A PC for RAW

More than anything RAM is the best thing to have for photo work. 3GB is the maximum in Windows XP and Vista 32-bit. In the x64 editions you gan get a hell of a lot more but most machines are limited to between 4GB and 32GB by hardware.

DDR is more expensive than DDR2 and will set you back about £70 for 2GB of basic DDR333 (PC2700).

Well they would say that wouln't they? It all depends on the motherboard. If your motherboard supports a dual channel architecture then it will benefit from a matched pair, other it will be a waste of money. As a tip allways place the largest RAM chip in the first slot if you are not using a matched pair otherwise some older motherboards detect the lower value RAM first & even if they report the correct RAM the Pc may not be able to use it all to it's full potential. There are exceptions to this but as general rule it works.
Caz

I run a motherboard with dual channels and fitted with 4GB(PC3200 with heat shields) of ram, 3.6 Intel processor, 250GB HDD, Nvid G/Card, about 4 years old now,running XP Pro,CS4,Lightroom etc into a LG 23inch wide screen monitor. Very happy with it's performance pleased I used quality components.

Edit: miss spelt.

LincolnshireNed,
Try here for ram 1GB(PC2700 £33)link

Different makes different prices

It depends on the program and what it's doing. There comes a point with some programs (Silkypix RAW conversion for example) when extra RAM doesn't help, but a faster processor does.

I have a MSI P35 Platinum Combo with a Intel E8500 Core2Duo @ 3,16GHz with 4GB of dual channel DDR-II memory and 2x 500GB of storage.

I went to this setup from a Pentium 4 @ 3,06GHz with 2GB of memory and I must say it is a HUGE improvement especially with PS and Silkypix.

If you are buying a new PC get a load of memory as it is cheap. If you are going to use a 32 bit operating system then 4GB is enough since the OS will not be able to address more then about 3,5GB.
If you go for a 64 bit OS then I would go for 4 or 8 GB's of memory. More memory is more important then a faster CPU.

And get a lot of storage, I allways use two drives. The first drive is for the OS and the applications. The second drive is for data and the OS swapfile, this speeds up the system as well.

Three words - memory, memory and you guessed it -

Not necessarily. Usually you pair memory to get a better efficiency (they can work in dual channel mode), but it should work fine with unmatched memories - you may loose on speed. It used to be a problem in older PCs though.

i am running an intel core 2 duo E6550, asus p5b wifi delux , 8800gtx graphis card, with a 250 ide for os and 2 x 500 sata on a mirrored raid oh and 3 gb ram soon to be 4gb of ocz 1066 or corsair and my system flies
ps if you or any 1 else needs any advise i run my own it buisness so will be happy to help

Matched pairs were just to get you to buy more memory. Un-matched pairs will usually work fine in dual channel mode and with hardly any speed difference.

shim

Thanks Tel but actually found some on Amazon for £32 inc. delivery so it might arrive tomorrow as it's on it's way!

Shim, you mean 'matched' by today's meaning And in the grim past one had to match or pair memory by size. You could not put a single memory, you had to fill slots in pairs of the same size - the PC would not start otherwise

Well my extra 1GB RAM arrived today, fitted it but can't really say there's been a dramatic improvement. Some progs open faster but RAW processing seems to take just as long using the Pentax supplied software at least

Andrew - How long is long?
Matt

40 seconds to save an edited raw image as the highest quality jpg.