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Bob Davis
05-29-2012, 4:34 AM
Has anyone got any suggestions for the ideal computer (with current tech) to run a laser?
Certainly the laser itself doesn't need anything too special, but the operator (that would be me) wants something that is relatively quick and has more than ample reserves for Photoshop and large Coreldraw files while not going over the top on price.
I read somewhere that Coreldraw is mainly dependent on CPU speed and that a fast graphics card will not make too much difference, while Photoshop benefits markedly from a fast/large card. Would that be correct? In any case I would think an I5/I7 CPU would be quite sufficient.
Apparently most of the latest graphics cards are devoted almost entirely to 3D performance and 2D (such as I believe is used with Coreldraw) hasn't improved much in quite a while. Is it a waste of dollars to go upmarket?
I've tried and rather like the SSD drives that are now available. Maybe 120gb for the OS and programs and .cdr files with the rest on a larger HDD? Or is it just simpler and easier to get one largish HDD? Or maybe a big SSD?
Any real benefit in a 64 bit system? As the main application would be Coreldraw the usual 4Gb of RAM would appear to be quite enough.
A Windows 7 OS would appear to be required, but Home or Pro?
Any suggestions appreciated.

john banks
05-29-2012, 4:55 AM
Depends on the compatibility of your laser software, but we use 3 year old specs of PC for both laser side and upstairs office on gigabit network with no issues, they fly through X5 for laser stuff. E8400 3 to 3.6GHz CPU (dual core, before the i3/5/7 came out), 4 to 6GB RAM, 7200RPM SATA hard drives (one has a RAID array), Windows 7 64 bit Pro, One has onboard Intel graphics, the other a GeForce 8800GT 512MB which was good about 3 years ago, can't tell any difference. Windows live and external USB drive backups, 1920 * 1080 21.5" monitor on one, 1920 * 1200 24" on the other. Also use a Core i7 laptop with 1080p display and that performs similar. Any more may well be overkill, but depends on your needs. Our upstairs computer was £110 (about USD 165) with a Windows 7 Pro 64 bit sticker attached, 250GB HDD, 2GB RAM, ex corporate (I expanded). Starting up a home based business without the drag of any debt it was important for us to keep our costs down, and with a slow start to sales seems justified.

Michael Hunter
05-29-2012, 8:43 AM
As John says - older less whizzy computers work fine for Corel as used for engraving. (If you were a graphic artist doing really fancy things with loads of layering, then it might be a different story).

I do design work on a dual core E6300 machine with 2GB memory and Vista. This is more than adequate and the only time that there is any delay at all is if the screen is absolutely filled with thousands (literally) of tiny complex shapes : even so, the delay does not really interrupt the workflow.

The machine that drives the laser is an ancient and slow Pentium4 job running Windows XP and even this is adequate for doing most things.

I have found that you *do* need a decent graphics card - Corel (X3) seems to use the card's graphics engine in the background and on the old machine if the page is really complex the graphics card overheats and dies when editing (though when used just for viewing and "printing" it is OK).

I use my laptop as a backup in case the other machines have problems. This is a dual-core running Windows 7 Home Premium and again is perfectly adequate for engraving use.

It seems that windows 8 is coming soon - what horrors will that bring??? All new drivers (again)?, everything stored in a cloud?

Martin Boekers
05-29-2012, 9:26 AM
Don't forget the moniter! Bigger is better as it makes your job easier with a bigger
screen. Computers and monitors come cheaply these days, don't scrimp there as
you use these for every job.

Steven Cox
05-29-2012, 9:48 AM
Don't forget the moniter! Bigger is better as it makes your job easier with a bigger
screen.


Go one better get 2 monitors!
Most graphics cards will handle 2 monitors and win98, vista and Win 7 allow easy set up. It's great you can have 2 or more applications open and useable in each screen, no more trying to fit 2 windows on 1 screen. Warning, once you'vr used a 2 screen set up its hard to go back to one screen.

David Fairfield
05-29-2012, 10:31 AM
To your computer, the laser is basically just a printer, you don't need a lot of computing power to run it. So think affordable / practical. As far as I know, most lasers are set up to communicate with a PC, and may not be Mac friendly. Two monitors can be useful, depends on your style of working. But at least one big monitor.

My laser is run by a 2004 Dell running Adobe Illustrator and the new Epilog driver. My plan was to replace it eventually when I outgrew it or it started acting buggy but its performed flawlessly after all these years, cobwebs and dust. So I would say don't go bananas with extra bells and whistles. If your computer meets the graphics software recommendations, you will be fine.

Dave

Edit-- I think once the graphics software requirements are met, the monitor is where I'd spend on excess capacity. A nice big monitor is useful and makes graphics work easier. I spend a whole lot of time looking at it, so it should be good.

Chuck Stone
05-29-2012, 11:45 AM
Go one better get 2 monitors!
Warning, once you'vr used a 2 screen set up its hard to go back to one screen.

Absolutely.
Much easier to work when one large monitor holds JUST your image and the other one
holds the dockers, tool pallets, fly-outs and roll-ups!

George Carlson
05-29-2012, 11:53 AM
To run the laser, I use an old Dell GX280 which is a 3GHz P4 running XP and Lasercut 5.3. The GX280 is a small footprint machine that sits on top of the laser. I got it from a dealer who refurbishes computers. This one came from a college, and was only $150 and it runs perfect. For doing the actual design work I use a much newer machine with a calibrated display (across the room, away from the noisey laser). I transfer files through the network to the laser's computer.

nathan mcafee
05-30-2012, 12:10 AM
Skip the SSD drive. The speed is nice but down deep loading of a few-MB file isn't the bottleneck in most instances. You are paying a huge premium for speed you don't often actually use. The reliability seems nice since there aren't the moving pieces of a traditional hard drive but the frequent changes in firmware levels of most SSD vendors can lead to some pretty harrowing tales of lost data. Get a name brand, fast 1 TB drive for $100 and fill it to your heart's content.

The move from XP to Windows 7 is great for file searching and the quickview feature(you hover over the open programs on the bottom bar and it gives you a picture of the running screen). I love it when I have 20 programs open and am trying to find the right one. Also, the snip tool is a simple but amazing thing to use.

I have played around with the developer preview of Windows 8. There are quite a few changes in the way you navigate different applications and a push to cloud data stores. I don't believe there is a new driver architecture, Windows 7 drivers work on the current Windows 8 build. However cool it might be to navigate I don't see any features that will push me to migrate my work computer to Win 8 anytime in the next couple of years.