Better monitor or better computer

Hey all -

Im going to be building a new system in the coming weeks and I thought I would ask for some advice. My usage is primarily basic daily use and lightroom / photoshop, and gaming is less than 5% of use.

I am leaning toward building a lesser computer (budget of around 800-1000) to spend more on a monitor. My thoughts is that by going with a 30" display with higher resolutions of 2560x1600 instead of the 1900x1200 I'd be future proofing myself better than if I put the extra dollars into the machine. I say this knowing since I dont game much I wont need to be worrying about frame rate - I am more concerned about RAM and quickly handling libraries of large RAW image files.

Does anyone have any opinions on the matter? I am unsure if a computer of lesser power can handle those resolutions, and if thats the case, then I'd rather just get a smaller monitor. Would a 1 gig 4870 be enough for this?

The monitors Im considering are the dell ultrasharp 30" and the apple cinedisplay 30". If I went with the 24" then i'd go with something like the HP 24".

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspag [...] 6470439175
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspag [...] 5365050811
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspag [...] 8438413340

Sorry if this post is not very coherent, and thanks for the help

Cheers!

I also vote the monitor, but I do not recommend you get an Apple display, unless you want to blow your budget to smithereens. Most modern GPUs have limits of 2560x1600, so you're fine in that regard.

I would get the 30inch monitor. I want samsungs 305T personally but I would go with the dell between your two suggestions due to cost/performance reasons.

I'd go with the Dell Ultrasharp over the Apple - it has a faster response time, a larger color gamut, and has the same panel tech (S-IPS).