New computer?

[Burnley84]

Hi guys, feel free to move this if there is a more appropriate place for it.

I've done my first website for my business with wdp7 and loved it. My only problem is my laptop is getting so slow and was really struggling as my website got bigger. It got that slow I gave up and finished designing during work hours using the computer there. Not ideal.

Site needs redesigning as I've learnt more since it went live and new products are out.

2 questions. What do you lot use pc or mac? And what would you recommend?

I'm not a full time web designer but not sure what's best for a web designer beginner.

Thanks in advance.

Anthony

[gwpriester]

Anthony

I moved this to the Off Topic Chat forum since it is more non-Xara specific.

One thing you can do to speed things up is to optimize all your images. If you add 10 images and each images has a file size of 10 MB, your document starts getting larger and slooooooowing way down. All photos are published at 96dpi so optimizing all your photos to 96dpi at about 75-80% Quality Setting can really reduce the size of your document and speed things up. I would try this first.

A member submitted a two page website document that was 54MB. The site contained two images. But each image had a DPI resolution of about 1024dpi. I optimized the two photos and the size of the document shrank down to about 100K!

[Rik]

Hi Anthony.

If you are using a Xara product, then you will need a PC, rather than a Mac.

If you get a Mac, then you will either need to set the Mac to dual boot and load Windows or use a virtual programme like Fusion 4. And again you will then need to load Windows.
As well as install all the Windows programmes you need, including any Xara products.

[Burnley84]

Cheers guys, I'm going blitz my computer this weekend, reload windows and maybe get more ram installed, really want a new pc but money is tight.

I will double check my images and make sure I optimised them, do you have to optimise each image or can you do job lot?

Cheers

[Drwyd]

"Utilities" > "Optimize all JPEGs"

[Cloud]

I use a laptop and make sure that the only things stored on it are the software I use on a daily basis, the operating system and that's it, everything else (files etc) is stored on a portable hdd. Adding extra ram is the best value way to speed things up, Also the higher the temperature gets on your processor the slower it will run and also its life will be reduced, if you are using a laptop consider getting a little cooler stand with a fan (belkin do one for about £20.00) this can make a big difference if you use the laptop for long periods - I use a tool called CPUID HWMonitor to check the temperature and when I first checked the temp was around 72Celcius but now with the cooler it runs at a steady 55celcius even after 8hours of use.

[Big Frank]

excellent advice skech

[Burnley84]

Thanks skech, i will look into that. just reinstalled windows and formatted drive, going through reinstalling only the programs i need and use, xara, itunes and office. so far so good. going to look into getting more RAM this weekend, only got 2gb in at the mo.

thanks for all your advice guys. can start designing a new website.

[Big Frank]

itunes

Then go into Add/Remove and get rid of all the Apple crap that was installed with iTunes, and go into msconfig and remove the iPod services. I really like iTunes, but I don't like any of the worthless merde that is automatically installed with it.

Unless you're an iFanboy, in which case please ignore me

[Burnley84]

cheers beretgascon,all programs are the same, they install a load of crap that we will never use. drives me as mad as you. again love itunes but don't use the other stuff that comes with it.