I'm using a 2 year old Dell, and it does fine with my D70s and 2G of RAM. (Despite NX being an inherently slow program.)

Whether I go the D300 route or D700 route, I'm wondering if I'll need to get a new computer to go along with the increase in image size, or would it be simply nice to do so?

Even if a new CPU is not a necessity, a new monitor sure would be nice.......

J a m e s
My Gallery

Using his camera as a pen, it is the photographer's job to tell a story: Each page authored in frozen moments of time.

All of my work is dedicated to my father, Terry Lee Geib (1943-2009)

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If you're using XP(32 bit, I think), the system (mine, anyway) will only show about 3.25GB of RAM. I have physically 4GB, system info "reports/shows" 3.25GB. In XP Pro at least, the boot.ini will need to contain the /3gb in the line. Search the "computer hardware" forum for details. You'll need/want an external HDD also.
(update for spelling)

John Rice

"To every thing there is a season..."
MyPictureGalleryStuff

Rams cheap right now, put is another 2gb, or even 4gb of the fastest ram your mother board will handle. 4gb of DDR2 800 is under $100....just make sure your computer will handle DDR2.

If it won't I would buy new. Once your memory becomes obsolete and jumps in price thats the breaking point between upgrading and replacing.

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I just upgraded from a 4mp sensor to a 12mp sensor, and my 2004-vintage computer is holding up just fine. Obviously things aren't as quick as they were before, but they're not agonizingly slow either. I have a 1.8 GHz AMD with single core and 2 GB memory. On the other hand, I don't use NX either - I use Photoshop.

Actually, the thing that's the biggest difference is simply how long it takes to download images into the computer, and that's really a function of the reader and card speed rather than anything in memory or CPU. And it's easy to just walk away while that's happening, too.

_____
Brian... a bicoastal Nikonian and Team Member

My gallery is online. Comments and critique welcomed any time!

Brian, I was using an 1.8 AMD with 1 GB Sdram memory until a few weeks ago when I went to a 2.6 Quad with 4 GB DDR2. Photoshop never noticed the difference. However, Norton can now do a full scan in the background in less the 1/4 the time without slowing me down.

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I had a D300 so the file size is the same as the D700/D3. My computer is over two years old with a Pentium 4 3.2 processor (non of that dual and quad stuff). I have upgraded my RAM form 1 to 2 and recently 3GB. I use NX and Photoshop and no problems at all. At 2GB RAM it strained once in a while, with only 1 it choked and died often

Albert J Valentino
Nikonian Team Member
Vantage Point Images
Mastery of Composition is the Key to Great Photography