The new Dell Studio XPS is fast. It's really fast. Really, really fast. The new Intel Core i7 platform works very well and should be a solid foundation from which to build here on out. Having said that, however, there are a few issues that could be addressed. Given the speed of the processor and discrete graphics, this system begs for a very fast storage solution. I'd really recommend going with a RAID 0 configuration and a huge tertiary drive for storage.