Hi Todd.

Everyone is going to have their own preferences, but basically get the best on you can afford. Multiple cores and as much RAM as possible are the things that will make the difference.

If by "pristine and clean" you mean not connected to the internet, that means you can strip out all the anti-virus which will probably be installed, together with all the trial software which you won't need. It also means that if your operating system is working ok, you don't need automatic up-dates, so your machine will behave in the same way every time you boot it. This really is the way to go if you can do it.

ROG.