What do I need in a PC to slay PS/LR?

I haven't bought a new computer in >5 years, and it's time to upgrade, since I'm sick of waiting 4 seconds to see the results of a white balance adjustment. I used to be a pretty solid nerd but now find myself out of the loop when it comes to computing technology.

I want a desktop, already have a monitor and peripherals, and likely won't have time to build a system from scratch.

What do I need for a processor? I see there are Core Duos, Core 2 Quads, etc -- what's all this mean for me?

How much RAM do I need to comfortably run PS and LR while listening to tunes in the background? 2, 3, 4 GB? Ideally I'd like to batch-process stuff in LR while running PS, etc...

Does a graphics card matter for this kind of thing, as long as it has a DVI out? I once knew the answer to this but I think I poisoned that part of my brain with alcohol.

Anything else I should be aware of?

What kind of $$$ am I looking at?

Thanks

I do pretty much all that on my laptop with a dual core intel mobile processor and 2gb of ram. Don't know about graphics cards, just know that whatever i have in my cheapo toshiba seems to pretty much work.

Keep an eye on slickdeals.net for cheap components and deals from the dell used/refurb store.
Techforless.com also has some sick deals on open box desktops. Should be able to pick a suitable system up for <$400 there.

Yeah, that's what I have for work and it seems to do the trick. I don't really want to have all my photos/bootleg SW on a work computer that gets automatically backed up by The Man every night, so I'd like a separate desktop. And if I'm dropping my own $$$, I'd like something that will still be able to hang a couple of years down the road.

My dad's a big computer and photo nerd and suggested the refurb route so I'll keep my eye out.

BTW, found these threads on fredmiranda:
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/659695

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/653370

It's getting to be that time for me as well. The Intel Centrino 1.4 and 512 of ram just isn't cutting it(haha)... Question is, should I fork over the cash and get a Mac this fall or just continue to slug it out with windows...

Get as much RAM as possible so your new purchase will be functional for many years to come. If you are going to do it, do it right and don't cheap. Deals are great but a few hundred right now may alleviate lots of lag headaches in a couple years.

Decent site to check out is newegg.com
(note on that site: I lived with a Comp Science major in college and he swears by this site and their reviews whenever he built comps. So check out the comps and read the reviews to see how they perform)

slickdeals has a coupon for $400 off $1000 or more on HP desktops, use code DT3412 at HP Shopping

Oh damn, we might have a winner.

Dual Monitors

Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad processor Q9300 (2.5GHz)
4GB DDR2-800MHz dual channel SDRAM (4x1024) <-- 8GB (4x2048) is $200 more, and there's no 2x2048 option for the 4GB configuration
512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9500GS, DVI-I, VGA, HDMI <-- $50 more than the 256MB, but I hear that the next version of Photoshop is going to strongly leverage the GPU
320GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive <-- Have an add'l 500GB external HD
LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive

... and a bunch of other irrelevant stuff for $676 shipped to CA ($1,019 + tax - discount).

:biggrin:

Edit for aj_77 and others considering an upgrade with this deal: my pro-computer-nerd dad convinced me to splurge an extra $87 on the d5000t rather than the m9300t for a more powerful power supply (apparently often the first thing to crap out) and better upgradeability (also 180GB more of HD space but that wasn't an issue for me). This is something that's buried in the fine print of the specs. New damage: $763

Just like that. Nice, dude, thats a good score.