How do I know what I should buy?

How do I know what the specs on the new computer I am going to buy.... should be?

Do I need a pentium 4 with a 3.0+ gig processor 2 gigs of ram ddr or whatever?

I need a new computer.

I have been working on the web for over 14 years and all my pages have been static html pages promoting affiliate programs for commissions.

Now I want to get into more involved operations I want to create sites with interactive video services and other forms of live communication.

I don't know about hard ware and operating systems and to be honest the lack of knowledge worries me all the time.

So... What do you reccomend. How much computer do I need? What should I buy?

I want to edit and process video/flash and develop highly interactive websites with it.

I work onilne about 16 hours per day average. You know some more some less.

I know about marketing. I know about my products. But I only know vocabulary about hardware and operating systems.

I currently rely on msoffice products and macromedia products to earn a living so.. the new system must be friendly with these products.

php, mysql, video / audio broadcasting (webcasting?), dynamic website development online are some of the things I am getting into.

Do I need a dual processor with a raid?

I currently use 2 desktops and a laptop. One of my desktops has been upgraded and repaired so many times I could have bought the new system 3 times by now. It is in such bad condition from being overworked I disconnected it a couple days ago and am now using my laptop a lot more than just when travelling away from the home/office. I don't like that because I don't trust laptops as far as I can reach them.

I would like to buy 3 new desktop systems

#1 I want to use for communication with affiliates, associates, friends, family etc.... Personal and business communication. email, messenger chat, webcam etc.....

#2 I want to use for website development and publishing. Including graphic, image and video manipulation. Lots of hard driive space. Lots!

#3 I want to use for broadcasting live and pre-recorded video/audio.

What should I buy?

Hmm, I think a pc with a new AMD processor (maybe an Opteron) and 2 Gb ram would be fine.

Regarding the HD I would prefer to have both RAID 0 and 1 and this can be done with 3 HD. 2 of equal quantity and one that has double (eg 2 x 160GB + 1 x 320 Gb)

This way you will have both integrity and speed.

Now about the graphics card you will need a new model of GEForce. I can't say which one, as I am not really familliar with that market (still have a GeForce 64 in my pc :) )

why 3 computers? I can see why you would a dedicated rig to broadcast video/audio but for e-mail and messenger you wont need much, so just do 1 and 2 on the same PC...

Well I get about 20-30 messenger chats a day from clients and over 200 emails daily from clients all over the world. Plus about 300 spammails daily. Plus I would like to run a voip phone number on the machine via vonage.

I want to be able to work while I chat with the least amount of disturbance as possible.

Money is not a problem as far as being able to pay. I prefer to not pay more than I have to, to get what I want and get my money worth.

My question is I don't know how much processor is enough and how much is over kill. How much ram I can use and how much is not required to do what I am doing.

I want to be as fast as I can butt I don't want fluff, bells, whistles.