Thank you, Chuck. This looks very promising - I am glad I have a weekend to digest it all.

Happy New Year.

Hi Chuck,

Many thanks for your last advice. Because, as I am sure you know well, there appear to be no ready-built machines on the market which include a firewire connection or, except for a huge price, two 1TB SSDs. I shopped around Toronto stores which offer custom built machines and came up with the attached quote (which is only valid until this coming Thursday, January 4 because it includes year-end discounts). At the risk of being seen as taking advantage of your time and kind advice, I would very much appreciate your letting me know whether you think that the machine quoted in the attached will serve my purposes.

Very many thanks in advance.

You might want to get a gold certified power supply rather than a bronze certified one.

Yes, the machine should be able to do what you need Walter. Considering all that is included the price is somewhat reasonable. If you wanted to do some upgrading (hard drives and RAM) and add a Firewire card yourself you could probably get a complete machine and do the work for much less. If you don't want to do the work then the quote is not bad.

Just for your information, I have bought the machine described in the quotation.

VERY MANY THANKS to all for your help and forbearance - I have found it invaluable.

This will therefore be the end of this correspondence.

Happy Editing Walter