Time for an Upgrade?

When I first started drawing comics in 2007, I had a desktop computer that was mainly used for essay writing and reading webcomics. I had very little drawing programs installed and MS Paint was the program I used for lettering! There was a problem, if I had too many programs open at one time, a note would appear at the bottom of the screen that said, "Low On Virtual Memory". My machine only ran on 250 MB of RAM and upgrading it to 1 GB improved the overall speed.

I always said I like my computers like my men–I need one that is able to keep up with me.

That being said, in 2009, I looked for a more powerful "Super Computer" that would not freeze if I was listening to music while coloring with Photoshop and having other programs running in the background. I bought a refurbished computer and it has definitely been very dependable for the last eight years, but now the software is outdated and I can easily buy a more modern desktop for a the cost of an Operating System.

I noticed a trend with the file size of my drawings as I upgraded my machines.

Early 2007 - one full sized colored page = 350 KB - 500 KB
Early 2017 - one full sized colored page = 1500 KB - 2500 KB

One of the reasons for the increase in file size is that I once had an instructor explaining the importance of saving files at a high resolution. It turned out that having a faster, more powerful machine allowed me to work at higher resolutions, but it resulted in taking longer to produce a colored page and I was using up more hard drive space.

I am considering to invest in a new computer later this year. I somehow doubt I will really need the 1 TB of memory and my drawing skills have not changed dramatically that would justify buying a new machine. The benefits of buying a new machine would be that the fans would seldom be on overdrive and I could probably make much more detailed work on photoshop. My saved file sizes would be around 4500 KB to 5000KB because image resolution is important.


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