Advice on barebones kit

[artist66]

I was looking at the following barebones system (P4/ 3.0 Ghz/ 512 MB/ 450 Watt):
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... =V133-2570

with the following graphics card (XFX GeForce 7800 GTX / 490 Mhz / 256
Mb):
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... =P450-7803

and the following monitor (Samsung Syncmaster 19" Flatpanel):
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... s&n=541966

[I'll shop these around when the time comes, but the barebones will
probably be from TigerDirect)
I plan (also in the future) to attend the Colorado Art Institute here for
either Graphic Design, Digital Media Production or Visual Effects &
Motion Graphics... Having worked primarily with non-digital media
(acrylic, paper, canvas) - I would appreciate whatever input you could
give me, or thoughts that you have...

[bjsexton]

The socket 478 is pretty old technology now.
This system looks OK, the memory probably will need to be upgraded to dual channel 2x1gb sticks.
You will need this if you are going to do photo editing, or sound recording and editing a lot.
I would recommend a great brand of TCCD chips on BrainPower PCB's low latency.
These sticks do not need a great deal of voltage to operate well.
The new Socket 775 is the better technology.

You can go the A64 route, the A64 setup will cost you less than the Intel setup.
It will perform as well or better.