I think you are asking the right questions but it is hard to get a straight answer. I have been on the verge of replacing my old machine for three months now, tired of slow rendering time, but no other problems. The issue is that the video card and how much memory is just the beginning of the questions. Enjoying the dialog here. Since I buy a computer every five years and then do incremental upgrades, I want to buy a machine that can hang in there for a few years. So, would getting one with the potential of going to 16 Gigs of memory be the right choice? I never dreamed that 1 Gig would not be enough! How about the new 64 bit cpus from Intel and AMD not to mention the dual core choice. I know that fast hard drives in a raid configuration can help. So, just wishing some tech savy artist will chime and help with all the choices.