Ok - the spec, bearing in mind I'm not very computer literate. Athlon XP 2200+, 1Gb RAM, 40Gb hard drive about 3/4 full (recently defragmented) - I use about 5-10Gb of this for projects in hand, but any longer term storage is off-site in a stand-alone 250Gb hard drive.
I guess the relatively full hard drive wont be helping, but I'm not sure what I can shift (I want to keep the stand-alone drive for photo storage as much as possible).
I run XP Home currently, and would upgrade to XP pro sp2 rather than vista for preference, at least until vista has been running for a while. Although there's lots to be said for macs, I'm not sure that would suit me, as I would like to network with the existing computer at times, and share the stand-alone drive.
Until recently my old machine was fine, but since swapping from a canon 1V with scanned negs (which was slow anyway, and I was probably more selective in the images I worked on!) to a 1DsII (nearly right John) I find the work volume has greatly increased.
Budget? - I want a machine that will remain adequate for some years, so I guess I need to buy at the upper end of the spec range currently available to have 'spare capacity' for the future. Say around £750, with another £250 for a good monitor if I go down the 2 screen route.
Having read Stephen's thread it would seem I need a much bigger disc, about 2Gb RAM, dual core, but I could do with more detailed advice before I shell out the cash!
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