I've used PCs since I worked as an analyst for Shell Oil years ago.
Yes, PC were crash prone before Win 2000, but not anymore.
Yes, PCs have more viruses floating around than MACs, but that is 99.0% preventable is you know what you are doing. I've never had ONE virus that got away from me in 15 years of computing.
If you run photoshop and other large programs at the same time, you DEFINITELY want a Dual Core processor, and AMD wins the day as of this time.
I just built a new machine, and it is incredibly fast and a pure joy to work with, even over the new AMD FX 57 64 bit processor--I owned both in the last month. The dual core processor just kicks ass on any single core, or even Intel multithreaded CPUs.
It actually has 2 64 bit 2400Mhz CPUs on the die.
OK so here is my evidence to the above statements, and my system specs:
AMD X2 64 bit 4800, running at a clock speed of 2.4Ghz
2GB of Corsair Extreme Pro matched pair RAM (2 IGB modules)
ASUS A8N SLI Premium Mother Board
BFG 7800GTX video card with 256MB RAM
Want evidence that if you are running power hungy applications at the same time that the dual core is the way to go, ok, try this:
Using Photoshop CS or CS2 (or PS 7)
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1.) Download Image from
http://www.quicklance.com/test.jpg2.) Save it to computer and then open it up in Photoshop
3.) From there please apply a 'radial blur' with the settings at:
Amount = 100
Blur Method = Spin
Quality = Best
Use the PS timer to see how long it takes to apply this filter. Run the the test three times by closing teh image each time and re running the radial blur test, and then average the three runs. Now, here's the rub for those who wish to run another application while you work in Photoshop: Grab about 1GB of data and start the compression program Win RAR compressintg the files. I say use Win RAR because it pegs your CPU and must share the clock cycles with other apps running.
So start Win RAR compressing a bunch of files, and then run the radial blur test three times and average it.
My score:
No applications running except Photoshop and your firewalls, virus programs, and things lie that.
FX57 2.8 Ghz--the fastest single core desktop processor in the world at this writing: 64 seconds.
X2 4800 2.4Ghz Dual Core CPU: 36 seconds
All your regular programs running, virus scanners, firewalls, etc, plus Win RAR working on a 1GB file. Open Photoshop, and runt eh test:
FX57 1:49 secs
X2 4800 40 secs.
And there you have it. This also goes for other applications that you amy want to run while you work in Photoshop, like Win Amp, windows media payer, both to play music, a video conversion program, etc.
I will post this test in a new thread so we can get some fresh thread results.