The brilliant woman with the big bust got such a great response that I figured I'd use her technique.  I AM sexy and Costa Rican (at least I'm a legal resident) and I do need help.  I just happen to be 63 years old and poverty stricken.  But I'm sure someone out there who has been on top of all the changes taking place in the industry in the last few years can give me the advice I need.  I'm a semi-retired photographer.  I need to get my photographs processed (Photoshop, Corel, and/or Ulead Express) and uploaded to various sites in order to build my portfolio and reputation so that I can begin making a living with my photography with two years.  That's when my private disability insurance stops.  I live in a very beautiful area that just happens to be technologically challenged.  Uploading my photos takes hours and hours.  So I don't want to spend many more hours just getting the photos ready for upload.  My old Pentium II is very slow and there is now way to upgrade to a better, faster video card.  The laptop I'm now using (a gift from my son) is a Pentium III but again no way to upgrade memory or video card to allow faster processing.  I also use the computer for all the usual stuff - word processing, Internet, blogs, (and soon a website), communications, building design (3DHome Architect Deluxe 3.0 for Windows 98 - I don't like the complexity and learning curve needed to upgrade to a cad-like system), a bit of multimedia for manipulating the photos and doing my own art work, doing some publicity and business printing for local merchants and organizations, database applications and calendar/to do lists, and GAMING.  But I'm not in a position to spend thousands and thousands of dollars.  I still have to get new camera equipment and run a farm and a reforestation project and am building a small bed and breakfast especially for ecologically and health minded tourists (mainly birders and botanists).  SO . . . <b>CAN ANYONE SUGGEST THE BEST COMBINATION OF MOTHERBOARD, CPU, GRAPHICS CARD, AND RELATED PERIPHERALS FOR WHAT I NEED AT A REASONABLE PRICE? </b>  I don't need a monitor.  My old Sony Multiscan 200sx seems to be doing a good job.  I don't need a DVD player or a burner.  I have those.  I will need a large amount of hard drive memory and DDR for storing all those very large images.  What I have now isn't nearly enough.  I've had it with Iomega zip drives.  Either they are a lousy product or the high humidity and mildew problems here make the stuff unusable.  I even have problems with floppy diskettes and mildew.  Oh, and one other thing.  There are no computer repair places nearby.  Finding parts and expertise means at least a day's journey, an overnight hotel stay, and a day's journey back; so I need something really reliable and for which I can get parts in Costa Rica or Panama and which I can repair or install upgrades myself.  The last computers I put together from parts were done six years ago.  Things have changed a lot since then.  I will be ordering the computer over the Internet and picking it up in October on a visit to the States.  I would like to be able to either keep my current midsize tower case or be able to buy the right one here.  That's so I can wrap the parts up in my clothing and put them in my suitcase to bring back into Costa Rica with me.  Carrying a case will make travel for me very difficult.  I've even considered a G4 Mac without monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc.  I can use my ancient keyboard and mice, and my clunky Radio Shack speakers.  I'm not building a home entertainment system.  I would like a lot of USB ports and flash memory slots and all that so I could just put the memory chip from the camera into the computer instead of having to use the camera as a go-between.  
 
I sure hope someone out there can figure out what I'm trying to say and tell me what I need and what I don't need and where to start looking.  And I need the information yesterday.  
 
I'll take picture of beautiful, sexy Costa Rican girls and women and handsome, dark-eyed young men for you if you can help me.  Or you can visit my farm free of charge.  
 
mthorman (Chi)  
 
<A HREF="http://crphotos.blogspot.com" target="_new">The Real Costa Rica</A>
<A HREF="http://w3chi.blogspot.com" target="_new">Weird and Wonderful world of Chi</A>

It's late so I can't really answer your question exactly, but if I were you, and I could somehow get a cased computer back to Costa Rica, I would probably just look for a crazy deal.  You're not playing games or doing anything of that nature so all you need is a PC that has raw horsepower for processing your pics.  That just means you want a fast CPU.  Forget using floppies and zip drives, go with either a flash usb drive or burn dvd/cd's.  If you want a device that can read your digicams memory sticks look for a flash card reader and make sure it supports whatever media you have.
 
<A HREF="http://www.bensbargains.net/" target="_new">http://www.bensbargains.net/</A>
 
And
 
<A HREF="http://forums.anandtech.com/categories.aspx?catid=40&entercat=y" target="_new">http://forums.anandtech.com/categories.aspx?catid=40&entercat=y</A>
 
Are pretty good at finding deals.  I've seen some nice deals from Dell for example at $399.  I don't follow them, but I've seen them.
 
Alternatively, I shop for parts at the following places:
 
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com</A>
Good selection, good prices, but charges me tax in CA and has shipping charges on some of their stuff.  Very reliable though.
 
<A HREF="http://www.monarchcomputer.com/" target="_new">http://www.monarchcomputer.com/</A>
Not as good of a selection, but good prices, even better than Newegg in many cases, and no tax or shipping for CA.  Very reliable as well.  I believe you can have them build your system or they have some barebone systems that you can configure.
 
<font color=red><b>Long live Dhanity and the minions scouring the depths of Wingdingium!

Thank you.  Your information is very useful.  It's so good to get experienced info. !  Only one question, though:  I DO (or will when I have time again) play games.  The Myst-type games.  Will I be able to upgrade the system with a better video card later?  I take it the video card has nothing to do with how fast I can process photographs?  La Estupida en San Vito, Costa Rica (aka mthorman aka Chi).
 
<A HREF="http://crphotos.blogspot.com" target="_new">The Real Costa Rica</A>
<A HREF="http://w3chi.blogspot.com" target="_new">Weird and Wonderful world of Chi</A>

My coatimundi wants to know exactly what "raw power" means.  I think she thinks it is something good to behead and gobble down.  I would let her type this question herself, but the last time she had access to the Internet she tried to find coatimundi porn sites and did a search on "road kill."  I need to know what raw power means in terms of type of processor, type and quantity of ram, and size of harddrive (or as we say here, "disco duro".  Pura Vida!  
 
<A HREF="http://crphotos.blogspot.com" target="_new">The Real Costa Rica</A>
<A HREF="http://w3chi.blogspot.com" target="_new">Weird and Wonderful world of Chi</A>