I know this is a long post, but if you think you can help, or already have this sort of set up, at least just post your specs or a website. Thanks.

Here's the deal, I'm looking to build a box that will be used for some fairly heavy-duty audio editing (8 tracks, 60 minute files). Some video editing will be done as well, but I think I know what to do as far as thats concerned.
I'd like to go the Windows route if possible, mainly due to the high cost of Macs, and since I will be able to get the software much cheaper for win.

I'm really not sure as to what I need though, in terms of sound card. I'm guessing (hoping?) a SB Audigy isn't the solution... Not to knock it, but I don't think it's much of a high end audio-editing card. Can anyone steer me in the right direction? Brand? Models even? Cost isn't that much an issue, but I probly won't be able to spend $500 or whatever on the audio card alone...Maybe more in the $200 range? Is that enough? What will I need for this? Or should I just get a good firewire card and get some kind of external audio input device?

Also, would this type of system benefit from Dual processors? I'll be using programs like Pro Tools. Not sure if it takes advantage of duallys or if there are audio editing programs that do.

I'm thinking of a gig of RAM, not sure if I'm gonna go Athlon/DDR, or P4/DDR or P4/RDRAM. Any hints as to which will be better? (Not looking for a flame war, I am looking for actual facts as to which processor will be more useful for my specific application) Do any of these editing programs use SSE2? or anything like that? I'm kinda leaning towards the P4/RDRAM route, for maximum memory bandwidth. Also, there will be NO OVERCLOCKING!!! Please don't post and tell me to get a whatever and oc it to 300000MHZ. I'm also leaning towards Pentium for the quietness of the hsf...Since this machine will be used for audio editing, noisy fans will be HIGHLY distracting. I'll probly be able to choose out my own motherboard once platform is chosen.

Now for disk drives. I'm definitely going IDE, cuz SCSI is way too expensive, plus the difference these days isn't that great. I am thinking about a RAID array for speed. Maybe 2 40gig or 60gig drives? Another possibility was a small drive for just the OS and stuff like Office and all, and then a HUGE 2nd drive for audio/video files. Any suggestions?

As a final note, I'm not going to be building this right away, I'm just trying to get a general price estimate, and see what components I need to think about getting.

Thanks for reading my long post, and thanks for any help.