Hello. My name is Jen, I just started my B.S in Graphic Design at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online Division, and I had some questions about hardware.
I currently have a Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 with a 1.83GBGHz processor, 3GB RAM and an 100GB hard drive. Not the most awesome machine ever, but it gets me around. I'm just starting out, and this session I'm just taking prereqs anyways, but when the time comes to actually start design classes, what kind of computer should I buy?
I'm assuming I'll need some flavor of Mac, since working design firms usually use Macs, but precisely how much Mac will I need as an undergraduate? I don't think I can afford the $3,000 Power Mac, but I can possibly swing the high-end eMac or iMac or whatever it's called now with the 27-inch display and the quad core processor (once my grant money comes in, that is). Macbook Pro would be nice for portability reasons, but I'd be paying more for less than I would get with the fancy eMac.
Also, what kind of periferals would be undergraduate-appropriate, such as scanners, printers, and drawing pads? More precisely, what periferals should I avoid like the plague?
This might not be the best place to post this kind of question, but this is the most active Graphic Design community on Livejournal, so I thought I'd give it a shot.
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curious