I have a three month old 2.4 intel, a crucial 128mb graphics card, 1024mb ram and an Epox motherboard/works wonderful for image rendering, still takes a long time for high-resolution animation (w/Carrara). My last machine was a AMD 1600/512mb ram and a high end graphics card...The AMD worked fine also but was very noisy compared to the Intel. also go with Windows XP its a lot more stable than ME or 98.. I think Windows 2000 is very stable but has limits on graphics/graphic cards (I have not done 3D on 2000). I have used Gateway, Dell and I put together my current PC piece by piece. Its alot more expensive than buying from a Dell, but you get what you want. Hope this was some help