I'm not really certain what the question is... How to work with large files?

You need as much RAM as a machine can hold and you can afford. 3GB is scraping the bottom anymore. Especially for large files.

A 64Bit operating system and Photoshop running under 64bit helps.

A separate drive (not partition) to use for scratch space will also help speeds.

A good video card with 1GB of RAM on it. Photoshop utilizes the GPU a great deal anymore.

"Professionals" tend to immediately add RAM to almost every system. An adequate minimum would be about 4GB anymore, but even that can quickly be chewed up.

I'm not really certain what the question is... How to work with large files?

You need as much RAM as a machine can hold and you can afford. 3GB is scraping the bottom anymore. Especially for large files.

A 64Bit operating system and Photoshop running under 64bit helps.

A separate drive (not partition) to use for scratch space will also help speeds.

A good video card with 1GB of RAM on it. Photoshop utilizes the GPU a great deal anymore.

"Professionals" tend to immediately add RAM to almost every system. An adequate minimum would be about 4GB anymore, but even that can quickly be chewed up.

Faster processors and multiple processors also help quite a bit. Generally professionals aren't buying the low-end model of any computer. If anything, more professionals buy the high-end models, especially if they are working on print, flexo, or media other than, or in addition to, web and screen delivery.

I'm not really certain what the question is... How to work with large files?

You need as much RAM as a machine can hold and you can afford. 3GB is scrapping the bottom anymore. Especially for large files.

A 64Bit operating system and Photoshop running under 64bit helps.

A separate drive (not partition) to use for scratch space will also help speeds.

A good video card with 1GB of RAM on it. Photoshop utilizes the GPU a great deal anymore.

"Professionals" tend to immediately add RAM to almost every system. An adequate minimum would be about 4GB anymore, but even that can quickly be chewed up.

I'm not really certain what the question is... How to work with large files?

You need as much RAM as a machine can hold and you can afford. 3GB is scraping the bottom anymore. Especially for large files.

A 64Bit operating system and Photoshop running under 64bit helps.

A separate drive (not partition) to use for scratch space will also help speeds.

A good video card with 1GB of RAM on it. Photoshop utilizes the GPU a great deal anymore.

"Professionals" tend to immediately add RAM to almost every system. An adequate minimum would be about 4GB anymore, but even that can quickly be chewed up.