Camera or new computer

Hey guys, as of right now I'm debating on purchasing a camera, most likely a DVX, or a new computer.

SETUP:
P4 2.4Ghz,
ASUS P4P800 mobo,
1.5Gb DDR sdram,
ATI Radeon x1050 128mb video card,
Sound blaster Live! 5.1 audio card,
70Gb 7200rpm sataI hdd Western Digital I believe,
ASUS VH266 16:9 lcd monitor
Windows XP sp3

Current programs:
Avid Xpress Pro 5.2
After Effects CS4
Photoshop CS4
Illustrator CS4
Sorenson Squeeze 5


I have 2 500Gb WD Caviar Black hdds that I would like to setup in RAID 0 for editing, and an external WD 500Gb My Book hdd for backing up my work.

I would need to get a firewire card and more memory indefinitely to capture and edit.

Would it be worth updating my computer with a few things and buy a camera, or should I be more concered with a better system?
I figure I should get a camera since I do not have one at the moment. I would like my computer to be able to edit HD (I know the dvx is SD), but I doubt my current setup could support that regardless of what I do, although I am not against trying to make it work.

Any insight as to whether this system should be retired, or ways to keep it going until I can upgrade later on would be great.

Well I've configured an I Buy Power pc for a little under $1100 and it has:

intel core i7 920 (2.66ghz 8mb L3 cache)
ASUS p6t x58 SE mobo
6gb (2bg x 3) ddr3-1333 memory
500 gb sata 3gb 7200 rpm hdd
Lightscribe LG 22x dvdrw dual layer
nvidia geforce 9400gt 1gb
12 in 1 flash media reader/writer
sound blaster audigy SE
windows vista business 64 bit

I'll have to finance a camera because I only have around $3000 at the moment, especially if it's a dvx.

If you're serious about photography and editing I'd go quad-core like you've selected, but you can definitely keep your costs down. I'll put a sample build together.

You would probably do a lot better if you build it yourself. There's no PSU listed there, and I'm not sure that IBuyPower uses decent ones (quality, not just size).
Do you intend to play games? The 9400GT is not suitable for games.
The sound card is probably also not needed. Onboard sound is pretty good now.

I woudn't be playing video games* I meant, whoops.

I Buy Power offers plenty of PSU's, I chose a Casegears 650 watt, they also have Corsair PSU's which are good.

I figured I should get a sound card because I use Avid and it has problems with onboard sound, at least on my computer as of now.

That build is not bad, but then I would need the OS, which is another $135 or so on top of that.

I've read about windows 7 compatability issues with the cs4 programs and others. I don't want to have my comp crashing a lot with a beta OS you know.

Thanks for your sharing



[color=#FFFFFF]simulation credit auto[/color]