Here is what I use:
WinXP, Asus A8N32 SLI Delx Mobo, AMD2.2 (OC) Ghz Opteron 2X32bit-w/ 1 Meg L2 cache, 2G Kingston Prem.RAM (low lat, 440 DDR2), NVIDIA GeForce 6600 PCIe(512mb), Pioneer DVR-710 DVD, Realtek AC97 Aud., 3xHD SATA 16mb 7200, AL7.1 3494/3581, 2×20″Samsung204t
However, what is key to a successful system is using a dual boot system… Keeping your editing software (ONLY) on a seperate physical drive (not partition). Also, using a seperate physical drive for your rendering is a very BIG plus.
One thing I might also note… I don’t use Adobe’s Final Cut for editing… I use Avid Liquid… it seems to be more powerful (i.e., more plug-ins available) and more forgiving with importing the various video file codecs… which makes my work flow much less problematic. But… mostly… the autosave is unbelievable. You CAN NEVER LOOSE your work (…well, except for the last 1/100th of a second of your project… well… maybe not 1/100th of a second… but it is some unreal short period of time that is less than a second). Of course, the downside to autosave is that you can’t turn it off for instance where you would rather not save the project… such as when your experimenting.
The only upgrades I will be making soon is the Graphics Card and a faster processer chip… I am preparing to move up to HD editing.
Joe Moya