What do you heavy photo takers use as a media processing/storage solution?

I'm asking because I just ordered a Rebel XTi yesterday and know that I'll be tempted to take RAW photos up the wazoo. Unfortunately at home I only have two older Pentium 4 PC's and one Macbook (work). None of which have hard drives larger than 100GB, and my slow external LaCie backup drive is also only 160GB. I also currently have a Canon S70 7MP point and shoot and that already gives me a hard time when it comes to transferring/processing/storing photos.

Would you guys recommend investing in perhaps a larger external storage drive, or in replacing one of the PC's with a 500GB+ storage and processing beast? Keep in mind that budgetary issues should also be considered. I'm estimating to be taking probably about 1000 photos in the first month of usage. It'll probably stay at that level for at least the first 3-4 months as I get into the swing of SLR...

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

 

i would go with an external drive. What program are you thinking about using for post processing? Photoshop?

 

I have older Photoshop 6 on the PC's and Photoshop CS2 on the Mac. I have no problems transferring data around across the platforms at home, so at least that's not a worry.

 

i shoot exclusively RAW, and have multiple 500GB drives for all the files, backup twice. in the field i have a Dell X300 where i transfer my files once my 4GB cards are filled up.

 

Thanks mg, sounds like you have a very good system in play there. Multiple 500GB drives If you don't mind me asking, how many pictures do you have in your entire "collection", and when did you first start shooting digital?