Buying a New Computer for Web Design

I would say probably ~2GHz running a Linux OS would be your best bet.

I think some distros of Linux come with PHP and MySQL

Erm, not necessarily. It all depends what you're going do with it. If you'll mostly be coding, say, server-side PHP, you might opt for any box with decent hardware and Linux + Apache. Suppose you want to work with ASP/.Net predominantly, IIS on a Windows box is a better choice.

If you're going to work mostly client-side with HTML, then pretty much any OS on any hardware would do. All you'd need is a text editor and a browser, and other bare necessities. Extending that with more features, you could still go any way with Windows, Linux, Mac, or anything else.

If you'll be doing much graphics work, perhaps a Mac or Windows installation would do the trick.

In terms of hardware, you'll want a somewhat higher-end machine if you're going to work with programs like Photoshop, or else you'll get severely bogged down. Most other hardware decisions will be influenced by cost, desired speed/reliability in general use, and what games you want to play during lunch breaks.

I'd personally recommend you go with a good Linux distro, simply because it could save you some money.

Just a personal choice here... If your looking for speed, try a mac G5 with MacOS X

MaxOS X is based on Linux and I know its possible to setup with a webserver plus PHP and MySQL. Thats just if your into Macs though...

two kickers about that post, andy..

Mac is reallllllly nice for graphical applications. I'm not sure about speed since I haven't used a Mac since like Apple II... BUT, Macs are way expensive. I don't know about everyone else, but I'd rather spend the same amount for two high-end PCs instead of one Mac. But as you say, personal preference

And MacOS X is not based on Linux. It's based on BSD, which is similar to Linux. Just a minor technicality

thnx to Ahbi for pointing out this thread

All I can say is, BUILD YOUR OWN! You get exactly what you want, learn alot, and pay alot less than you would if you got that same computer from a company. You bought yours from the "[INSERT YOUR NAME HERE] Computer Distrobution"

Get as much RAM as you can afford, that's my suggestion, especially if you're doing a lot of graphics work. As for software, both Macromedia and Adobe sell bundle packs of their most popular software, so you should probably take a look at those. Bascially you get a big discount for buying four together.

RAM is cheap so get at least a GB. I just built one here at work for one of our Print Graphic people. It was a P4-800Mhz system with 1024M of RAM and a 17" LCD Monitor. Nice unit. I think the cost was around $1200-1300 but that included the monitor a 128M Radeon Card, a Wacom Tablet and a $90 Kensington Trackball, Windows XP Pro and Office XP. If you did need Photoshop, Illustrator and the like, it would be more. You can often find an older version of Photoshop on E-bay. This way you would only have to purchase the updgrade version of the software.

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for your replys. I am a little overwhelmed. I think I like the idea of building my own. Does anyone have any suggestions about where to purchase item if I were to build my own?

Thanks

NewEgg is the best online vendor that I have used. Now building is not for everyone. I like it because you can not only get the parts that you want in it, you can generally do it for less. It is also never ending. Once you know how, you will constantly upgrading your computer, working on your neighbors, etc.

Some other things to possibly consider. If you want portability, get a laptop with a docking station and monitor. I have had real good success with the Dell Lattitude D series (500&600). It would be more expensive than a desktop though.

Ok that sounds very interesting. Can you tell me more about what a docking station is?
Thanks

Quote: Originally posted by ChessManiac
Ok that sounds very interesting. Can you tell me more about what a docking station is?
Thanks

A docking station always you to dock your laptop. That is you slide it into a dock. The advantage when you do so is the dock has network, video, sound, mouse, modem and keyboard connections. So you don't have to mess with connecting wires every time. Plus you can use a regular keyboard, mouse and monitor.

We're using Macs exclusively for development here. My own desk includes a PowerBook G4, a Powermac G4 w/ 23" LCD Screen, and a Dell P4 box w/ 17" LCD Screen - used for testing and gaming.

We're using Macromedia Studio MX, Office V.x (Mac version), and Adobe Photoshop for development, along with some other goodies.

I can't say enough about the Mac environment - I highly recommend it.

Prior to this was using Redhat Linux on various desktop boxes and doing the coding by hand. I much prefer this method

Bryan