Do you mean like high resolution art creation/editing in photoshop? Because for editing your vacation photos an upgrade probably isn't needed.
Assuming it's the former, depending on what gpu you currently use yes an upgrade can be helpful. I believe photoshop has GPU acceleration now. For photo editing the most important thing is your monitor quality though. An LCD simply won't cut it when you need specific colors ect.
I think you must have meant, "an LCD TV won't cut it", since LCD monitors are used in graphics arts and photo editing all the time. The monitors used however, are of IPS design. TN panels in fact, don't cut it. Here is an example of an IPS monitor, which is prefect for photo editing, both at the amateur and professional levels
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/e...ZR24w 24-inch S-IPS LCD Monitor&lang=en&cc=us
Finally In my opinion an SSD won't bring any noticeable improvements except for decreased boot times/load times. But for loading large files into photoshop it could be faster, but I doubt it would be noticeably faster.
An SSD would, (probably) decrease the launch time of the program, and only the launch time, for two reasons.
The speed of importing photos from the camera into PS, is limited by the speed of the camera flash cards.
You can't keep a substantial photo collection on an SSD, (presently), since they're simply way too small. That said, we come to our second reason; the speed of opening photos from onboard storage, will be limited by the speed of the mechanical HDD.
And just for good measure; if PS is using the system drive during editing, ("scratch disc"), there isn't enough installed RAM in the machine. "Photoshop Creative Suites 4 & 5" are compatible with a 64 Bit OS, and that's what would speed up the process the most.
For all the talk about graphics hardware acceleration in the new versions of PS-CS, it's still a very CPU intensive application, which runs well on Core i integrated graphics.
Actually, we were going to build a new tower from scratch with all new parts (but we only need the tower). Maybe I haven't explained myself well.
I understand the two leads, but thanks anyway
Can you answer my original question, ie. will a discrete graphics card bring benefits to a photo editing computer (and if so, what would you recommend), or would be be fine with the on board graphics? By the way we are planning on getting a Sandy Bridge CPU, which apparently has its integrated graphics thing. I stress again that the computer will not be used for gaming.
The integrated graphics in Sandy Bridge CPUs will be more than adequate for at least 90%, of tasks in Photoshop. There would be no need for an add in card.
Professionals in art production might see an improvement in 3D drawing speeds.
With that said, Sandy's graphics will at very least tide you over, until you absorb the cost of the system, and can afford a more powerful video card later. If somebody is plodding along with a P-4 system at present, a 64 bit system based on a Sandy Bridge CPU, will seem like an arrival at the "Pearly Gates".
I have been told that this HP monitor is available in Australia, at reasonable prices;
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/e...ZR24w 24-inch S-IPS LCD Monitor&lang=en&cc=us
Oh, please get the idea that "TFT" tells you the type, (or design), of an LCD monitor, out of your head. They're all, "thin film transistors", so the term is meaningless, with repect to quality. Look up the terms, "TN", "IPS", "PVA" and "MVA". (Hint, IPS is the best).