PocketMatrix

256MB DDR SDRAM PC2700 or PC2100 Dual Channel
Pentium4 1.8GHz
60GB ATA100 IDE HDD

That is what I'd recommend as minimum. I'd suggest doubling the amount of RAM and a 2.53GHz P4 Processor, and a much larger hdd, depending on the amount of movies you download or want to encode.

Dude, for making movies, I'd say you have to have at least 512MB of RAM. I have 768. When I had only 256MB, the output video on some programs was choppy when the video was big! Sure, if you use the right program that won't happen, but...

I have 768MB PC2700 DDR RAM and an Athlon XP 2100+ (used to be 1800+, I overclocked). One of these days I'll get another 1800+ and mod both of them to be Athlon MP processors. I have a dual CPU mboard that's good for overclocking, at least as far as dual CPU boards go...

What are you saying? When I bought my PC, it was the second best out there, with 128SD PC100 RAM. I still use it, and I can encode movies with my P2 400 with a ati all in wonder card and 10 gigs of juice. 256 IS a lot, unless you are really a gamer or you want a super fast PC.

256 DDR or RD is alright
512 SD RAM is alright

How much $$$ are you gonna spend?

256MB is nothing. WinXP REQUIRES that much. The more memory you have the smaller your page file will be and thus the less XP will have to use your hard drive as virtual memory. You can have 0 RAM for all I and Windows care, it just uses your HD, but that is exactly what we DON'T want to happen, because the fastest HD is hundreds of times slower than RAM. And if data is stored in RAM then it can be sent DIRECTLY to whatever needs it, instead of data on the hard drive that has to be read into the HD cache, then out the bus to the bridge then stored into the RAM or CPU cache, and then finally to whatever requested that data, such as your graphics card or network interface card. This page file on the hard drive is particularly deadly when we're writing data at the same time as it's being read, in which case the HD's small 2 to 8MB cache is the only thing that's storing the data. The HD will wear itself out in no time going back and forth across the disk, slowing down, speeding up, extending, repositioning. An endless waltz of magnetic fields and spindles in which the slightest variation could mean trajedy, and the more it's being used the greater the chance of such a thing occuring becomes.

Or you could buy your own RAM. 256MBs of DDR SDRAM is $64.

I'd say processor speed is far more important when encoding movies than the amount of RAM.
It's the CPU that's loaded when you encode since it has to calculate all that stuff.

This is true, but processor cost increases exponentially, and thus more RAM is a much more cost effective way to increase performance. And RAM DOES increase performance a GREAT DEAL. The difference between 2.4GHz and 2.8GHz is not worth the $400 extra, whereas the difference between 512MB and 1024MB is very much worth the $112.