Mike,
You could certainly follow John's suggestion, and with a decent IT person, you should be fine.
You could continue to consult people here for more specific advice; if you do so, you will be asked to provide more details about your current set-up and needs.
Most everyone would agree that you have probably identified a significant problem; you should run AC on its own machine. Your quickest, cheapest option is to get a new desktop and use it exclusively for AC as you describe. You can do so for just a few hundred dollars, and hopefully be up and running very quickly. Worse case: it doesn't solve your problem, you need to move to one of the other options, and you have a computer that can be used as a client in your final configuration or at home.
