Good move Betty.. just to bring things in perspective.. I run Photoshop CS on my PC at work which is a total dog: P4 1.3 384 MB memory... and it really does run just fine. So.. keep everything in perspecitive.. My PC at home is a custom built (by me) Athlon 64 3.0 with 1GB of memory and around 1 TB of HD space along with a fast internal Card Reader and fan controller, SLI 3D graphics card, DVD RW and enough cooling to keep things moving. Cost me around $800 to build 2 years ago.. can build the same system now for around $650.

BTW: the most overlooked PC hardware item is.... the power supply! Almost all the PS's in store machines (and even in dells) are often 300W.. barely enough to keep up with the HD's, video cards and DVD drives we throw at it... I would go 400W minimum..

Also.. be aware of what you are going to use the PC for when choosing a graphics card. For just digital photography or watching movies on the PC.. any modern video card will do (top 3D CPU not needed - in fact.. the older 2D Matrox card run CS2 faster!). If you want to play the latest games... then spring for a $275+ video card... It too will make the world of difference.

i think dwll is over priced...i always found much better deals elsewhere on internet....if i ordered dell i think i would do from costco...save a little bit of money there.

Thanks Pesto for your tip on power supply. I suspect this is what killed my laptop but 400W seems very difficult to find.

I don't play very many games but I do plan to edit a lot of video of my nephews. This is one of the reasons that I'm having such a hard time finding a computer without a shared graphic card at places like Fry's, Best Buy, and Costco.

exactly... that's why I totally do not recommend buying from these stores (inlcuding costco). What are you looking for exactly.. perhaps I can help you out?

400W supplies should be readily available in systems.. but you need to really find out.

For video editting... 3-D performance comes into play only when you're running a game based on a 3-D engine, so this type of imaging has minimal impact on video editing. It does, however, have a huge impact on any rendering tasks that involve 3-D effects. Quite a few transitions involve 3-D effects, so having a powerful 3-D card will speed things up significantly. If you use software like Pinnacle studio deluxe which comes with transition effects like Hollywood Fx.. most of these are 3D based and you will find a 200-500% performance gain by using a 3D graphics card...... so - my advice is to get a good 3D graphics card.

Anyway.. let me know and I'll be happy to help you find a great system for a good price.. if you are so inclined.. I can list provide a component list that you can buy at newegg and build yourself. You'll get top components that all work well together for less money than buying in a store. Of course, again.. there are some great deals at Dell too.

That's my problem, I don't know what I'm looking for. I've been looking at HP'd d4500y series and by the time I've added everything together, it's a $1,600 machine. When DH saw how expensive it was he offered to purchase an Apple HD Moniter since I spend so much time in front of one. So now, I'm down the path of looking at Apple HD Moniters, and looking at the requirements for the moniter and its just so complicated (for me) that now I'm considering getting the 20" iMac. Since my nephew is a full time student, I'm hoping he can pick up an academic PS version for me. If not, I hope to be able to take some classes starting in the spring.

Then it brings me to the question of when Adobe plans to release their next version of PS which will fully utilize Intel's Dual Core processor....I hate to purchase the PSCS2 to miss the free upgrade to PSCS3 by only a month.

Pesto, you are always so helpful. I really appreciate your input.

In regards to Dells, my company has an agreement with Dell for employee discounts but I'm a little apprehensive of Dell machines. In the last 4 years my cubicle mate has suffered 3 HD crashes and my 1 year old Dell had a power supply problem. Dell has provided our company excellant customer service but I think its because of a special (expensive) service contract.

I'm using Adobe Premiere elements. I've only played with it a little but I do like all the different transitions it offers. My laptop couldn't handle both PS & Premiere opened at the same time which is one of the reasons I'm so stuck on getting a machine with a dedicated graphic card.

Pesto, your too generous! Building a computer myself would not be something I could handle but I would appreciate a component list and see if my nephew would be comfortable putting something like this together for me.

Thank you Pesto all of your help!

Hey.. no worries.. glad to help.

Its funny to see you looking at HP's.. I hate HP computers.. and compaq, emachines, etc. The only system I would recommend would be Dell followed by Sony Vaio's and ACER's. The Vaio's are designed beautifilly like the Apple machines.. but they are expensive like Apple. Which brings me back to dell. I've owned a dell laptop for 7 years.. old - but still runs. My newer laptop is an Inspiron 600M and is 4 years old.. 4.5lbs, 14" monitor.. perfect for what I use it for and not a day of problems. I used to own a couple Dell machines but then I started building my own so desktops I just build myself.

Anyway.. I would recommend a system like this:
Motherboard: Asus A8N5X $89
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Retail (Socket 939) $90
RAM: 1GB PC3200 DDR $80
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT $150
Sound Card/Modem/Network Connections: On Motherboard..$0
Hard Drives: Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache (x2) $160 ($80 each)
DVD-RW/CD-RW: NEC ND-3550A $30
Case: Antec SLK1650B $60
Speakers: Logitech X-230 $30
Monitor: ViewSonic Optiquest Q7b 17" LCD $160
Mouse/Keyboard: Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical/Logitech Keyboard $20
Operating System: Windows XP Home $80

Total Cost: around $950!

Leave off one of the 250GB hard drives... $870
Use your current monitor or get a CRT... $710
Use you older speakers/keyboard/mouse.. $660

Anyway.. you get the idea.. this system is made of the highest quality parts.. each is a top performer in its "field" and they work really really well together. How simple is it to build? Here's a rundown:

1) Open up the case and remove all the wires/cables
2) Take the Motherboard and mount the CPU, add the memory chips
3) Mount the motherboard into the case using the supplied screws
4) Using the manual, attach all the wires from the case power supply, fans, lights ,etc
5) Add the Hard drives to the case and attach the wires to teh motherboard
6) Add the DVD writer to the case and attach the wires to the motherboard
7) Add the vidoe card to the motherboard and attach it to the case
8) Hook the mouse/keywobard to the PC, add the power cord, turn on
9) Follow basic BIOS steps on boot up and insert windows CD.. reboot.
10) Follow windows step-by-step to format HD and load windows
11) Enjoy your new PC in about 40 minutes from now....

Seriously.. it is pretty easy but there are some issues that do creep up with all the wires during the initial steps.. Asus provides a nice manual and step by step to take you through it.

Anyway.. good luck and let me know if you have any other questions... I left this board fora while due to a variety of issues.. but I'm so board.. I might just come back and answer tech questions!

Well Pesto... I just showed your instructions on how to build this system to a REAL COMPUTER TECHNICIAN, and it seems your list is INCOMPLETE and OVER-SIMPLIFIED. This is NOT the correct type of computer forum to post this type of information.

Members: This is NOT something to try unless YOU have the technical skills and training!!!

__________________
Colleen in Friendly Manitoba...
Proudly selling digital designs at SBB
(Come take a peek at my Gallery or check my BLOG to see what I'm up to)

I have to laugh at this ...new PC in 40 minutes...it may take me days just to find my nephew to discuss the possibilities!

Interesting that you didn't recommend the dual core route. I thought this would be ideal for editing video and photos.

Anyway, in the mean time I should at least look at Dell to see how much of a discount that they will offer us but I doubt they will have the graphic card that I need.

I'm glad you're back visiting the forum. I have missed your insighful post and had assumed you were on holiday. I hope what issues your were having have worked itself out.

Thanks again for all your help and pointing me in the right direction.