I'm thinking of buying a NEW PC very soon

[Koy J. Campbell]

Hello everyone,
I'm NEW to CF-RAW and I think this spot is GREAT so far.

I'm in need of purchasing a BRAND NEW PC and I would like to know what some of you would recommend. I currently own a Dell PC which I have been using since 1997, no lie. I have upgraded it several times and am running with a pentium III chip, 512 mb of RAM, an 80 gb hard drive and am using Windows XP as my operating system. As you can see I NEED TO UPGRADE, but I'm not too sure if I'm ready to move to a Mac. The cost to re-purchase my programs would kill me right now, and on top of that, I just installed 2 brand new programs one of which being Toon Boom Studio. Both programs were prizes from the L.A.A.F. competition, and as a safety precaution I had installed them on my external hard drive. I have yet to bring my other programs over to the external as well.
The programs I run at a constant are Flash MX 2004, Photoshop 7, Lightwave, Illustrator and soon to be added Toon Boom Studio and the other. If I was to move to a Mac, would I have to re-purchase all these programs or are there alternatives?
I appreciate any advice, suggestions, product reviews, hardware specifications or any other help YOU my fellow animators can provide.
Thank you ALL for your time, I look forward to hearing your responses.

[Hasdrubal]

Don't throw away your old machine. It may have a better sound card than the new one you will purchase. The computer companies have become shitty in the last few years about putting in good boards for sound editing work. It used to be included as standard equipment on most models but you now have to ask for it as a special item.