XPS Gen 3 with Panasonic AG-DVC30 camcorder

I'm a happy owner of an XPS Gen 3 with 4G of RAM, 300G RAID drive and the ATI x800 256M Graphics Card.

 

I'm considering getting a prosumer camcorder, the Panasonic AG-DVC30 camcorder.  I'm new to digital video, and I'm looking for anyone out there who has a similar configuration.  Mainly, are there any hardware problems between the two devices when connecting the camera through the firewire port?  Secondarily, does anyone have recommendations as to which NLE software package works best with this combination?

 

Thanks,

 

Rob