ya i use adobe as my main programs i have like 20 other programs to do little things (compression, morph, authoring, audio etc..) but i use after effects 6.5 pro, photoshop cs and premiere 6(the new premieres are focused for more beginners, besides the 24fps and hd support)
no i got 3 harddrives two sata drives(actually 3 but one is all footage from the rock dvd just stored) and one external firewire, ya it renders real quick, thats the main reason i never needed more ram or anything becuase its real quick, after effects can be slow at times but thats not the main program to the editing so i can deal with it