If I want to watch HD video online (youtube, Hulu, Netflix, QT Trailers, etc.) what is the most important system component? RAM? Vid Card?

I don't expect mine to be your end all answer, but here's a few things tips If you can, run cable. Wifi is great: for surfing the net. For media intensive applications its "flaky-ness" is a hassle.

Wifi is great in principle, but a dropped connection at the wrong time is VERY annoying, especially in the middle of a great action sequence. For HD video, I've found that processor and video card to be my most important aspects. I had a gateway Athlon 3500+ single core with only 1GB of ram and a Radeon X1600 video and I was getting quite a bit of video stuttering on online video.

Bump up the same maching to a X2 (dual core) 3800+ and another gig of ram with the same video card and it's smooth as butter. *******important********* the above is referring to online streaming video, if you're gonna put that connection in your living room anyways, get a TV tuner card, but if you're going low end, make sure the card is a hardware encoder. PVR 150 and up are good cards, but if you want HD they sell those too at significantly more.

I don't expect mine to be your end all answer, but here's a few things tips If you can, run cable. Wifi is great: for surfing the net. For media intensive applications its "flaky-ness" is a hassle.

Wifi is great in principle, but a dropped connection at the wrong time is VERY annoying, especially in the middle of a great action sequence. For HD video, I've found that processor and video card to be my most important aspects. I had a gateway Athlon 3500+ single core with only 1GB of ram and a Radeon X1600 video and I was getting quite a bit of video stuttering on online video.

Bump up the same maching to a X2 (dual core) 3800+ and another gig of ram with the same video card and it's smooth as butter. *******important********* the above is referring to online streaming video, if you're gonna put that connection in your living room anyways, get a TV tuner card, but if you're going low end, make sure the card is a hardware encoder. PVR 150 and up are good cards, but if you want HD they sell those too at significantly more...

Ram and Video card (with current drivers) and the latest version of Flash and a good fast internet connection. There is a great podcast on setting up a home media streaming server at the link.

In my opinion, WiFi is fine. It transfers at a rate far above the source connection (usually) so it should have the video buffered and not result in choppy video. Still, a physical cable or something is always preferred.

For the CPU, it should be at least a Core 2 Duo. They're not too expensive anymore. For the RAM, 2GB is pretty standard and it would be fine.

More is always better. Always. The video card is very important.It should be at least a GeForce 9500 GT which is pretty inexpensive and pretty good.

In general, Mac OS X runs more efficiently than does Windows (XP or Vista) so RAM requirements would need to be a little higher for Windows, but really it's pretty much the same across the board. If you can get a system with the above specs, HD video should be no problem and inexpensive. If you could one-up any of the specs, go for it.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.