You have too many questions to answer in a single reply - but I'll try to give my own view, based on some very bed experiences 2+ years ago, and some very good experiences with PD 10 this year.
Processor - at least an Intel i5 at 1.6 GHz. Much better would be an i7 at 2.67 GHz or 3.1 GHz
Hard disc - probably 640 GB minimum, but 1 TB would give you some "head room". If you're going to store hundreds of videos on your primary HD, the sky's the limit in terms of needed HD space. However - remember that external HDs are inexpensive, so you can easily store your backups and your older graphics work (still photography, videos) on external HDs. Just don't try to use external HDs for your editing. They're too slow.
If you have the money for a solid state hard drive, SSD, they're significantly faster, assuming you have a good graphics card. But they are expensive, and that sort of speed isn't really necessary for video editing or display.
RAM - minimum would be 6 GB, in my opinion. That's what I have. 8 GB would be better, and 12 GB would give you a wide margin of safety. My 6 GB does very well for me.
Graphics card - something like a "high mid-range" graphics card, such as the GeForce 650, with 2 GB of onboard VRAM.
"never lock up" while editing? I don't think it's realistic to plan on "never locking up" while editing, even when editing still images. But the confidurations listed above should make lock-ups uncommon. Save your work frequently, and if your program (Photo SHop, PD 10, whatever) starts to slow down, save immediately and close your program, maybe even restart your computer. I have to do that if I've spent several hours of heavy editing of still images, or if I've tried to do too much, too fast, in video editing.
Bill Hansen
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