Thanks all. jasperfdo, thanks for the accessible info- it really helped. I may be getting a new system -Dell T5400- and want to do things right. Since I'm an amateur at this hardware compatibility stuff I'm going to just talk to a Dell rep and maybe refer them to the avid spec page for that computer. The only thing I'm unsure about is do I need an Avid qualified connection for my videoraid scsi or can I just get whatever Dell has? Thanks to all and any tips when I order this new system?

no problem mike.

on that new system...even the Dell rep isn't going to have all the answers on compatibility.  for example: the system board in a Dell might have a different chipset than the system board in a qualified HP....and technically it could cause some weird problem in some part of Avid.

it doesn't mean HP is better...i'd rather have Dell than HP, but the caveot is that you know all the hardware, all the drivers, etc. in an approved HP are going to work because they have been tested with Avid.  And if they don't Avid will scramble to create a fix it for everyone.  not so with an unsupported Dell.

at any rate, get the best nVidia card you can afford as the GPU on those things is used by Avid.  if you are doing HD get a 512MB card minimum.  if you are doing vista 64 (i would) get minimum 4GB RAM.  again, if doing HD make sure you have enough I/O bandwidth.  the more drives the better as each "arm" serving data up in an array means better I/O throughput.

gotta run...hope that helps.