The Best Computer For Graphic Design

Since Desktop Publishing (DTP) came out in the eighties, graphic designers have been utilizing computer technology. This has pushed all graphic designers to become competent with computer hardware at the very least.

What is Desktop Publishing (DTP)? In the 1980s, it was a common term applied to digital publishing systems. These systems were developed to replace large, pre-press, specialist design and compositing systems.

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Graphic designers rely heavily on computers whether these are Windows PCs or Apple Macs. Whichever computer a graphic designer chooses to use, he/she will opt for the best computer that he/she can purchase. Graphic designers will rarely choose cheap computer hardware.

The Best Computer For Graphic Design

Back in the eighties, Macs were the only choice for designing and printing. Almost all design layout and graphics software was developed for Macs only or even if the software could be used in Microsoft Windows PC, it was much more reliable on a Mac. Additionally, at that time, Macs were associated with the different technologies used in the prepress and Windows PC was just not a practical choice. Today, modern versions of Mac OS X and Windows allow graphics designers to use design software either in a Mac or PC - they are no longer forced to choose one over the other.

Many graphic designers are not IT experts and making a decision on which computer to buy can be quite daunting. Of course, if money is not a problem, the decision would simply be to buy the most expensive Apple Mac or Windows PC. But most designers cannot afford to do that. In fact, some creative professionals have budgets for second hand equipment only. What really matters to these graphic designers are issues that regular computer users do not even have to think about. These are printer color accuracy, monitor calibration, hard disk speed and external storage devices for gigabytes of data.

Recent studies show that the top 5 computers for graphic design are a mix of Macs and PCs and both laptop and desktop computers fall in this category. But just like any product that a consumer buys, it really is the personal preference of the designer whether he/she will use a desktop computer or a laptop. The important thing is that the user/graphic designer has the appropriate software for the type of computer that he/she wants to purchase.

The Top 5 computers for graphic design are:

Mac Pro Desktop

The Mac line of computers is still widely preferred by most graphic designers. According to Apple, the latest Mac Pro features the all new quad-core Intel Xeon "Nehalen" processor which makes the job of a graphic designer much easier. Apple states further that the new Mac Pro is up to 1.9 times faster than its predecessor. Each processor has an integrated memory controller that allows the processors to have faster access to stored data in the computer's memory, with memory latency decreased by up to 40 percent. This feature will save a lot of time for designers when they do their work.

MacBook Pro Laptop

The MacBook Pro Laptop comes in 13, 15 and 17 inch sizes. It has high-performance NVDIA graphics and LED backlit display which makes editing graphics easier and clearer. This latest model has battery power that lasts up to 8 hours (on 17-inch version). It is powered by the Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

Dell Studio XPS Desktop

The Dell Studio XPS Desktop features the Intel Core i5 and i7 processors. If you plan on working with intensive video or 3D editing, you can have an upgrade to the 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM. But its base 3GB memory will enable you to edit photos, create vector or raster designs with ease. Its high-definition ATI graphics card creates clear, precise and flawless graphics - just what a graphic designer needs.

Toshiba Qosmio Laptop

The Toshiba Qosimo is an affordable solution to your graphic design needs. It is powered by either the Intel Core i7 or i5 processor making it easier to create flawless graphics. It has a high-end NVIDIA GeForce graphics card, which ensures that you can clearly see every pixel and frame that you edit. It has a 6GB DDR3 1066MHz memory and a 1GB GDDR5 discrete graphics memory.

HP Pavilion Elite Desktop

The HP Pavilion Elite Desktop is an affordable computer. It is powered by either an AMD Athlon or an Intel Core processor that ranges from an X4 630 quad-core (Athlon) to an i7-980X six-core Extreme Edition (Intel). All HP Pavilion Elite Desktop computers come with genuine 64-bit Windows 7 for the latest technology. Memory ranges from 4GB up to 9GB which guarantees smooth and effortless run of the high-end graphics that you use.

