Layered files that open fast, a canvas that follows the pen without lag, and colour that holds from screen to press. For Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, FOCUS is where most designers start — FOCUS PRO when retouching and composites are the day job.
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ON-SITE SERVICINGLess downtime — we come to youFour machines on one ladder. FOCUS is the working design seat. FOCUS PRO steps up for retouching and composites. CREATOR PRO is that same performance in a machine you would happily put in front of a client. CREATOR COMPACT is fourteen litres for a shared studio desk.
Focus and Creator run the same performance at each level — the difference is the chassis and how much of it you want on the desk. The full range shows every model and level side by side.
Most of Creative Cloud runs comfortably on the base build. Two applications and one plugin category are the only real reasons to spend more — here is what each of them is actually waiting on, and which model we would start you on.
| Program | What it depends on | How it shows up | Start with |
|---|---|---|---|
 Illustrator · InDesign | One fast core, and fast storage. Vector redraw and page composition are largely serial, so clock speed counts for more than core count. | Artwork that lags on pan and zoom as the path count grows, and long documents that pause on repagination. | FocusThe base build covers both |
 Figma | Memory, and a browser that stays responsive. Figma runs in Chrome, so the machine is judged on how many tabs, files and Slack windows can be resident at once — not on cores. | A large multi-page file that slows as more of the team joins it, and a browser that has to be restarted by mid-afternoon.v | Creator CompactFourteen litres on a visible desk |
 Photoshop | Memory first, then scratch. Photoshop spills to the scratch disk the moment memory runs out. | A brush that stutters on a large composite, and history states that disappear sooner than expected. | Focus ProRetouching and composites |
 Lightroom | NVMe for the catalogue, GPU for Denoise, then cores for batch export. | Slow browsing through a large catalogue, and denoise or upscale jobs that run per image. | Focus ProDenoise and batch export |
 CorelDRAW | One fast core, plus memory once bitmap effects run across a vector layout. | Large-format and packaging artwork that redraws slowly, and long print-ready exports. | Focus ProLarge-format and packaging |
| Plugins and AI features | GPU, and more VRAM as the stack deepens. Neural Filters, Denoise and Super Resolution are graphics work. | A filter that takes a minute per image rather than seconds, on a card without the memory for it. | Move the card up a stepThey change the GPU, not the CPU |
Where your recent jobs sit matters as much as which application you open. Brand, web and print layout runs comfortably on the working seat, and the rest of the budget is better spent on a calibrated display.
Retouching and heavy composites is where memory and scratch start deciding the day. Packaging, large-format and AI-assisted work is the level at which the graphics card stops being incidental.
Ordered by the difference each part makes to a design day. Memory and storage carry most of it. The graphics card matters far less for 2D work than a spec sheet would have you believe — and we would rather tell you that than sell you one.
Memory is usually the first limit reached. Layers, smart objects and history all sit in RAM — when it fills, Photoshop spills to disk and every operation starts waiting on the drive.
Storage has two jobs: opening and saving large files, and holding the scratch when memory runs short. NVMe suits both, with the scratch on a drive separate from the Windows system drive.
Illustrator, InDesign and a good share of Photoshop run on a single core. Clock speed decides how immediate a redraw feels — more cores at a lower clock is the wrong trade for this work.
The graphics card contributes less to 2D work than its price suggests: smoother canvas pan and zoom, and a handful of accelerated filters. Past mid-range, the same money does more as memory.
Export queues and batch conversions hold the processor at full load for minutes at a time. Proper cooling keeps clocks up for the whole run and keeps the room quiet enough to work in.
Lightroom and Camera Raw changed the maths. Denoise, Super Resolution and the generative tools in recent Photoshop releases all run on the graphics card, and across a folder of raw files the gap between a modest card and a strong one is measured in minutes per batch, not seconds. If your week includes catalogue work, culling and batch export, that is the one place a step up justifies its cost.
The same applies when design work extends into 3D — packaging mockups, product visuals, anything with a live viewport. Outside those workloads, a mid-range card covers 2D design comfortably, and the difference is usually better spent on memory and storage.
