I need to buy or build a computer (questions about hardware)

ok design gawds, I have some questions...
 
I am doing the best I can with a 7 year old dell Laptop and PS7.
 
I am workin my butt off trying to become great. and I am not trying to use my equipment as an excuse. but I wanna know what I should start budgeting for....
 
What are your recommendations for screens (size, resolution, how many) 
WHat do you guys think about graphics tablets?
Should I upgrade to cs4?
what are tyhe most important things I should look for in my next computer?  (Processor, RAM, Harddrive capacity)
What about video card should I get a gamer style for higher resolution or does that even matter since I am not doing much animation?
 
just looking for some hardware tips cause this laoptop with maximum screen resolution of 1024x768 is really getting annoying, and I am trying to keep it from locking up when I am working 13x17 at 300 dpi!  not easy!!!  lol
 
THANKS UPFRONT FOR THE HELP!
 
 

Get at least a quad core, 8gb of ram.  Dual monitors at least, 24s would be great.  If you have the coin get a 30 inch monitor which has a epic resolution of 2560x1600, which is nearly 2x the pixels as a 1920x1080 monitor.  Saves a shit load of time zooming/moving around/etc.     Video card is only real important if you game.  Just make sure if you are getting a 30 inch monitor that the card will support it, it will need to be a Dual Link DVI card.  MOST cards are that way today so you should not have a issue there just confirm it.  You will want to get one that way even if you are not getting a 30 inch monitor since you will want to have that option later in life.  You will also want to make sure you get 2xdvi ports on it.     Hard drives I would recommend going with a fast smaller hard drive for your windows/program drive and a second larger drive for data.  In both mine and Shellys computers we run 10krpm Velociraptor drives as our OS/Program drive.  This will make windows/programs open faster, run faster, smoother, and have less errors.  We have larger 1tb data drives in addition to that for all storage needs as you should NEVER keep important data on a hard drive with a operating system.     CS4 is not that great of an improvement over CS3 and you can probably get a deal on CS3.     On your OS you are going to want to go with 64bit.  This changes windows night and day on how it performs and stability.     If you like when you get together your budget I can help you pick parts.  I have built computers for about 10 years now.   

Thank you sir!!!  well now I know I need to get to work!!!!!!!!    bigwords = expensive!!!  LOL

Well i'll go ahead and put in my 2Cents... of course ya'll know what i'll say, "Buy a Mac!" lol... but Brandt's the man when it comes to building a custom PC, so i'll just fill in the blanks with some of my own info....   As for the monitors, I love having duals for the sake of workflow. I love having all my tools and folders on the right screen, while leaving the whole left screen for my design pallet. Just nice to have some extra desktop space to have everything visible at once. Though one good 30" could do the trick for most people also. It's all on what your willing to spend i guess...   Now graphics tablets... i know this ones been talked about on here before and from what i remember Nick and I are the only ones the use them AND like them. I know several people said they've used em before and hated it. Now i agree it takes a lil getting used too, but once u get the hang of it it's just like drawing or painting, just with a new pencil. Now the positive side is you don't always have to use the pen, i use my mouse 90% of the time and grab the pen when i feel i need it. I would love to use the pen all the time but it fuckin kills my forearm moving that thing around so much cause you gotta make it hover an inch off the surface and having a huge screen means your arm is doing a lot a moving, lol...   Also a CS4 upgrade prob isn't needed, but at least an upgrade from 7 would do wonders... a lot has changed since 7 and you could gain quite a few new features by upgrading. But as Brandt said, if you wanna get CS3 to save some chedder then you wouldn't really loose too much from CS4 if your still used to 7... I can't compare CS4 to anything else since they introduced the 'Rotate View' tool, it's like a miracle that adobe finally decided to introduce now. It makes my life WAY easier when it comes to doing hand drawn graphics, since when i normally draw with pen and paper i can rotate my page so i can draw that perfect curve, now u can do the same with photoshop and a wacom tablet...

Dual monitors are a must for a designer.  My out put went way up with 2 monitors.  It went up again even more with the 30 inch/24 inch combo.  The work space is amazing.   Tablets ive never been a fan of because I am a shitty drawer with real pencil/brushes lol. 

Edited: 9/29/2009 4:39:00 AM by Shaven

Lol Burger your not the only one using older equip. I have a dell laptop as well cept mine just isnt 7 years old but close around 5 or 6 years old and I use PS7 for everything... I have only needed to break out CS3 for certain things that CS3 does with photography and new dslr's. But PS7 is still a good program in my opinion.  BUT one key thing that both Brandt and Dougie mentioned is the screen's Dual screens is the effin shit!!!! I dont have the size that Brandt has but never the less 2 is still better then one if your using less then 30"... but hell it don't matter to me if i got 30" b/c then ill have 2 30" screens haha jsut because I love being able to seemlessly flow from one program to another. it also helps with dragging and dropping from one program to another instead of going to the task bar at the bottom and waiting for the window to max for ya.  **** about PS7... like the others said there is some significant changes to the program and if you can swing it get CS3 I just like PS7... my bad :) although it sucks when brushes are made for CS version's on up so thats a down fall for PS7.. fk it lol im going to sleep now  carry on.