I've just finished my own version of the Black Beast.  Sweeeeeeet!  Again, many thanks to the almighty Radministrator for all the incredible info found in these pages.

Q:  I'll be doing a fair amount of video editing and was wondering........

In the "Radified Partioning Stradegies" its suggested that a secondary copy of WinXP OS be placed on the system/boot drive in a separate partition "dedicated solely for video editing".   The separate physical hard drive(s) for storage and capturing makes total sense.  Its not clear to me though, why the second 'dedicated' video editing WinXP is preferable.

Is there something stupid simple I'm not getting?

Thanks.    Yes, understood about the 'clunky' nature of Win and all the background process nonsense, but was curious if there was something else inherent in the WXP/editing process that caused it to be happier working alone.  Will definately give it its very own world to live in.

Re: "What prgm are you using to edit vdo?"
I'll be running Premiere (ala Adobe video suite).  I have Final Cut Pro 4 at work but wanted to play with Win environment at home.  May switch to Avid if Adobe tics me off (I've heard it can do that).  The price was right for Premiere... so I'll give it a go.

Thanks again, Rad.  Its really a pleasure to have the 'simple' questions answered without getting flamed.
later

Re: Is that the "Pro" version of Premiere? I head it was significantly improved over the regular version. 
Yes, Premiere Pro and
Yes, I've heard the same. We'll see 

Re: "If you decide to go the Avid route, you can get a significant discount here: http://www.studica.com/products/product_detail.cfm?productid=7879      US$295. That's where all my friends get it. Everybody knows a student.   Regularly $1600"
Thanks, Rad... great site.  Actually, I work within academia and am familiar with these prices.  Avid is giving some insane deep discounts in the ed. market... generally 80% off.     The full-blown Avid Studio ( prod. software w/all major plug-ins, Mojo, Pro Tools etc.) is marked down from $7,000 (street) to around $2,700. Even so, a bit steep... I can't justify it for my home needs... but still an intense deal.

Re: "Tell me about your beast."
Not a whole lot to tell.... basically I stole your entire design...  w/ a few tangents.  I had never built a system (hands on) from the ground up.  Did a lot of research and found your specs to make the most sense. Thanks again.

Case: Lian Li PC-61 (w/slight Crazy PC mod thrown in  )
P.S.: Enermax EG475 AX SFMA
MoBo: ASUS P4C800-E-Deluxe
CPU: P4 3.2C (slight upgrade  )
RAM: Kingston HYPERX 1GB DDR (matched pair) *
System Drive: WD Raptor 74GB SATA 10,000rpm **
Storage Drive: Seagate 200GB 7200.7 Plus
Video Drive: Seagate 200GB 7200.7 SATA
DVD: Pioneer A107 (had it already)
CDRW: Plextor PX Prem. 52X
Graphics: ATI 9600XT
Capture Board: TBD
Sound: Audigy 2 (upgrade later as needed)

* corsair vs. kingston vs.  vs.  vs. vs. ......
searched and searched and searched and everyone's got a story! My head was about to explode... Went with Kingston  ???

**  All your SCSI info makes perfect sense and was very enlightening.  I've shared it with associates.  Technologically, there's no doubt in my mind that SCSI is the 'way to go' for a system drive. Unfortunately, to this day, I bolt upright in the middle of the night, plagued by recurring, horrific nightmares from the first generations of SCSI.  Decided to play w/ hi rpm SATA and see what happens.  Hey, life is short... omit stress where you can.

later...bb