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...which will be used primarily for Photoshop.
What should I look for besides as much memory as possible?
One hard (disk) drive? Two hard drives?
Thanks so much,
-Randy
If you want a PC for Photoshop, then two things are of prime importance: get as much ram as possible, and if the money allows: get two hdd's.
For Photoshop, you don't "need" dual processors, or even hyperthreading. You don't need 128MB VideoDDRam, or OpenGL. The incredible speed machines are needed for gaming, or for 3D apps.
Hey: who cares that something is done in 9 seconds instead of 13?
Two HDD's allow you to have the scratchdisk on the slave, and ram is needed because Photoshop devours it. 512MB Ram is ok for most work.
Apart from PS' needs (I don't know what other apps you run, or whether you game, as this can change it all), I would see for USB 2 support.
With the money you save, you can buy a good scanner and/or an Intuos drawing tablet.
Erik is right. I have two hard drives myself (one 30 gig, one 90 gig). I have designanted the 30 gig hard drive as the main Scratch Disc for Photoshop, and have allocated 320MB of RAM for the program to run on.
It is amazing the speed with which Photoshop runs now. Before I did this it took the program almost three minutes to load, now I click on the PS icon and it opens in a matter of seconds.
Oh yeah, and Erik .... I DID buy a scanner with the money I saved. Canon LiDE 30 ....... muhahahahaa
Windows XP Pro
Pentium 4 3.20GHz
2GB Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at 400MHz
FX 5200 Graphics Card
Hard Drive 80GB Ultra ATA/100 (7200RPM)
2nd Hard Drive 80GB Ultra ATA/100 (7200RPM)
16x DVD-ROM Drive
48x CD-RW Drive
19in (18 viewable) M992 Monitor (CRT)
Epson Sylus Pro 925 Printer
The one thing I did not get is a modem, since I hook-up via DSL.
I would like to thank you all for your help. I think I have everything I need for Photoshop CS now
Finally raised the pennies...
New G5 2.7 DP now running Photoshop CS2.
Which will have to last me for the next ten years ...
Congratulations on your new computer, Shaun. Today's top of the line Mac will still be useful in 10 years, though seriously outdated. I'm still using a 7 year old iMac as a print computer. I will never be able to run any more versions of OS X, though it runs Panther now. In a real sense it is finally at the end of it's practical life cycle but useful for several more years before it joins my Mac Plus and Mac llsi as period pieces.
Shopping for a new PC... 
Linear Mode
