Id deffinately go for a p4. If you can afford it, get the 3.06 or above, becuase it has a virtual cpu that can come in handy for freeing up system resorces. Id recomend at least 512 DDR, but personally id get 1024 DDR, and match the speed to the cpu's FSB. Whack this all on a asus motherboard with an m-audio sound card and a decent nvidea gfx card. Get 2 fast hdd's, and if your using the pc for anything other than music, partition the first one and have 2 windows on it,(1 for music, 1 for everything else)