Advice on Comp Spec ........plz

I hope this post is OK in here…..If not sorry.

I would like advise on the specification for a computer (PC - Win 2000) that would be good for DTP and multi media stuff like web design, video-editing etc. Also advice on peripherals like monitor, printer and scanner. We are hoping to be able to invest in a Mac in the not too distant future so anything that could be used with both would be good news.

We have a budget of approx. £2000 probably just a bit under for everything. We already have a 2 PII that we can take parts off if they are just average to save money for the must have’s.

I work for a community organisation, my focus is DTP as we produce a community newspaper but we want the machines to run applications for other groups.

One of my bugbears is the mouse; I never seem to have the kind of control I would like.

We run Quark Xpress and we are just about to purchase Photoshop and Illustrator.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

I just built a modest machine for under $1000 (US) to do exactly what you are wanting to do.

ATX mid tower case w/300 watt Power supply = $32.00
Spacewalker AV18E Mainboard = $85.00 (I don't know I just like that board)
Celeron 1Gig/100mhz bus processor = $73.00
ATI Radeon 64M AGP vidoe card = $69.00
2 - 512 Meg Dimms = $145.00
2 - 60 gig ATA100 Hard drives - $220.00
19" ViewSonic Monitor $309.00 (Like that monitor a whole lot too...although there are better ones out there. We've got 3 View Sonics)
Mouse...Go opticle
keyboard yada,yada,yada....

*EDIT*
Ahhh, forgot peripherals.
I might be "old school" but I really like the "UMAX" brand scanners, as far as flatbed sacanners go. We have several misc. UMAX scanners around the shop and use them daily. They don't compare to the drum scanner, but the UMAX "Powerlook III" and UMAX "Powerlook 3000" are simply great scanners. They both will also go back and forth between a PC and a Mac. They might be a little "pricey" but they are very dependable and last a long time.

Printers?...
Laser? Ink Jet? Large Format? Color? Black and White?
Give me a direction......

A celeron?... or celery for my previous configurations

You'd need at least a P3 to get the optimization of PS5 and above
or and an Athlon

Thanks for the advice......both of you, although Sidefx you lost me there.

One of the techies from the local council that is pledging PC support is going to build the new machine (with me in a supporting role...of course)
When we were discussing parts he said get a 150w power supply i thought 300w but he said something about pulling more power down bigger fans...heat...blah blah something.
We are on a network at the moment so does that mean that we dont have to invest in the big Hard Drives?

Printer will have to be an ink jet with our budget we will want it to print at least A3 and in colour.

Thanks really for the advice tornup.......i dont want to make any expensive mistakes.

Side, Ive got 2 celeron machines here at home.... one of which is a 500mhz 66mhz bus machine that runs photoshop6...everyday.
At work we've also got a PIII 800, that processor cost $169.00.....
It wont do anything that the Celeron 1Gig wont do.

They both have a 100mhz bus.... why pay extra?

As I said its a modest machine, but anyone that tells you "You have to at least have a Pentium 'blah, blah, blah'"........ is wrong.

I've been doing this a long time, and in this day of "throw away" machines.... I try to get out as cheap as I can. I can tell you right now...It will be a year or so befor I even "think" about a purchase of a P4.

i'm saying that pentium3 has built in optimizations for photoshop..

it does make a lot of difference since i was using a Celeron 450
and i upgraded to a 450 P3, which i overclocked to 600, with proper cooling

and i won't be buying anymore Intel processors in the future..
it'll be either an AMD processor, or i'm gettting a Mac