There is lot of talk on this thread about Intel processors, but no one has said anything about AMD. You can get a great AMD Phenom II for cheap and while it can't compete with the Core i7 (what can other than the new Xeons?) or most Core 2 Quads, it is a much better processor than the Core 2 Duos, and for about the same price. I am going to assume that you have never built a pc before? If you have, then definitely build it yourself, thats is BY FAR the route with the MOST bang for your buck. Also, if you're planning on getting more than 2gb of RAM, then you're going to need a 64-bit OS. A 32-bit OS can only handle a maximum of 4gb, but you have to subtract all other system memory from that number before you get to your RAM, so if you have a video card with 1gb of memory, then you can only use around 2.8 or so GB of RAM.
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Originally Posted by cadmium
I probably wouldn't bother with Core2 Quads, a faster Core2 Duo will get you more bang for the buck. If you can afford a Corei7, they are the bees knees.
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The Core i7 is an incredibly processor, but you have to pay for more than just the processor because the motherboards that accept it are MUCH more expensive because they have the newest X58 chipset and only take DDR3 memory, which is also more expensive than the cheaper DDR2. As far as Duos being more bang for your buck than quads, applications are moving toward muti-threading and using multiple cores in a single application. With this direction the benefits vastly outweigh the cost difference between a duo and a quad. CS4 already supports multi-threading, and I'll just about guarantee that the next version of Lightroom will support it as well.
As far as the discussion between computer brands, the brand is the name on the case. They all use about the same components, so the big difference is in customer service and support. I haven not had a lot of experience with HP/Compaq in that respect (although I have owned a couple computers from them and never had any problems) I know Dell has some of the best service around. They have great warranties, and they use really good components (Western Digital Hard Drives, Intel motherboards, name-brand video cards, etc), and GREAT warranties, tech support and service. Given, Dell used to be the best with no one competitive, but now pretty much all of the big pc manufacturers are very competitive, which makes Dell look lesser than before, as tekdiver said.
As a reference, my old computer crapped out about a month ago (hence why I haven't posted any photos in a while b/c all I have is my old laptop that turns running lightroom into a waiting game) and I just got my new system finished being built a few days ago. Things that will be pertainable to configuring a computer from a big manufacturer:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400
Western Digital Black 640gb HDD 7200 RPM 32MB Cache
LG DVD+-RW 22x
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4670 1gb GDDR3 (tons of video memory, plenty fast, power efficient)
500W Dual 12v-18a Rail Power Supply
As was stated above, heat is the end of all computers. Make sure no matter what that you get a computer with good cooling. I don't know about HP or other manufacturers, but Dell's XPS series has really great cooling with plenty of fans. All of this also depends on how much you were planning/wanting to spend, and if you need a monitor.
Basic price structure would be:
$250-500: AMD Athlon 64 X2, Celeron, Pentium Dual Core (slower clocked Core2Duo with less cache)
$750-1000+ AMD PhenomII X4, Core 2 Quad with a good video card and 4+ GB RAM
$1200+ Core i7 920 with 6GB RAM (6gb RAM or MORE works best with the Corei7, much better than 4gb b/c of the way the chipset and memory is set up on X58 motherboards) The higher up the Core i7 goes, the more it costs. 920 is the base processor and it has models that run in price up to $1500 for the processor alone.
That turned into a much longer post than I had intended. I hope at least some of it was useful!
-Daniel