Help getting 1st comp (keeping it simple)

[Noobster]

Hey everyone. I'm trying to put together a simple home PC. I only want to run Explorer, Photoshop, and Sound Forge. Basically I just want to do photo, sound/recording/editing, and internet.

I'm a little confused about processors. Namely the differences between the Pentium 4 HT and the Pentium D. I understand the basic operational differences between the hyper threading and dual core, but which would be better for my purposes? Or does it even matter for what I'll be doing.
Again, I'll mostly be using this for recording and editing sound files and touching up .RAW photos.

After a lot of discussion with people, this is kinda what I had in mind:
At least....2.8 GHz, 512MB, a light scribe DVD+/-RW, 15" flat LCD (but 17 would be great), 80GB SATA HD, and some sort of sound card.

Does this seem reasonable for my purposes? Overkill? Any soundcard advice? Any DVD/DVR advice? (I know nothing about soundcards or DVD, etc.) If you hadn't already guessed I'm completely ignorant with regards to computer hardware and I really just need some guidence on these things. Also, and this is my big prob., I'm trying to keep it around $600.
Thanks.

 

[slvr_phoenix]

If you actually understood the differences between HT and DC then you'd have your own answer. HT is a single core that pretends to be two so that it can more fully utilize its resources. Dualcore is two actual cores, twice the resources, theoretically twice the performance. So it's pretty clear which one is better.

As for benefit to you however, I'd say skip Intel entirely. Go with a low end Athlon64. You'll save money, your system will run cooler, and your electricity bill will be lower.

As for a specific sound card or DVD recorder, you're probably better off asking for advice in those particular forums than you are asking in the CPU forum. But it would also help to know what exactly you're doing. How high of a quality of sound is important to you? What level of professionalism in your editing? If it's just for fun, simple onboard sound would probably suffice. You might not even need a sound card at all.

 

[Noobster]

Thanks. I'm probably just going to go through one of the big companies (Dell, HP, etc.), so their offers will kinda steer me towards either AMD or Intel. But thanks for the heads-up, I'll definitely keep that in mind in my search.
As for the sound/DVD stuff, I'll take that to those forums...but since you asked, I do appreciate high quality sound, but as far as the stuff I'll be putting together....mid level quality would satisfy for now. I suppose I can always throw a new card in later.
Alright...off to harass the DVD/DVR crowd. Thanks again!

 

[mdd1963]

"...(Dell, HP, etc.), so their offers will kinda steer me towards either AMD or Intel."

Alas, Dell does not build AMD systems, but they should have some pretty reasonable priced 2.8 dual core P4 models (820 D)...

Go with a Gig of Ram, vice 512 MB...