I have a friend who is interested in pursuing a career in graphic design. He was wondering what types of things he should consider when buying a top of the line computer to be used for his graphic design needs. thanks, vandal67

It all depends on the "kind" of graphic design he intends on pursuing. If he plans on working in web design, he doesn't need a very fast computer at all. Of course if he will be doing a lot of flash (yuck!) then he will get some benefit from a faster computer, but again it does not need to be super fast. This industry is dominated by Windows PCs as they make up more than 90% of the computers accessing the net. No sense in designing on a MAC when it will be viewed by a PC. However, if he plans on doing design for printing, then this changes things a bit. The MAC rules the printing industry. With a MAC there is not a whole lot of choices, just figure out what he's willing to spend and see which model it will get him. If he does go with a PC, then it all will depend largely on the types of projets he will take on. But, if he will be working with high resolution graphics, then he will benefit from having either a SCSI hard drive or a WD Raptor. RAID 0 would be a good option as well - not much benefit for the casual user, but it will come in handy with the large files. A hyper-threading processor will be beneficial if the software he uses is HT capable - I think the newest version Photoshop might be? Michael J