I was going to create a new one but it was here all along! Question:

I use a Wacom Intuos 3 at work with a 6"x8" drawing surface at work. I guess I like it (except that i never use the buttons on the tablet itself) but what should I get for home use?

Is Intuos really that different from Graphire in terms of sensitivity, or precision?

Are there better brands than Wacom?

How much of a difference would a larger drawing surface make? (I usually just zoom in in PS when I need to.) 

and as someone who tends to doodle a lot. I don't genuinely use it. I find its small drawing space very limiting and not very sensitive at all with photoshop. It behaves a lot better in some other programs however. Like alias sketchbook and corel painter.

i've considered stepping it up and moving to an intuous (when im not broke) also due to being left handed when I use the style all of a sudden i lost a large portion of my shortcut keys i'd be using with my left hand on the keyboard.

I am curious to hear from those who use the upper end models all day long. 

I still don't have a graphics tablet, and although I've never wanted to use one at work, I would like to try doing some painting at home.

The wacom Intuos seems a bit expensive, and I'd like to know what is as good/better for less money. Is there anything? 

and as someone who tends to doodle a lot. I don't genuinely use it. I find its small drawing space very limiting and not very sensitive at all with photoshop.

That's me 100% too and I totally agree. I hardly use my graphire 2. 

Depending on your intended use and the amount of time you will use it, go for one as big as you can afford with all bells and whistles, up to the size of your monitor screen. If you're not tight for desk space then 9 x 12 min, 12 x 19 max.

If you're not tight for desk space OR money, the Cintiq! 

I tried a Graphire and hated it.

I don't know if the Intuos line is any better in terms of sampling rates (the amount of times the mouse/pen position is scanned) but it's lower than a standard mouse, and thusly when you try to draw curves they're jointed and not smooth. Even if you draw at a fair speed - not nearly fast, and not achingly slow... apart from that, I totally hate that it registers the pen before it even MEETS the tablet - within like .5 of an inch you can start drawing and moving the cursor/brush on thin air - it really fucks with me.

It's too bad because a tablet would be a great asset, but I don't see myself getting one anymore. 

Phait: That was probably a small size (A6 or something) tablet if you couldn't draw a nice curve? About Intuos: The sample rate, resolution and pressure levels are twice as good for the Intuos3 as for the Graphire4. This means you can draw a lot more accurate. Intuos3 also has tilt sensitivity, btw. 

I've got an old Wacom Graphire 2 A6 which I've had for a couple of years, and it suits me fine. I use it for texturing and stuff in photoshop, as I hate doing freehand drawing with a mouse.

I've thought about upgrading to one of the Intuos ones as soon as I can afford it, but I wouldn't want to go to anything bigger than an A5 size. I tried out a mate's A4 sized one at work, and I just got pissed off with having to move my entire arm all the time. It's all in the wrist when it comes to smaller tablets! 

Any wacom tablet rocks totally in my opinion, very solid hardware, I've had my Intuos1 A5 for almost 6 years now and it still works perfectly, it's definatly the best 300 euros I've spent in my life.

I think graphires are fine too if you don't plan on using it alot, I use some every day at school, and althought I'm more comfortable on my A5, I still find A6 is enough space to do pretty much anything (many very talented digital artists use only A6).
As for larger than A5, I have an A4 intuos3 at work, and honestly, even though it is nice for some specific things (like drawing really clean lineart), most of the time I just find it a tad too large, and prefer my A5 at home.

Conclusion: if you're planning on using it alot, try investing in an A5, otherwise, graphires are just great for every day random doodlings.

Phait: I have no problem drawing curves on graphires, and the whole point of the tablet is that it DOES register the pen before it touches the tablet, or you wouldn't know where the hell you are on the screen, silly, it obviously only draws when you touch the surface. It obviously takes a little while to get used to. 

I thought these things were about 300 quid last time I looked. Turns out you can get a wacom intuos3 A5 for a far more reasonable 115 quid (25,000yen). Maybe they are much cheaper in Japan, but seeing that price makes me want to buy one right away!

Hmm, just checked the UK price and they seem to still be around 200 quid. UK sucks :( 

I'm hungry for calamari. 

So, I have a broken graphics card. I can't fix it or return it, it's totally shagged. I need a new card then it seems.

My current system is an athlon 3700(?) with 1gb ballistix ram, a MSI agp motherboard, yes agp. The card I have at the moment is a 6800gt and I'm looking for a cheap replacement that will give me similar or better performance. Any suggestions?

I probably won't be changing to PCI-express this upgrade as I am really strapped for cash.

P.S. I heard the BFG GeForce 7600 GS OC 512MB is good, is that the truth or a filthy lie? 

oh and please bear in mind I'n in the UK and posting cheap american component sites (newegg) only make me sad. 

I just got one and it's quite nice, keep an eye on ebay for one. 

have wireless netwrok cards, and we have broadband internet, what do I have to get to setup a network ?

Just a router ? should I be looking for anything specific ? 

that was me above 

It's as easy as pie to setup. Basically first time you plug the router in it will appear as a local wireless device. Connect to it (using default password which will usually be printed on the bottom) and alter the settings to secure the network.

All the nitty gritty will be in the manual. 

cheers.

anythign else to look out for ? 

Make sure to use WPA-PSK and not WEP for the wireless. WEP can be cracked in very short time. Hiding the SSID of the router is a good idea too, just setup the PCs manually.
And change the password to the router. If someone does hack into your wlan, he should not have access to it! Most people leave it on the default password which is a serious security flaw. 

I have realised that my PC is now an embarassing 3 years old! And although it runs most things fine - including Prey which it ran very well - I should probably think about upgrading.

The deal is, I am happy with the monitor / kb / sound card / CD write / DVD drive etc etc. What I would need to upgrade is: Motherboard, processor, RAM, and GFX card (at the moment I'm on a P4 2.8ghz, 1 gig RAM (dunno what sort), ATI Radeon 9800 pro 256 meg).

So, what do people recommend. Keep it simple please - me being able to understand it, and install it without royally fucking up my machine are the most important criteria. 

linux, duh!@ 

With DX10 cards just starting to come in, I would wait until you start having problems running new games before upgrading. 

Are you lazy or smth? google or go to hardware sites for worthy recomnedation

if you ARE lazy then go buy any pre-built box with any core2duo, 3gb ram and any gf7900
that will do 

 

Short Shambler friendly answer = wait

Long Techy Answer = Yeah, wait for the 1st line of DX10 cards to show up that would be a very safe move, also quad core cpu's are just around the corner which is also worth waiting for as games will be using multi-core cpu optimizations in the near-ish future (hl2 engine, crysis etc) so I would say wait a few more months and see what appears it will be worth it. As for ram I would DDR2 would be the standard by then and make sure you get at least 2GB in a matched pair (again this will probably be standard) As for motherboard I would probably recommend whatever the latest N-force mobo is at the time as I've never had any probs with them from the N-force2 all the way up to the N-force 4 SLI I have now.