Hey guys,

My boss (the wife) has given me permission to buy a new PC. I don't really want to build one - I'll just take the easy option and buy from Dell. Anyway, I was hoping to list what I'd like to use it for, and perhaps someone could tell me if the hardware specs I have are a good match, or if I could approve the muscle in some department.

Anyway, the most CPU/Memory intensive stuff I'll be doing is to make my own movies - I ran Adobe Premier on my old Inspiron notebook, but it was helluva slow. I don't have a HD camera yet, but I'd like a PC with enough muscle to handle it a couple of years down the line. I'd also like to hook up my PC to my TV (a 60" Sony HDTV) - I'd like to download HDTV shows, movies online, etc. I don't know if there are any issues with the video card and it's ability to ouput HD?

Anyway, here's the spec on my Dell Inspiron 531 @ $1149.

My Components
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 5000+
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium
22 inch E228WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel
2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
320GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
16x DVD+/-RW Drive
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT-DDR3
Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeGamer (D) Sound Card
Dell USB Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse
No Floppy Drive Included
56K PCI Data Fax Modem

My budget is anything up to ~$1700.


Is this thing up tot he task - how could I improve it?

Thanks,
LeePR

Id up the CPU a little, maybe even look into a C2D as they are quicker ATM in higher priced versions.

You dont mention gaming? if you arent this rig would be fine, if you are looking at gaming a little also id go with an 8800gts to give you more of a boost.

Contrats on the boss agreeing i know mine doesnt do that very often.