Big difference is the harddisk, also. Using 2.8 intel (mb also - dont try shuttle as even though you can overclock - is worthless if you need to "count on" your computer to work) with 1g mem, vir mem set to 4096 min and 4096 max and has it's own harddrive with no other programs that run on it that has to do with 3d (currently use p4,p5,bryce,carrera2,autocad2k).

A dual monitor is wonderful; I have my 17" where I keep the hierarchy, properties and animation windows open so I have the 20" main window to do my "views" of characters.

My illustrator, photoshop, flash, director, psp (7 & 8 (8 I use with uvmapper pro)), etc. are screamin' but again - I have a seperate harddrive dedicated to handle all my graphic/movie/music stuff (a little coordination effort on my part).

I upgraded my main video card with agi ati atlantis pro (think mem is 128 (2nd montitor currently using pci matrix graphics MM - dont recommend)) but really didnt notice any difference except when i do movies but it does support 2 monitors on one card. Even with first release of P5, I did not have any problems with this configuration.

I use my old 1.8 with 512meg for Office stuff. Also, if you can get a deal on xpPro instead of xpHome - you will have a lot better os. But if you have old version of mimic (1) or dance studio or old games - you cannot run on ntsf disk format.

If you are using/attempting to use P5 - would suggest another disk that stores multiple runtimes (ie: people runtime directory, toons/animals runtime directory, etc) for your characters/actors. Mine brings up the different directories rapidly when I switch runtimes.

I have bought approximately 20+ computers for clients and myself from: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/ and not had any great problems from clients or with my own (have 4 of them running since p3 450 currently on my home network).

Guess that is all I can think of for now....

Good luck!