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Hard Drive Enclosures and How to Choose One

What is a Hard Disk Enclosure and how do I use one?

A hard drive enclosure (sometimes also referred to as a Hard Disk Case or Hard Disk Caddy) is simply an external case that encloses a hard disk drive and turns it into an external device that can then be connected to your PC via USB, Firewire or eSATA.

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There are lots of external hard drive solutions on the market from companies like Maxtor, Freecom and Lacie but these solutions include the Hard Disk as well as the enclosure. Great if you just want to buy something off the shelf but, if you've got a hard disk that you have salvaged from an old PC then its significantly cheaper to buy an Enclosure and use the Hard Drive you have to create your own solution. There is nothing intimidating about using a HDD caddy, think of it as a tray that you slot the Hard Drive into (secured by a couple of screws) and with external connections that allow you to connect the enclosure to your PC. They are simple to use, great for recovering data from old Hard Drives and excellent for recycling old hard disks. There are a few options to consider when considering a HDD Enclosure:

Hard Drive Enclosures and How to Choose One

1. Hard Drive Size (physical not storage capacity): Hard Disks come in two basic sizes depending on whether they are designed to be used in a Laptop of Desktop (Tower) PC. A Laptop Hard Drive is described as a 2.5" whereas the drive from a Desktop PC is 3.5".

2. Interface: Most new Hard Drives are now SATA (Serial-ATA) disks but if you are looking to use a hard disk salvaged from an old PC its probably going to have an IDE interface (also described as ATA or PATA). The IDE interface is pretty easy to distinguish as it has 2 rows of 22 Pins along the connection interface. A SATA Disk will have to simple plastic looking connectors

3. Connection Type: USB & Firewire connections are the most common ways to connect a Hard Disk Case to your PC or Mac some newer cases also have eSATA as an option. Your choice of connection will often be dependant on the computer/devices you want to use your hard drive with and if you'rere not sure you can buy cases with multiple interface options but bear in mind these will cost more than say an enclosure that only connects via USB.

4. Number of Bays: Single and dual bay enclosures are available. A dual bay enclosure can take two HDD's and some support RAID so both hard disks can be set up to appear as a single drive or support virtual back-up options across both Hard Drives. With any hard drive, whatever the protocol, you also need to consider exactly what you are going to use it for, and consider these four attributes.

If you need any advice on choosing the right Enclosure then feel free to contact the team at USBNow

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External Hard Disk Drive: The Best Backup Medium

Want to backup quickly and easily? Backup to external hard disk drives.

As a hard disk is the fastest and largest backup medium you can get, you may want to backup all your important files to an external USB hard drive. You can backup literally everything: your Outlook and Outlook Express files, your bookmarks, your favourite save games, and of course, your important work documents, photos, images and maybe even videos.

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As an external HDD is detached from your system and, combined with a strong encryption algorithm, like blowfish or 3DES, you can get maximum security. Just make sure you actually remember the encryption password. You can also store your external hard disk offsite (at a friend's house, a paid locker or specialized fire-proof storage place) in case your information is very important (well, generally, anyone can do that and it can't hurt for sure).

External Hard Disk Drive: The Best Backup Medium

As external USB drives have the cheapest storage volume (about 200Gb for 0?) and you can reuse them for several years, you may as well get the cheapest backup medium at your disposal. When using a backup schedule, you can simply backup the backup program run when you are absent (or maybe even at night) to backup everything without supervision. If you need two or more backup disks, you may as well get another external HDD.

Also, now there are quite large mobile hard drives, which can admit all the necessary data: work documents, e-mail files, etc. You can also carry your data anywhere you want and feel safe, because some external USB HDDs are now hard to break by dropping.

So, go with external HDD and backup as fast as you want, as much as you want, secure your important data, get the cheapest backups and even be able to carry your backups anywhere you want.

