thank wolf...we're in the process of collecting parts for our computer -- for now it'll be used for home stuff and bits of video editing -- like moving VHS to DVD, and creating DVDs to send to friends and family of our little ones. in the near future though we want to do more heavy duty video editing -- hubby used to video tape weddings and would like to get back into that, so that's our end goal for this machine. we're looking for deals and rebates and have already saved about 40% off of the normal prices online using rebates! here's what our computer will look like and we're planning to get a 500W PSU.
Chieftec Matrix Series Earth Green ATX Mid-Tower Case with Front USB and FireWire
2 -_Seagate 200GB / 7200 / 8MB / ATA-100 EIDE Hard Drive
_Hard drive
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BenQ DVD Burner / 4x4x12x DVD+RW / 16x10x32x CD-RW / White Box DVD burner (we'll probably get a better one later on, but it was only $39)
_Mercury PCTel 56K PCI FaxModem
_GIGABYTE "GA-8IK1100" i875P Chipset Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU -RETAIL
Intel P4 3.2E GHz 800 MHz FSB, 1MB L2 Cache, Hyperthreading (retail w/ heatsink, fan and 3yr MF Warranty)
Crucial, 512MB DDR PC3200
ATI Radeon 9600XT (or maybe 9800Pro) 128 MB DDR, TV-Out, DVI
YE Data USB 2.0 All-In-One Internal Floppy Drive (or similar)
Windows XP Professional
19" or 21" CRT Flat Screen Monitor (or similar)
500 Watt, Dual Fan PSU
Toshiba 16x DVD Rom
WinTV PVR-350
MS Office Professional 2003
Wireless Keyboard & Mouse
I'm still researching stuff, and things may change!
anyway ~ thanks for your help! i appreciate it