Thanks for your response GTWCMT, but herein lies the problem: I am not a professional (or even semi-pro) editor. I have two kids, a full-time job and many other activities competing for my time. If I am lucky I might be able to dedicate 4 or 5 hours a week to editing videos.

As far as what I edit -- it is pretty much entirely home video shot on DV tapes, approximately 20 hours each year that I distill down to about an hour or two.

I really enjoy the editing, but in addition to having little time, I also don't have a huge amount of cash to dedicate to the hobby. Perhaps another thousand above the system I spec'd, including the software. Obviously, the system you recommend would require way more expenditure than that.

So, am I stuck using Pinnacle Studio on a pretty low end machine? And if so, will th system i spec'd above help me with that or should I just buy a cheap off-the-shelf alternative and expect pretty much the same results?

Again, input is welcome. Thanks in advance.