Originally posted by Bluestrike
yes a good monitor is a must but what he is more interested to know is that how much processing power is needed for an average photo editing work. A full coolscan IV output at 2900dpi render a 15MB(average) pic file in jpeg(best quality). So how much processing power we need here?
It would depend on how long you're willing to wait.
Generally, 512MB is recommended, with a processor that is at least equiv. to P3 1GHz.
A faster processor will give fastest image render/filter application times, while more ram will minimise disk swapping, which can slow down the operations significantly.
Gfx card - No Geforce 1/2/3/MX, or TNT/Vanta/TNT2s. The picture quality output by such cards are generally medicore. On the Geforce 4, image quality is improved but still lags behind the compitition.
All of matrox's offerings should be okay. Just make sure you get one with enough memory for your resolution and is fast enough (Generally, that means a minimum of Matrox G200, which should be rather cheap (<$60) if you aren't concerned with 3D speed.)
A good middle ground would be ATi's offerings. They have good 2D with fast 3D too. The cheapest 8500le out there costs ~$170.
Don't get LCDs.
