A system for Photoshop / Multitasking

[lukewinter]

Hi,

I'm looking to build a new system who's primary use will be photoediting. I usually multitask quite a bit with itunes, 20 tabs in Opera, photoshop, & Picasa all open at the same time. I used to know quite a bit about systems but I'm a couple of years rusty so It'd be great if you guys could help me with couple of questions:

- Are processor speed and RAM the main factors which will affect the speed at which the computer runs?

- Do I have any need for anything more than a mid-range graphics card; will the cost of having a stunning one yield any big performance changes for me? (The system won't be used for many games)

- There's this huge amd v intel debate going on. Without whipping up a lot of fanboyism, which processor route do you think I should go down considering I want a stable system, fast at photoshop, which can multitask. Any mid range or high range processor suggestions?

- Minimum 2gb Ram right?

Thanks a lot, any help greatly appreciated.

luke

 

[Juice Daddy]

Go with an intel processor, as amd are used for gameing, intel work best for office apps

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Go with an intel processor, as amd are used for gameing, intel work best for office apps

Actually for multitasking now, I would recomend AMD because of their spiffy dual core processors. AMD however have a slight photoshop disadvantage in single core, but the AMD dual core's are still a great buy.

This is the only benchmark I could really find, but I spent all of 2 minutes looking.
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/roundupmobo/athlon-64-3400.html