well, everyone has an opinion, so heres mine.....thers no computer in the world like a custom built one. I build my own (other than the few i pick up here and there). I tend to stay away from proprietary machines. In my opinion, the best processor for image rendering is and AMD Athalon. I run an Athalon 850 right now. My video card (sadly not made anymore) is a Voodoo 3 5000. I also have an ATI Radeon in my other working computer, and I like it as well. When it comes to memory, MAX IT OUT!!!! lol. as cheap as RAM is now, get as much as you can before prices shoot up. As far as OS's, i wouldnt use winME if someone gave it to me and paid me by the hour. I will stick with win98 til linux supports all the art programs I use. Shuttle makes really good motherboards, and either Western Digital or Seagate would be my reccommended hard drives. Hope I have helped ya on your quest for what we all search for....the perfect machine....