CS5 is a must update so you can take advantage of the memory
I might say either the new 6 core or 4 core depending on funds ? I dont think you will see a huge difference after more and more things I see they are pretty close with the 6 core jumping ahead by it seems %10 or so ? more do to the cache on chip ?
getting a few SSD in raid 0 for scratch would be good for your larger files if and when you hit the scratch ? size wise ? not sure you can check that also in the lower left with scratch size in PS ? I would say 2 40s might be enough then set the next scratch to whatever else you might have for scratch ? that way its cheaper and quick for most things if you are hitting over that ?
scratch and SSD I have mentioned before as others ? its new who knows how long SSD last ?
otherwise get a few fast discs and short stroke them to 100 gigs and raid 0 them and use that as scratch ! use the remainder of the disc as BU
a SSD about 120 is a nice luxury and might help when the OS has to use virt memory ? its a luxury I feel but once you have one you wont want to go back to a regular for boot !
24 gigs of memory or 32 ? I would say try 24 and look at your efficiency in PS
lower right hand corner or up in the info area for those curious about this google it

will answer it better than I can but if you are below %90 - %95 more ram up it to 32
now the one thing to know if you do the raid 0 scratch and a single SSD you are maxing out the bus speed ! meaning you are not getting full speed if you use those 3 cards at the same time and any other drives you have internally will suffer ! so a card like the newtek for $49 at
www.macsales.com would do well
their was another thread on this and thanks nanofrog to remind me of these cards
this is the thing about SSD ! they are fast so some other small things have to change