Joel,


I'm running Windows XP on an Intel Dual Core system that I built myself (I've never bought a pre-built packaged system, but that's another story). Dual Core means 2 Processors and Intel also manufactures 4 Processor chips. Anyway, my rig is an Intel Dual Core (2.66Ghz), 4GB memory, ~2TB of disk, and I'm running Photoshop CS4 with no problems whatsoever. I do some video editing too. If I were building (or buying) a new rig today, I'd go with Intel's newest processor the I7 Quad Core, 4-6GB of Memory, lots of Disk space, etc. I say that because I'm the kind of person that likes to wring out as much use of a system as possible before having to buy something new.


The Intel Dual Core processor systems will get the job done because I'm using one and I stress it pretty well (lots of multitasking and applications that eat PC's for fun). But if buying today, I'd certainly take advantage of Intel's latest Quad Core Processors and you will find that many PC's are already configured with them anyway. Also don't skimp on Disk space, especially with Disk pricing being so low these days. I don't know your needs for space, but I'd say avoid the default 500GB that comes standard on many packages these days. I'd also suggest that you have 2 individual disks (one for your applications, files, etc and a second one that is used for backups). There is nothing worse than losing data because you lose the main hard drive and had no plans for backups of your data.


It appears that you are looking for someone to suggest a given packaged PC and in reality if you follow the suggestions folks have given you about what that PC should contain, it's really only a matter of going to HP, Dell, Apple, whatever and picking a package that contains those suggested components/configs. $1500 is plenty to get a nice system, so you should be able to find something pretty easily. Just avoid the low cost $500 budget price PC's because they will have minimal configurations and will not be suited for your needs. If you go to HP's site for instance, you can pick a starting package and then add/upgrade the components of your choosing.


Happy shopping!


Rick