hello mythcat,
I have a 8Gbram pc with 1Gb ati readon HD 4870 graphic card if you
need any rendering in blender and also you can render using
http://www.renderfarm.fi/blender for free look at the link..
and if you want to share .blend you can also use
http://www.pasteall.org/blend through IRC.
and also look at
http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/blender/3d_cg_vfx_blender_aftereffects_m...
hope will be useful if you haven't seen it,,,,,