hi again, thanks for all of your help thus far. I am using a SONY SR8 and its a HDD, avchd format of course. Even when writting this message, i have pinnacle open in the background, and my project loaded up, the switching between windows is very laggy.... would that mean its a video card issue ?   

hi all,  I purchased a new computer as I wanted to edit my hi def movies.  My old computer would NOT do a thing witht he new bigger files.  ok, so i bought a new computer HPdual core 2.66 ghz4 gigs of RAMGFORCE 8800 video card with 512 mb ram  now i am editing my video... its not nearly ideal, but i can get through ...