Great info thanks all! Much appreciated. So some clarification and more questions now:
1) I'm using it mainly for BMax, so now I'm thinking a very fast Dual Core is the way to go.
2) Will Vista 64 bit run faster on a 64 bit CPU? If so, are there 64-bit Dual cores available?
3) I can turn off Vista UAC and patch it up because BFG have a huge test suite - my PC will not be used for testing, so I don't need to worry about that.
4) I use Gimp right now and will carry on using it, but I also need Photoshop to edit the artists files and see the same effects they are using. I find bits of Photoshop easier to use than Gimp and vice versa.
5) OK 9800GT graphics card sounds good thx.
6) Why is LCD better than TFT? I thought LCD was older technology.
7) The RAID SSD sound AWESOME but I may need to wait a couple of years before getting one of those. So I could get a Raid 0 for double the speed right? But that also comes with double the failure rate. Of course I'll backup every day so that won't matter much. If I get too large a dive aren't they slower? Are there some well know faster drivers?
8) Who said about it being Quiet? (Ah Juuso). Thanks for reminding me. This is a big consideration as I want a quite PSU, CPU Fan, GPU Fan, Hard Disk etc. If I'm sitting next to it all day I want it nice and quiet. But I still want the performance so I need to look into getting both.
1) I'm using it mainly for BMax, so now I'm thinking a very fast Dual Core is the way to go.
2) Will Vista 64 bit run faster on a 64 bit CPU? If so, are there 64-bit Dual cores available?
3) I can turn off Vista UAC and patch it up because BFG have a huge test suite - my PC will not be used for testing, so I don't need to worry about that.
4) I use Gimp right now and will carry on using it, but I also need Photoshop to edit the artists files and see the same effects they are using. I find bits of Photoshop easier to use than Gimp and vice versa.
5) OK 9800GT graphics card sounds good thx.
6) Why is LCD better than TFT? I thought LCD was older technology.
7) The RAID SSD sound AWESOME but I may need to wait a couple of years before getting one of those. So I could get a Raid 0 for double the speed right? But that also comes with double the failure rate. Of course I'll backup every day so that won't matter much. If I get too large a dive aren't they slower? Are there some well know faster drivers?
8) Who said about it being Quiet? (Ah Juuso). Thanks for reminding me. This is a big consideration as I want a quite PSU, CPU Fan, GPU Fan, Hard Disk etc. If I'm sitting next to it all day I want it nice and quiet. But I still want the performance so I need to look into getting both.