pkphilip

If you get the retail version of Win7, it comes with both 32 and 64bit. Only OEM is seperated.

32bit for 3GB of RAM or less. 64bit for 3GB or more.

Philip

pkphilip

Mac is good for the job, but you can get something similar for less. You should get a decent computer for under $1400, IPS monitor included.

Photo editing/processing is best to work with a multi-core processors, the i5 or i7 is highly recommended. Video card, you can get anything around $150 and it should sufficiently handle anything. Even the Intel HD Graphics on the new Sandy-Bridge CPUs are very capable. HDD, I would go for RAID option because of the increased speed. I will do 3 discs RAID if budget allow so I can do mirroring at the same time.

Dell Ultrasharp series are all IPS, if on sale, 24" could be had for about $400. It is the cheapest IPS display compare to Lacie, Viewsonic or Apple.

If going for Apple, I would get a Mac Pro over 27" iMac because the new iMac is expensive to service as EVERYTHING except RAM has to be bought from Apple, even hard drives are running special connector and Apple firmware.

Philip