Okay, I promise, last question. Am I going to notice a difference in speed between 1.6 GHz, 1.73, and 2.0 GHZ on a Pentium Dual Core T2330?

Re: the recent XP update--this played havoc with the software my company makes, resulting in a huge uptick in support calls. It was chaos before we tracked it down to the Windows update and figured out what we needed to do to fix it. Fortunately the patch that Windows put out was sufficient, though there were a few network re-installs that really pissed off the customers.

Still, it was very freeing to be able to say, "No, that was Windows' fault".

Am I going to notice a difference in speed between 1.6 GHz, 1.73, and 2.0 GHZ on a Pentium Dual Core T2330?

I suspect that depends what you're doing with it.

Primarily editing text in Word or Open Office, possibly compiling ebooks for Palm, Mobipocket, etc., possibly some web content editing work, and definitely doing memory intensive graphic art stuff--using the Wacom tablet and PhotoShop.

The difference between 1.6 and 1.7 is pretty negligible. You'll notice a difference with the jump to 2.0 on the graphics work, but not anywhere near as much as the difference between more or less memory. If it comes down to a budget question between the faster processor and maxing out the RAM, go for the RAM.

That's what I was hoping you'd say Amy. The price difference is significant enough to make me wonder, if I could go a little slower on the processor and max out the RAM vs. getting the great processor and getting reasonably good RAM.

(edit: not necessarily you you, but someone you. Thanks, you.)

More editing to replace a missing word. Now I will take my dorkitude back to looking at laptops. Thanks for the help guys.

Shredder update: I took it back and got another just like it. Upon inspection, it appears that the bin starts overflowing when it looks a quarter full from the front, so "overfilled" probably was the right diagnosis.

Now that I know that, I should be able to avoid doing it again...

In related news: shredding CDs is pretty fun.

question regarding airport express/extreme ...

in my home I have the cable modem in one room (upstairs) and a printer I'd like to network downstairs. Clearly they are not attached to the same computer.

Should I get an airport extreme for the room upstairs to initiate the wireless and then get an airport express for the downstairs office that has the printer?

Oops double post. My full answer is down a ways..

You'll need some kind of wireless router connected to the modem, but it doesn't have to be an Airport. I have a Linksys router and an Airport Express functioning as a print server and they talk to each other just fine.