newbie building pc for screenprinting

[lilreddog]

Hi,
I have never built a pc, and the one I have is servicable, but wearing a few too many hats these days and I want to build one dedicated to just my screen printing and embroidery software....most of it is memory hungry and slows things down or causes abnormal shutdown of the offending software.
I am running PhotoShop 7( I have purchased an upgrade for PS but am hesitant to install with the current conditions), Illy CS, and a color sep program still to be decided for screen printing.
And for embroidery I am using Illy CS, and a digitizing software that is great and efficient, but relly prefers Windows 98, though is tolerable on XP. I am wondering if I can in any way run XP (and maybe later Vista) and 98? Do I just need 2 seperate hard drives? I am not financially in a position to replace my digitizing software, because what I want to use is just exhorbitant and that portion of what I do doesn't yet make enough to warrant the expenditure....
SO....I will be using the above programs, storing lots of images and stitch files....anyone have suggestions?
Thanks so much,
Anna

[flanzig1]

For the dual boot, would go with 98 and XP.
The screenprinting and embroidry devices, how do they connect to the PC now? Reason for asking is if by a serial connector, many mother board don't have them anymore.
Also, would you need to complete system: monitor/keyboard/mouse/computer tower? And what is your budget.

[lilreddog]

Hi,
First of all thanks for your time; it is appreciated. And now on to the show....
I don't need EVERYTHING, I will need a tower, but have a monitor (will want to upgrade it, but not right now), mouse, keyboard, and OS software. Including, a Wacom tablet, sorry forgot to mention that....it's USB.
PhotoShop and Illustrator are just installed, as are the seps programs, so no need for any extra ports.
The embroidery stuff takes a dongle, well a couple of them. One is a USB and the other is a serial port. Since most mother boards don't have serials any longer, what is the option with that? Unfortunately without the dongle the software doesn't work.....
I would also need a 3.5 disk drive, to transfer designs from PC to machine. I will need a USB for the camera cable, a card reader and a CD/DVD drive. I would prefer to have the USBs on the front, if that is possible, it just makes it easier to keep track of the dongle and get the camera plugged in....it's not a big deal, just a desire.
I have 2 grand allocated, but I am willing to allow more for my budget and go slowly to achieve satisfaction with this machine. I guess I am looking for something that will run graphic intense programs, lots of rendering over and over. I don't want to have to change it in the next year or longer if I don't have to, I am looking for a workhorse that will have a decent lifespan and be reliable. All of my programs are just huge memory hogs, and there in lies most of my current problems. I know Illy likes a separate scratch volume....is a seperate drive better than partitioning? I know I would like the programs to be faster and more stable when in use. I do operate out a fairly warm area, both geographically and physically and worry about cooling being an issue, but am not sure how much of one it is. I also have a sick attraction to 2GB cards for the camera and they cause an issue right now as well.....I should just use the 1GB, but I don't have a problem, I DON'T! ;)
Not sure what else I need to cover...
As an aside, I know that Adobe has 3rd generation betas out of Illustrator and PS, I know I will want to upgrade and I believe that these are being designed with Vista in mind, so I don't know what the future will hold regarding that. The most desired platform, it seems, for Illustrator is a Mac, but that doesn't jibe with the Embroidery stuff, so I am going to stick with a Windows OS.

[glc]

The Asus P5LD2 2.0 board has a com port but no Win98 driver support. It will work in 98 if you download the Intel chipset ID utility from Intel, but you will have no sound or Ethernet capability and USB support will be questionable. You may also be restricted to using an IDE hard drive and optical drive, there are no SATA drivers or ITE IDE drivers for Win98, it only has one native IDE channel. You will need a single large IDE hard drive with 3 partitions - a 98 partition, a XP partition, and a scratch partition for your software. You will need a graphics card that has Win98 drivers available. Win98 cannot use more than 512mb of ram effectively and the installation will very likely error out with today's CPU speeds.

Are you sure you MUST have Win98? Can you run your software on XP in compatibility mode? If you can, then using this motherboard is the best way to go with a Core 2 Duo processor and appropriate modern devices.

[lilreddog]

Ahhh chips! Well, the software will run with XP, but it's hateful. Not quite to the point that I want to hit the machine with a hammer, but close. I am running it on XP right now and find that I am not doing the work I could be because I know I will get partially through a design and it will shut down and even though it saves automatically and I save on top of that, it may or may not be saved at a critical point and it might take a total reboot of the pc to get it running again. It just likes 98. There are not going to be any more upgrades to this particular software as the company that produces it has introduced a new brand and it is designed to be compatible with XP and Vista, it was released last year, but it is not the same as the software I have, and it's not what I want to upgrade to, so I passed on the trade in offer.
Am I going to need 2 machines to get what I want? I was hoping to be able to run the whole shooting match on one, but if I can't I can't. I have an 8yo Gateway that this ran beautifully on, but I decided I was going to drag it into the new millenium kicking and screaming and it has been since then! :o
If I disregard the 98, and just want to build one that concentrates on the Adobe and seps programs what do I need? Would like to hang with XP for now, comfort level and all that.
Thanks,
Anna

[Alaron]

Have you tried specifically setting the software to run in Compatibility mode? If not, right click on the program's icon and select Properties. Click on the "Compatibility" tab and then check the box labeled "Run this program in compatibility mode for:". Then select Windows 98 from the box. Click Apply and OK. Then see if the program works a bit better for you.