Check this out:
Cakewalk DAW Labs - Build a Computer for Digital Audio Recording & Editing
There are always a lot of questions about DAWs and software on here and I've been planning (procrastinating) on putting a guide together for the production forum, but until then, any other questions you have, don't hesitate to ask.
We have several members here who have a good range of experience in this stuff and we're always willing to help.