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Looking at the HP packages to expand my search, if I stick with a PC...

What's better for photo / video work, or does it make a fuckin' difference?

SATA or RAID

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Hey Eric, what is happening.
Be careful here. You are a PRO video guy and Mac and Final Cut are the industry STANDARD I am not going to burden you with the laundry list of reasons as to why this is the case.
(compatibility, dependability, so on and so on) Being a pro you would be far better off picking up a mac in the resale market than you would by trying to save money by going windows and then having to make the jump all over again. In order for anyone to be able to re-work your footage it will have to have been cut in the proper programs, plus believe me if you want to jump into the editing pool, you would be better off doing what everyone else is doing as well.
Sata over raid cost a bit more but if you lose one drive in a raid combo YOU LOSE ALL YOUR FOOTAGE!!!!
Macs are better for editing because the pipelines for data are arranged in such a way as to maximize the hardware's ability to handle the data... Ask anyone who ever cut video about how important render times and cross-compatibility is and buy yourself the right equipment....
An old mac g-4 is better at cutting video than any new windows box