What did the OP decide to do? Its been a month after last post.
I think I'm going to build a PC but I don't know what OS to use yet because I don't have one. I want linux on it because its free but the Vista / 7 issue is still undecided.
I was looking the Dell Zino and its nice but at the end of the day, it would be more expensive than building my own and the processor would be as fast plus a lot less room for expandability.
My current computer is fine for audio provided I'm not doing much else on it but terrible for HD video and that's what I'm interested in upgrading for.
Sorry about that. About a week after the last post, I ordered all my components to build. Around the time everything arrived, I went out of town for a week, and since I got back, I've been busy with building it, getting it situated, and with life
These are the most relevant specs:
AMD Phenom II X2 550 processor: Dual-core chip that really has 2 other disabled cores. Runs at 3.1 Ghz.
ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO motherboard: onboard AMD graphics, has optical out and HDMI out
4 GB RAM
640 GB WD Caviar Black HD
Sony Optiarc DVD burner w/ Lightscribe
I'm running Win7 and Ubuntu Studio dual-boot. This Ubuntu flavor includes various multimedia creation SW right out of the box, incl. Audacity.
All in all, it cost me around $600. I did wind up going with the Altec Lansing VS-4121 speakers from (ugh) Walmart. They're okay -- the sub is rather large, and kind of gets in the way compared to what I was used to. I think I still have about a week to return them if I wanted to go in a different direction -- but I still haven't found any other speakers I like in my price range (under $100).