I think this one is 4 to 5 years old. I have too much Windows-only software to use it instead of my PC. The PC is also wicked fast at everything and has a 28" monitor.

I hear ya. My main desktop computer is now a 27" running at 2560x1440, and the one in the studio is a 24" running at 1920x1200. I love me some big screen real estate. Now that I've got the big 27" it's the first time I've not been running dual monitors in years. I'd run dual 20's or dual 24's for quite a while.

My work is a pretty even split between Mac only software and Windows only software which is a big part of the reason for the dual boot environment now. I used to always have two machines on my desktop which was a massive pain in the butt.

My work is a pretty even split between Mac only software and Windows only software which is a big part of the reason for the dual boot environment now.

Have you tried using virtual machines?

Also, has anyone tried the latest version of VMWare? I'm thinking of upgrading, except I heard that the newest Parallels has much-improved performance, so I'm tempted to switch back to Parallels. Also, does the new Parallels let you import a VMWare virtual machine (like VMWare lets you import Parallells virtual machines)?

I can't answer some of the Parallels questions, but I have Parallels 4 and I like it a lot better than 3.

The only Mac software I have is Photoshop Elements.

The big monitor has definitely spoiled me. My new spoiling technology is the combination of 8Gbs of RAM and an SSD drive. Most applications don't load, they are just there. I click on my 250 page Word document and Word is started and ready to edit the document in about a second. I've also taken to turning off my computer most of the time because it boots in less than a minute (from pressing the power button, not after posting)

Have you tried using virtual machines?

I have used them but much of the software I use doesn't play well with virtual machines since it involves communicating with audio hardware. Many of the drivers just crash and burn trying to communicate with a professional audio interface through the driver layers involved in a virtual machine. I also find that virtual machines can add an unpredictable amount of latency which is also a deal breaker for me.

Oh, that all makes sense.

My photography teacher back in the '80s took out a small business loan to get her Hasselblad.

Last night, My main PC crashed hard. It wouldn't boot into Windows (I'd get the starting Windows screen, but then it would reboot itself), and when I tried to use diagnostic software by booting off a CD, it wouldn't recognize ANY of my three physical hard drives (one for system/program files and two for data). I was terrified that I'd lost everything, because, of course, the last time I backed up was over a year ago. After a poor night's sleep, I mounted the two data drives in another PC and, to my great relief, they seem to be OK. I'm backing them up as I write this. I'm a bit a-sceered to check the system drive. I had actually tried to image it earlier this week, but Ghost kept having problems doing it. I suppose that should have been a tip-off right there.

Moral: Back up regularly!

Jon, have you checked the motherboard battery?