I have a n00b Q. I am building some new computers. I did some preliminary research, but not enough to draw a conclusion. If I was interested in building a computer dedicated to playing backing tracks and recording, what should my specs look like for a non-MAC based format:

CPU
RAM
sound card
monitors

the thought is to locate this in a guest bedroom that is spaced challenged.

I ask as I have 3 barebones sitting here. 1 will replace my main, the 2nd will be dedicated to serving music on demand throughout the house (900+ cds in a lossless format). The last one is the Q.

I need to rework my daughters computer (a 1 GHz Athlon that is video challenged). I need to better understand what the processing need is for a music recording box so I can make a determination which box should be where (the new box is a 3 Ghz all the latest job. The MB in my daughters box limits video capability as it is only 2.0 AGP compliant.)

Also (but then again I presume this is based upon how much you off load to disk), would 500GB mirrored be sufficient for a recording box? Later I will ask more important Qs such as sound card, monitors, mikes, interface, etc).

Right now just trying to get a handle on where the 3rd box (new bare bones) should be allocated to.

Thanks for your patience.