Hardware for Photoshop

[hje]

Hi,

I work in an IT department and we are getting complaints from our art department about slow/bad performing hardware.

My task is now to find them more optimal hardware, but my experience with hardware requirements for Photoshop usage is very limited.

Management has agreed to spend a decent amount of money on the systems, but I'm also reluctant to just call our HW supplier and order the biggest workstation they can build.

Operating System will be 64bit Vista and they currently have PhotoShop CS3, but we will most likely upgrade them to CS4 as well.


I'm thinking of getting them:
Quad core CPU (would an Extreme CPU from Intel make much difference?)
8GB ram
Fast harddrive (10.000 RPM either SATA or SAS)

(In a workstation from HP, like the XW4600)

But I'm completely blank on what graphics card to get for them.

Currently they have NVidia Quadro FX1500 or FX1700 cards, but is there anything better, if so what should I look for?

I can see from Adobe's homepage, that they also have the quite expensive FX4500 cards listed - would that make any difference with 2D graphics?


Any suggestions for graphics cards and CPU would be highly appreciated.


Thanks,

-Hje

 

[digitaldesperad]

using a multiprocessor system, or using optimized and defragmented disks, can also improve performance.