My new recording setup continues to work well, especially in regards to how much more quickly it allows me to post new videos! Rendering times which used to be up in the 2 - 3 hour range are now a much more comfortable 30 minutes. Not only that, but a subtle other change has been that I no longer need to split up rendering of the videos.
The effects I use in the title sequence use a lot of layering and masking to create the effect of the video clip being inside the book. On my old system I would render this part separately first and then later incorporate it into the actual episode. Now, though, the system is powerful enough to do the whole thing in one go!