Hey Mike,

If you plan on using all 8 Gigs of that memory you bought, you'll need a 64-bit OS. So if you do go back to XP, make sure it's the 64-bit flavor.

Goin' a little OT here:

I'm the Computer Support Director for the Libraries here at the U of MN.

The campus IT folks are responsible for the network here and they constantly scan all computers for vulnerabilities. They will deactivate any ethernet jack almost instantly if they detect problems. The last deactivations in our main Library happened on the iMacs used in our computer lab. All three had the Zlob infection (that's the one where you want to watch a video and you get prompted to download the proper codec). And we also see more root-kits being installed on Macs since they're UNIX-based at heart. Campus folks won't let us simply remove the root-kit...you HAVE to rebuild the computer and get it scanned before they put it back online. Too easy for the hackers to hide their tracks with UNIX.

Don't let somebody fool ya that Macs don't get dinged.

Back to the topic...we just installed 4 workstations with XP 64-bit SP3, Quad-cores, and 8 Gigs of memory in our Digital Scanning lab. The boxes scream! Haven't done much with Vista yet but it's coming.

-mike