Quote:

Here is a system I support at work a lot and I have played with them and they are pretty rock solid.

Price about 2,399.00 WITH good 24" monitor.

Dell T3400
QuadCore 2.4GHz Processer
4Gigs Of Ram (2 sticks of ram...not four so you can add more without tossing the origonal if you want to go to 8gigs.)
Vista Ultimate for the OS
Nvidia Quadro FX1700 Dual DVI video card with 512MB ram
80GB Hard Drive
Dell 24" Ultrasharp 2408WFP Monitor

You will be ready for the new CS4 when it comes out which will be designed to leverage 64bit operating system....and more than 4GB of ram.....you will thank me for that one later when it is out....lol.

I custom build my own machines, and will soon upgrade my MB, memory and processor...with a better graphic card in the wings here in 2009.

And Dell has a really decent warranty department. I am Dell certified and really enjoy working with them.

If your accident prone....get the accidental dammage warranty...even it its your fault...no problems....instant repair or replacment ...no questions asked.

Roman



I can second Roman's recommendation for Dell machines and monitors. I've been using a dual core 3.0 GHz Dell machine with 2 Gigs of ram and a Dell 24" monitor for the last year and a half and have absolutely no complaints (even running NX2 which is a real hog). I held on to my old IBM 21" monitor for years because I wasn't sure about the LCD monitors. When it gave up the ghost I sprang for the 24" Dell and quickly realized my concerns were groundless. I could never give up the widescreen and the only way I'm going to give this monitor up is when I go to 30" (when they come down in price).

I'm still running XP on my machine so 2 gigs of ram is still pretty comfortable. If you're going to run Vista then 4 gigs are probably a must. If you're going to run 64 bit then the sky is the limit I guess. I would imagine CS4 must really fly on an 8 gig, 64 bit system.

Geo

Some of my best
http://www.lamsonweb.com/Galleries/Photography
http://lamson.zenfolio.com/