of software are tapping into the video card for resources, so I do recommend a decent graphics card. Is it important now - not really?
A NVIDIA 650m or 630 m would be plenty
but if you're doing Video/3D/Animation then I recommend at least a NVIDIA Quadro FX.
Don't fall into the trap of something like "NVIDIA 630m 2gb RAM" 1gb or even 521 Mb of RAM on a graphics card is plenty.
The only time you'll see a difference is in heavy video editing.
Don't pay over the odds for a 2GB graphics card if 1GB will do.

2 tips: invest in a screen with good color response, at least one who is 99%+ sRGB compliant, and also silent fans, it's really annoying when you have to listen all day to some high pitched noise...

i am using 3rd generation corei5 and its best in graphics designing working, like i made 10 x 20 feet billboard on 300 dpi and its work well.