Here's guide to buying computers and laptops for artists. It's a guide to help artists decide what type of computers to get for their work or education if you're a student.

This is not a geeky guide. I refrain from listing too much specifications because technology is always advancing. The general trend I noticed though is, processing power today generally exceeds software requirement needs. Which is to say, if you go out and just buy any typical computer, it should still run your software without much problems. This guide is to help you optimize your purchase by recommending what you should get and not, in return saving some money.

By the way, I work for a small newspaper which uses Windows computers in the office but I've a Mac for home use.

What are you going to do on the computer?

That's the first and most important question to ask.

Yes, I know you do art but what type? Vector? 3D? Comics? Digital Painting? Animation? Do you need to carry your computer around?

What you do determines what you buy. You don't want to spend too much money on a maxed out computer for power you don't need.

Alright, let's look at the parts and what they mean to artists.

RAM

RAM is used to store temporary data. When you draw something on screen, or even typing, that something is stored temporary in the RAM before you actually save your file.

How much RAM you have determines how much art you can put on screen. If you run out of RAM, your computer will slow down. It slows down because it has to switch to storing that temporary data on screen to the hard drive, which is many times slower than RAM.

More RAM also helps increase the number of undos you can save.

4GB of RAM is recommended. Note that RAM is also shared with other software and the operating system (OS).

RAM is cheap. It's well worth the money.

Hard drive speed

Hard drive (or harddisk) is used to store your permanent data, your art files. It's many times slower than RAM at storing and bring back data. So it directly affects the speed at which you work, in little ways which can accumulate to huge time wastage. The OS is also stored on the hard drive, which explains why it takes a while to start up.

Hard drives come in many speeds. It's recommended to get 7200 RPM (that's how hard drive speed is measured). There are faster ones that go up to 15,000 RPM but they are also way more expensive. If they are not listed on computers you're buying, ask a salesman, or get the model number of the hard drive and look up on the Internet.

Hard drive space

Hard drives are relatively cheap nowadays. How much space you need depends on the size of your typical work files. Five 200mb Photoshop files will take 1 GB already.

A 1TB (1000GB) hard drive should be enough.

If you can, get an extra for backup purposes. Hard drive can break down. When that happens, you'll lose all your work — professional disk recovery is insanely expensive. If you're getting a desktop, go for an internal drive. For laptops, go for an external hard drive — not many models allow you to fit two hard drives, even so it might make your computer too hot to work on.

The holy grail of hard drives is the Solid State Drive (SSD). It's expensive but really fast. It works just like RAM or a portable flash drive. It translate to files saving and opening faster, software and system will also start up faster. There are no mechanical parts inside, which means their chances of breaking down are slimmer, making it especially useful for laptops where knocks are frequent.

Processors

At least a dual-core processor if you want to be comfortable. Anything more is because you need the processing power, especially for 3D rendering.

How many Ghz is really not important because today's computers are pretty fast. Get at least a dual-core processor.

Graphics card

Unless you're doing 3D modeling, you probably won't require a high end card. 2D digital painting, vector work or layout don't really require that card to calculate 3D data.

If you have a particular 3D software you're using, you should check out the graphics cards recommended by the software company. Each 3D software might have their own little quirks when running on non-recommended graphics card.

And if you want to play games besides art, check the list of recommended graphics cards for the game.

Graphics card on laptops typically can't be upgraded after purchase so choose wisely. If you don't need to play games, you can save some money here.

Disc drive

A DVD burner can burn 4GB of files that you can easily send to your clients.

Software

Sometimes computers come with bundled software that are "free" (as advertised) or heavily discounted. They are not really free because you pay for everything you get.

However if you have the chance to not buy them, especially Microsoft Office, don't buy them. You can find a lot of opensource (equivalent to free and legal) software that have similar functionality. Heck, even Photoshop has an opensource competitor like GIMP.

You'll be able to find a lot of opensource software at delicious.com. Do your homework beforehand. Only buy when you need features that are not provided by opensource alternatives.

Computers don't usually come with art software so you'll have to buy them. The two licenses you should note are education and commercial. The cheaper education licenses are for learning purposes. Commercial licenses are for artists who want to make money off their work.

Monitor

Get an LCD monitor with a high resolution, with lots of pixels. The more pixels you have, the more things you can display on screen. For example, a 1920 by 1200 resolution screen (about 24 inch) can display almost two web pages side by side.

I would recommend at least 1600 pixels wide (about 20 inch) which will give you enough work area as well as space to put the palettes and other controls.

Glossy or non-glossy will depend on your personal preference.

There are also different grades of LCD. Cheaper ones use the TN panels while the more expensive ones use the IPS panels. For artists, it doesn't really make much of a difference unless you require colour perfection. By colour perfection, I mean the ability for your screen to match colour print outs 100%, which really applies more to photographers.

Brands

There is not much difference but I'm sure marketing departments will say otherwise. At similar specifications, how different can Brand A be from Brand B?

What's important is the service and warranty plans that come with the computer. Computers can break down and it's really a luck issue. Do they have a local service center where you can bring it in? Do they have technicians who on-site servicing? Does the warranty cover all parts and services? These are the questions you should ask, and more so if you're asked to buy extended periods of warranty. Amazingly, sometimes extended warranty terms are different from 1st-year warranty terms.

Laptops vs Desktops

The only reason you'll want to get the laptop is for the mobility. I emphasize the word "only" because I see many people being seduced by the higher specifications of desktops. There's franking no comparison here — you can't carry your desktop around freely as you would a laptop.

Always remember what you're buying the computer for.

Go to a shop to get a feel of the weight of the laptop you'll be carrying frequently. 15 inch laptops aren't light but they offer more screen resolution which is really useful. Or you can grab a smaller laptop and get an extra LCD monitor for more resolution. Many people do that.

Windows vs Mac

On the Internet, you'll see a lot of people saying more creative people use Macs or prefer Macs or something along that line. These people have no evidence to back up what they say. The reason for that association is because Macs started the desktop publishing era in 1985 (source: wikipedia). That era really ingrained in people the idea that creative people work with Mac, but seriously, there are also tons of artists who work on Windows.

Today, Macs and Windows are comparable in functionality. What you can do on Windows, you can also do on a Mac, unless you require some super specialized software that has no Mac equivalent. If your software has the same name, e.g. Photoshop version whatever, their files still work with on either platform.

Macs are typically more expensive, when compared based solely on specifications. One big difference is the operating system. Macs uses Mac OS, without which will make it as cheap as the cheapest Dell. The workflow between these two OS is slightly different, like how they manage files, find stuff, move things around. Differences might not be as great as you think. Both are user friendly, especially now that Windows 7 is out.

The best way to decide is to head down to an Apple store to get a feel.

Personally, I use a Mac at home and really love it. There are no viruses and no problems with stability, which many of my Windows friends say about their system also. The real winner here is the lack of maintenance you have to do, basically none. If there's anything wrong, it's always the hardware. For Windows computers, it's hard to troubleshoot if you don't know if it's a hardware or software problem.

The other reason for the Mac is because there are no games — no distraction. And if you really need Windows, you have Boot Camp software which will help you install Windows onto your Mac.

Building your own

If you are tech savvy enough, you can try assembling your own computer. But for the most part, I would recommend getting an assembled set. It saves time and is more convenient.

Just comment if you have any questions.