I don't know much about hardware, i just buy a new computer and go on faith, but for software to be used for mapmaking I'd reccommend Photoshop or Gimp. Gimp is like a much simpler and free version of Photoshop that can be download, don't know where to download it from but I'm sure someone would be along soon to point you in the right directions. Though if you can get a copy of Photoshop than its simple just to stick with that, it offers alot once you get the hang of it; CS3 and/or CS4 seem to be the better versions.

I'm not an expert in any way but that's what I know. Someone else will undoubtedly come along with sime better advice but I hope that helps for starters.

-D-