Colour accuracy comes from the panel, the profile and a hardware calibrator run on a regular schedule — no tower can supply it on its own. The machine's job is narrower: drive 10-bit output cleanly, hold a separate profile per display, and push two or three high-resolution panels without dropping colour depth.
For print proofing, the display and the calibrator tend to matter more than a bigger graphics card — they are the cheaper upgrade and the one that is visible in the printed result. Our corporate solutions team can spec a calibrated monitor alongside the build.
Focus · Focus Pro · Creator Pro · Creator Compact
High-performance workstations for graphic design, with every component chosen to run Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Lightroom without you thinking about it. FOCUS for the everyday design seat, FOCUS PRO for retouching and composites, CREATOR PRO when the machine sits in front of clients.
In practice it starts with memory. Photoshop runs out of RAM before it runs out of anything else — layers, smart objects, adjustment stacks and the undo history all live there. When RAM runs out, Photoshop starts writing to the scratch disk, and things that were instant begin waiting on a drive. We size memory to hold your whole document plus its history, then put scratch on fast NVMe so it stays workable if memory does overflow.
Illustrator and InDesign are the opposite. The things you notice in them — redrawing a dense vector file, scrolling a 200-page document full of linked assets, live preview on a gradient mesh — run on one core. Clock speed decides whether that feels instant. So a processor with more cores and a lower clock is actually slower here, which is why our design builds are specified for clock speed rather than core count.
You're on the right page if:
Photoshop is your main tool and your working files run to hundreds of layers.
You work to print — packaging, POS, editorial, large format — and colour accuracy has to hold through to press.
Linked assets are normal, in Illustrator artwork or a 200-page InDesign document.
Four apps stay open all day and you switch between them constantly.
Anyone can order the same parts. What you are really choosing is who builds the machine, who tests it before it ships, and who answers the phone when something goes wrong two years from now. That is where we are different.
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8 years of workstation builds — universities, studios and practices
Every system is checked as it is built, then stress-tested and fully updated before it leaves us — so problems are found here, not at your desk. It arrives ready to work, hand-foamed for safe transit anywhere in Australia. Four years of national awards say we get that right.
Full-system cover for three years, extendable to four — the whole machine, not a chain of separate component warranties you have to chase. If something happens in transit or years later, a dedicated team gets you running again. Support carries on for as long as you own it.
Add on-site servicing and we come to you. No packing it up, no courier, no waiting while it travels both ways — a technician diagnoses and repairs it where it sits. It is the difference between days of downtime and hours of it.
A dedicated workstation team — not a call centre — with eight years of these builds behind it, trusted by universities, studios and practices. Call or email and an Australian expert helps you match the right tool to the job — before you buy, and long after.
What we actually check before a machine is packed, how we specify one in the first place, what happens in year three, and an honest comparison against buying off the shelf or building it yourself.
Arena lighting design, a real-time art installation driven by biological neural cells, and Epic’s Unreal showcase. Visual work where the machine is part of the creative process, not a bottleneck in it.
Systems for one of the largest lighting installations ever staged at PICA — the John Summit tour. Our hardware let the visual lighting crew simulate the full light show in pre-production, then drive the entire live installation on the night.
Real-time graphics processing alongside Cortical Labs’ brain-cell computers, for an installation that used biological neural cells to interpret and generate visual data. Our hardware ran the live Unreal Engine graphics.
Invited as the official technology partner for Unreal Fest, supporting Epic Games’ showcase of Unreal Engine across virtual production, game development and real-time experiences.
Some of these relationships now run to several years and multiple deployments. Others began with a single machine.
Curated configurations held in stock and dispatched fast. Professionally built, tested and backed by Aftershock PC — no configuration required.
Start with the machine built for your software, then change what you like. We build, test and optimise it before it leaves us.
Tell us the software, the scene sizes and whether you render in-house. We'll come back with a spec and a price — written enquiries answered within one business day.
