Hi,
Ive been dabbling for about a year with home recording on a budget, and it's time to get serious. I have:

P4 2.66 all purpose Dell 4550
1GB RAM (max supported)
80GB HD
Deta 66 (w/Omni box)
Yamaha P120 and Evo MK461c for midi control
DAW-worthless PC speakers (halfway decent consumer-level headphones)

Sonar 5PE (just arrived)
Kontakt 1.5x
Adobe Audition 1.5
Garritan Personal Orchestra
various other VSTis, plugs, etc.

I know the above is not impressive. I'm saving for a new dedicated DAW. Since everything- except for an occasional vocal track- is going to be created/recorded internally, I'm not concerned with high-end performance in terms of mics, HW amps, acoustically treated rooms, etc., but I do want to be able to run multiple V-instruments and effects simultaneously without overloads and drop offs.

I already know that I want 64 bit architecture- mainly for the expanded memory support. But I wonder, in terms of bang for buck, about:

1) Duel core (overkill for a humble home studio?)
2) Intel vs AMD?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Michael

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EDIT: PS: 64 bit is still in beta, in terms of its universal hardware and software support, right? So I'm thinking of merely focusing for the time being on getting some nearfield monitors, and a second audio only HD, and just live with that until 64 becomes more mid-range mainstream, and (presumably) the prices come down a bit. Is this sane thinking?

Thanks.