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Computer Forensics, Data Recovery and E-Discovery Differ

What's the difference between data recovery, computer forensics and e-discovery?

All three fields deal with data, and specifically digital data. It's all about electrons in the form of zeroes and ones. And it's all about taking information that may be hard to find and presenting it in a readable fashion. But even though there is overlap, the skill sets require different tools, different specializations, different work environments, and different ways of looking at things.

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Data recovery generally involves things that are broken - whether hardware or software. When a computer crashes and won't start back up, when an external hard disk, thumb drive, or memory card becomes unreadable, then data recovery may be required. Frequently, a digital device that needs its data recovered will have electronic damage, physical damage, or a combination of the two. If such is the case, hardware repair will be a big part of the data recovery process. This may involve repairing the drive's electronics, or even replacing the stack of read / write heads inside the sealed portion of the disk drive.

Computer Forensics, Data Recovery and E-Discovery Differ

If the hardware is intact, the file or partition structure is likely to be damaged. Some data recovery tools will attempt to repair partition or file structure, while others look into the damaged file structure and attempt to pull files out. Partitions and directories may be rebuilt manually with a hex editor as well, but given the size of modern disk drives and the amount of data on them, this tends to be impractical.

By and large, data recovery is a kind of "macro" process. The end result tends to be a large population of data saved without as much attention to the individual files. Data recovery jobs are often individual disk drives or other digital media that have damaged hardware or software. There are no particular industry-wide accepted standards in data recovery.

Electronic discovery usually deals with hardware and software that is intact. Challenges in e-discovery include "de-duping." A search may be conducted through a very large volume of existing or backed-up emails and documents.

Due to the nature of computers and of email, there are likely to be very many identical duplicates ("dupes") of various documents and emails. E-discovery tools are designed to winnow down what might otherwise be an unmanageable torrent of data to a manageable size by indexing and removal of duplicates, also known as de-duping.

E-discovery often deals with large quantities of data from undamaged hardware, and procedures fall under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("FRCP").

Computer forensics has aspects of both e-discovery and data recovery.

In computer forensics, the forensic examiner (CFE) searches for and through both existing and previously existing, or deleted data. Doing this kind of e-discovery, a forensics expert sometimes deals with damaged hardware, although this is relatively uncommon. Data recovery procedures may be brought into play to recover deleted files intact. But frequently the CFE must deal with purposeful attempts to hide or destroy data that require skills outside those found in the data recovery industry.

When dealing with email, the CFE is often searching unallocated space for ambient data - data that no longer exists as a file readable to the user. This can include searching for specific words or phrases ("keyword searches") or email addresses in unallocated space. This can include hacking Outlook files to find deleted email. This can include looking into cache or log files, or even into Internet history files for remnants of data. And of course, it often includes a search through active files for the same data.

Practices are similar when looking for specific documents supportive of a case or charge. Keyword searches are performed both on active or visible documents, and on ambient data. Keyword searches must be designed carefully. In one such case, The Schlinger Foundation v Blair Smith, et al the author, computer forensics expert Steve Burgess uncovered more than one million keyword "hits" on two disk drives.

Finally, the computer forensics expert is also often called upon to testify as an expert witness in deposition or in court. As a result, the CFE's methods and procedures may be put under a microscope and the expert may be called upon to explain and defend his or her results and actions. A CFE who is also an expert witness may have to defend things said in court or in writings published elsewhere.

Most often, data recovery deals with one disk drive, or the data from one system. The data recovery house will have its own standards and procedures and works on reputation, not certification. Electronic discovery frequently deals with data from large numbers of systems, or from servers with that may contain many user accounts. E-discovery methods are based on proven software and hardware combinations and are best planned for far in advance (although lack of pre-planning is very common). Computer forensics may deal with one or many systems or devices, may be fairly fluid in the scope of demands and requests made, often deals with missing data, and must be defensible - and defended - in court.

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