Thank you Jon for all that information. photoshop 5 is my favorite on almost everything still but also have a Wacom tablet that came with the greatest paint program I have ever used, Coral Painter Classic. The closest thing to painting and drawing with real materials.
You answered my questions on windows XP and the video card. I have been eyeing the HPs and Comaques 2.5 Ghz all come with USB 2s now but only the Home Edition of XP which may be sufficient. I may just buy a separate DVD RW because I dont like those package deals with the cheap printers.
I'll look into the Radeon 8500 and the Ulead Video Studio 6.
thanks again for your help Jon,
Barb