im using a hewlett packard right now and i want a lightning fast computer

i use basically

AIM
Internet Explorer
Downloading Music and video's
Word Processing
Sometimes games (old games like starcraft, nothing new)

What computer is really fast and affordable?

Buy more RAM

exactlywhatthe guy aboveme said. you probably hyave at leats 256mb of ram. if your wanting a new computer and want a new one thats fster. just keep this one and upgrade the ram to about 1 gig if you want really fast

buy two 526 MB RAM and install them in your computer...

1 GB will make u proud..

wots ur spec
post it then it will be much easier to help you

What would you consider "affordable"?
By "lightning fast" do you mean P4 4Ghz or just faster than your current pc?

It's funny, I know pratically nothing about the hardware side of computers.

When you buy a computer, the top of the range is always the best.
Pentium 4 3+Ghz and just 526 meg of ram will do. Adding some more is overkill.
But your PC is useless junk if your internet connection was only 56k

dont u mean 512Mb ram?? anways, there is no need to buy a new PC if ur current one wiv sum cheap upgrades can still cut the mustard so to speak.

Yep !
You don't really need to buy the fastest computer.
All you have might be good enough if you have a Broadband connection.
Fast computers are only use on video editing.
You know, if your computer was slow and you are capturing frames on your
video capture card, you are losing a lot of frames (it drops frames) because it was slow. On NTSC you have to capture 30 frames/sec. On PAL 25 frames/sec.
If you loose frames then your video is not too good.
But anyway, just add one more RAM on your pc and that's alright.
I think there's always two slot where you can place your RAM so you don't have to remove the one in there. If you place another one on that empty slot then you have 2 RAMS.

For what you need, the specs I give below should be "Lightning fast" and affordable. You don't need a 3ghz for what you use the computer for. Note: These prices are "average"

Processor: Pentium 4 2.4 ghz or AMD Athlon 2400+ ($70)
RAM: 256MB DDR PC3200 RAM ($30)
Hard Drive: 60gb ($50)
Video Card: Nvidia Gforce 4 MX ($20)
Sound Card: 6 Channel PCI ($15)
Case & Power Supply & Motherboard: ($100)
Mouse: Optical Mouse ($15)
Keyboard: Media Keyboard ($20)

For this home made PC or this equipment in a prebuilt, you're grand total is:
$320 Home Made
$350+ Prebuilt

For what you do, this PC will be your god, and save you money.

That was fast enough if he's not scared assembling it.

if u REALLY need a new pc, look around for pc mags and the internet for ideas in what u want

Lightning fast computers are not only for video editing. THey are also for lovely beautiful games. you want a good computer if you wanna play doom 3 kotor 2 or half life 2 without any jaggies or frame skipping.Thats why you want lots of ram and a good video cars. preferably a nvidia.

Ati is generally quicker but has crappy drivers, so nvidia is a good choice for a more stable machine. tho my card is Geforce FX 5700 not the best

[fixed quote]

Here are sum general guidelines that will help you decide what you really need.

For business apps-M$ office and such-Intel Processors are the best. They include some M$ coding in the processor itself that lets it run the apps faster.

For gaming, AMD athlon processors are the best.

A lot of difference can be seen in what chipset the motherboard you choose has as well as if it has single or dual memmory controllers.

1 Gig of ram is the best price/performance point.

A fast harddrive will only help booting, changing levels in games and saving/storing information on the drive.

If you are a "hardcore gamer-a fast vid vard is necessary- else a good midrange one is fine (what monitory do you have? What resolution do you use/want to use?

Yeah dude.

If you want the best possible help (and the cheapest solutions), post specs.

Otherwise , for what you're doing, sounds like ram would be the big issue, unless your processor is just crappy.