Me wrote:
On 23/11/2012 4:33 a.m., PeterN wrote:

[D800 file size and processing]

I process them easily on a three year old quad core i7, with 8 gig of
RAM. It takes a lot longer for Bridge to assemble the viewing
information, than the time for my D300 files. I anticipate even longer
times when I start shooting 14 bit color depth.

FWIW, this is resource monitor screenshot using the (cheap - probably
about US$6-700 in the US?) laptop with 3612QM cpu, opening a 14 bit
D800E lossless compressed raw file, then rotating (levelling tool), then
applying some colour control points, applying some d-lighting (high
quality), then some USM, then some noise reduction (high quality), then
saving again as an *.nef file and closing Capture NX.
http://i50.tinypic.com/qoxaw2.png

Says little, except that the app makes use of additional CPUs.

Now, do the same with a D300 or similar file and then we
can compare.

CPU speed is the "bottleneck", and if that isn't
adequate, more RAM, faster (ie SSD) drive, or physically separate HD for
the NX cache isn't likely to make much difference.

I don't know if CaptureNX can handle a GPU, but that would be
the obvious next step.

-Wolfgang