Best tower computer investment available

Two months ago I finally bit the bullet and dropped the $4K necessary to get this top of the line tower computer outfitted for photo and video editing. I haven't had a moment's regret since. It is a major investment for me, but I believe that this one falls under the philosophy of 'buy nice or buy twice' and this machine should serve me well for several years.

8-CORE PROCESSOR. I read extensive reviews on CNET and like sites which stated that this tower was a year ahead of its competitors in its technology. I can't validate that claim specifically; however, it is blazingly fast -- the 8-core processor truly is far faster than other Macs on the market that I looked at (MacBook Pro and imac).

OS 10.4. As always, I find the Mac operating system (Leopard) to be intuitive, attractive, and simple.

MEMORY. I do not recommend purchasing the additional memory (up to 4TB are available) as after market memory can be purchased and installed at MUCH cheaper prices and without compromising your warranty. (This, in my opinion is one of the great benefits of this machine especially as compared to an imac - you can build upon it indefinitely, thus extending its life by several years)

Other than that, I do not use their RAID system (which is additional $) for backup - the techs at the Apple store told me the best way to handle back up is to do it manually to an external drive and I believe them. The graphics are lovely - I use two 23" cinema screens and there is no lag, colors and edges are crisp (more of a monitor thing than a card thing).

One additional word to the wise - purchase a battery backup / surge protector combo (this is the one that I bought: http://www.amazon.com/APC-BR1500LCD-1500VA-Outlets-BACK-UPS/dp/B000NDA5E0/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1204857109&sr=8-1)
and be sure you've got insurance!