Graphic-related hardware problems in this system

System specification
Intel Pentium D 'Dual Core X2' CPU (5.3 Ghz)
VIA Chipset 1066 Mhz Motherboard - slots available: AGP8x (1), PCI (3), RAM (2); ports available: LAN (1), USB (6)
512 MB RAM
80 GB HDD (SATA300)
18X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer & Dual Format
onboard UniChrome PRO 3D Graphics with 64 MB shared memory
mouse and keyboard
15" flat screen
cheap inkjet printer

Monitor
15" monitors aren't good enough for graphics nowadays as they usually have a very low standard screen resolution (800x600 pixels) and to effectivly create graphics you need a much higher resolution screen, the more pixels you can see at one time the more detail you can put in images. 19" is a recommended size but 17" is just about enough for what its needed.

My recommendation for this product is a LG W1952TQ 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor. Its Description is below:
£109.99ex VAT
£129.24 inc VAT
Viewable Area: 19” Widescreen (1440x900 Resolution)
- Interface: Analog / Digital
- Response Time: 2ms
- 16.7M Colours
- Contrast Ratio: 10,000:1
- Viewing Angle (H/V): 170°/ 170° (TN Panel)
- Brightness: 300cd/m2
- Supplied with DVI Cable
- ez Zooming, Adjust resolution by one level with a touch of a button.
- 4:3 in Wide (Aspect Ratio Control), Enjoy original 4:3 images with LG Wide Monitor!, With 4:3 in Wide(ARC) Function, No more distored image!
- Wide Color Gamut(WCG 100%)
- 3 Years On-Site Warranty with LG, contact them on 0870 872 7888 or email at ukmonitor@lge.com
These features are perfect to create and edit images effectivley for a low price. although there are better machines available for much more money, i believe this LG monior has the right blend of features and value for money.

Graphics Card
The onboard graphics aren't close to whats needed to create good, high quality graphics, theres no need to go over the top as its not for playing games, just creating graphics, although you do need it good enough to view very high definition pictures and needs to support a good monitor

My recommendation for this product is a Asus GeForce EN8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 Graphics card. Its Description is below:
£89.99ex VAT
£105.74 inc VAT
- GeForce 8800 GT core running at 600MHz
- Shader Clock Speed of 1500MHz
- 512MB GDDR3 Memory running at 1800MHz
- Glacier uprated cooling solution (Quieter and Superior to reference cooler)
- 256-Bit Memory Interface
- 112 Stream Processors
- Shader Model 4.0
- Memory Bandwidth: 57.6GB/s
- Designed For Extreme HD Gaming
- Nvidia Pure Video Technology
- Dedicated Video processors free the GPU Shaders to run 3D applications
- Dual dual-link DVI supports two 2560 x 1600 resolution displays
- HDCP Enabled!!
- SLI ready – Upto 2x the performance of a single GPU (Available on with future driver release)
- True High Dynamic Range Rendering Support – Based on Open EXR technology
- World's first unified architecture supporting Microsoft® DirectX® 10
- Built for Microsoft® Windows® Vista™

These features are more than enough to cope with anything you can throw at it graphically, its more than capable of running everything you'll need but its not too expensive that its not financially viable to buy it.

Both of the proposed system upgrades can be found on www.overclockers.co.uk