The best advice I can give you is to look at the minimum/maximum system requirements for whatever artistic software it is that you want to install and use and base your buying decision on that [ideally, your machine should meet, or exceed, the maximum performance specs of the program(s) in question]. I mainly use GIMP, Irfanview, MGI Photosuite, and Microsoft Paint programs when I make or edit artwork/photos, none of which require a ton of horsepower (although GIMP can be kind of slow sometimes, depending on the size/complexity of what I'm doing).