I am new to 'hands on' editing although I have been reading Computer Video for a couple of years. My setup is for DV editing only and IMO would suit a beginner.
My system is a Time Computers AMD Athlon 1.4 running Windows ME. The motherboard is Gigabyte GA7DX (T2 Time), with AMD761 Northbridge and VIA 686B southbridge. Memory is 256M of PC2100 DDR. Sound is built in SB128 and graphics card is NVidia GeForce 2 MX200. It came with a 60 GB Samsung Drive and I've added a Fujitsu 40 MB MPG3409AH (both are EIDE AT100).
Editing setup is Terratec Cameo 600DV OHCI card with the supplied software (Ulead MSP6.0 VE with DVD plugin, Cool 3D 2.5 titler, Adorage Magic effects, scenalyser (freeware scene splitter). This was reviewed in CV Issue 51 Jan 2002)
Old Hi8 tapes were converted to DV via Panasonic NV-DV2000 DV VCR and captured by Firewire to the PC.
Software all installed and ran without a hitch and device control works smoothly. Results both by printing from Timeline or exporting are excellent.
I still have a lot to learn but this has got me up and running and thoroughly enjoying the process of bringing my old footage into use. Tutorials and reviews in CV helped me choose the DV kit (May their shadows never grow less). Roll on burning to DVD.
Hope this helps others.
Greyhair, (I bet it's David really 
)
What a pleasant change to read in someone's first letter that they have a system that actually works! Usually - but not always - the first post is one of desperation because something has gone wrong.
Welcome to the CV forum and hopefully we'll be seeing you in this thread over in the 'Chatter' forum. 
Cheers,
Chirpy.