# Best Workstation for Design/Code?

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/best-workstation-for-design-code/237360>\
**Category:** random\
**Created:** [August 29, 2007, 5:47pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/best-workstation-for-design-code/237360 "2007-08-29T17:47:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![deltajam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7993a0/32.png) [@deltajam](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/deltajam)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 5:47pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/best-workstation-for-design-code/237360/1 "2007-08-29T17:47:40Z")

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Hi,

I’m wondering if I could get some input on my next workstation. Firstly, let me state that I currently work on a PC with the following:

[LIST]  
[_]Intel Core 2 Duo 4300 @ 1.8Ghz  
[_]2Gb Ram  
[_]Ati Radeon X1600  
[_]Creative Sound Audigy 2 ZS  
[_]Samsung 250Gb SATA HD  
[_]19’’ Dell Generic Monitor (absolutely horrible)  
[\*]21.3’’ Samsung SyncMaster  
[/LIST]

Now, I’m in a unique position. While I work on a PC at home, I travel to freelance at other agencies and use a Mac or PC. I’m intrigued by the potential of working with a Mac and installing Leopard when it comes out … and I have always been happy doing all of my creative, whether it be graphics or video, on a Mac. However, in the past couple years I haven’t had to run Flash on OSX, but from what I remember it wasn’t too pleasant of an experience. In design-time everything ran very sluggish, and animations were choppy. Of course, I was using a Mac with a PowerPC, and now Mac’s are equipped with Intel chips. Has this effected Flash performance when working on a Mac?

So here are my questions, and I appreciate anyone who takes the time to answer them 🙂

[LIST=1]  
[_]I usually travel to 3 different offices (absurd, I know), workstation or laptop?  
[_]If laptop, I would make sure a second monitor is available to me. Does anyone enjoy working under these conditions?  
[_]If workstation, what do you think about the new Mac Pros? Scalability?  
[_]Loaded question: I’m leaning to toward switching to Mac, what are the cons? What if I wanted to run Parallels?  
[\*]I have a $6000 (give or take) budget that includes either a workstation with two monitors, workstation with a 30", or laptop with a second monitor. Ideas?  
[/LIST]

The following programs are always open:

[LIST]  
[_]Photoshop CS3  
[_]Flash CS3  
[_]Dreamweaver CS3  
[_]Outlook  
[_]iTunes  
[_]MSN Messenger  
[_]Skype  
[_]Extensis Font Suitcase  
[/LIST]

Opened periodically:

[LIST]  
[_]Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (more than not)  
[_]Illustrator CS3 (more than not)  
[_]After Effects (more than not)  
[_]Premiere (more than not)  
[_]Flash Video Encoder  
[_]Adobe Bridge  
[_]Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint  
[_]Fireworks (rarely)  
[\*]Indesign (rarely)  
[/LIST]

Hopefully this is enough information to help answer my questions. Again, I appreciate anyone who takes the time to help. 🙂

Thanks!