Best hardware for Premiere Pro?

[redlester]

I'm recently started on all this editing/DVD creating stuff and am using Premiere Pro for capturing & editing

My hardware is a Soltek motherboard with AMD Barton 2500XP processor & 512MB RAM. My HD for video use is a 75GB non-SATA. (I have a seperate 45GB C: drive). I'm noticing that my PC copes pretty well in general but at times after working for a while on something it tends to slow down noticably and there is an awful lot of hard disc activity going on, even when I'm not doing anything. Also the preview screen in Premiere can get very jerky when viewing any clips with effects added, etc.

I intend to upgrade to a SATA setup at some point but I'm wondering what processor is best suited to this kind of work. Should I go for a P4 instead of an AMD? Would I notice any difference in practice? What about dual processor systems - is that going too far given that I'm just dabbling, not a professional, and on a modest budget...

[x21x]

I just got an ASUSp4 800ed with P4 3.2 ghz 1g ddram, and it runs premiere pro smoothly. I have noticed though that premiere saves preview(i think) files that takes gigs of space on my HD. While it does this my computer slows down a bit. Also premiere recomends 1g of RAM. On the AMD vs. INtel question, I would go with the INtel since it supports HT and have read of less problems from profesional video editors, nevertheless I have also heard the same from AMD. . Its your choice really.