Get a second HD and set them up in a RAID (either software of hardware). Video not only consumes alot of space, but takes alot of bandwidth. I consider HD performance to be very important. Seagate is a great company with a great product line as you seem to already know. You should be fine with a xp3000+. I suggest you look arround the motherboard forums for people having problems with that particular ASUS. I have a friend who bought a NForce2 based ASUS that turned out to be a really bad product even though ASUS is a good company. As far as ram goes, if this computer is going to be built for the sole purpose of making video you might as well get 1 gig. It'll help out almost as much as having the memory bandwidth especially when processing complex video and audio effects. You'll probably want two case fans, but harddrive fans aren't needed. GL and I hope your son enjoys his new computer!