Chris

Mike, I am a Mac user myself so I can't advise you on the specifics of Movie Factory 3. However the general principles are the same: dropped frames on import and out-of-sync audio on export are both common symptoms of a computer that is struggling to keep up with what you're asking of it. You need to look seriously at improving your hardware if you want to make a hobby of this.

In all seriousness, there comes a point where it's better to buy all-new equipment than to patch up what you've got. I'd be more concerned about your PC's consumption of system resources during import/export than the spin speed of your HDD. How much RAM do you have? How fast is your CPU? Video editing is a very resource-hungry hobby for a computer. You can add RAM but getting a new CPU is a tad more fiddly.

If you need to buy new, you could do far worse than to buy yourself a Mac if home moviemaking (whether for output to tape or DVD) is something you want to do. All iMacs and eMacs come with the iLife software suite installed, which includes iMovie for video editing and iDVD for creating DVDs complete with professional-looking menus. Macs are perfectly capable of doing any of the other tasks you are used to doing with a PC (web, email, word processing, etcetc). You will only miss out if you get off on opening up your PC to add bits of hardware, finding and installing obscure freeware apps, or playing lots of games. And if you want to do all that, you still have a PC anyway.

I'm not seriously expecting you to just say 'oh, ok towny, I'm off down the Apple Store to spend all my money then.' But if you have the funds for a new computer just now, and if you want to get into home moviemaking (a very rewarding hobby, I can tell you, having recently completed my first wedding video), then a Mac is by far the best choice IMO.