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Thanks for all the info! I already do periodic (at least once or twice a month) defragmenting. And I'm going to do the partition thing once I do my periodic back-up of important stuff on CDRW.

It's going to be quite a while before I can buy a whole new computer, so any discussions of pros and cons about that don't mean much for me right now, but I will take into consideration for future reference. :)

I did a BIOS upgrade the other day, and this is the BIOS info I was able to get from some program that gets all that info:

Manufacturer: Acer OEM
Date: 3/3/00
ROM Size: 256K
Chip set: Intel 440BX/ZX rev3
Super I/O chip: SMC70x or 80x

Does this tell you anything about whether or not I can use a new graphics card? Thanks once again!

Your computer (perhaps your bios) is now pretty old (nearly 3 years) for the latest graphics, which are changing several times a year.

Personally, I gave up on keeping up, as I am not a gamer, but work mostly with giant databases in the commodity options markets, so graphics are not so important as system and computing speed and power.

However, you quite probably could do a lot better than you are doing. If I were you, I would take your computer to the place you trust do, and pay them the $50 labor or so and discuss with them how best to speed up your computer, particularly with better/fastest/bestest graphics. You may not want to pay for the best graphics, because in all probability, by the time you get a new computer the boards will be out of date, and not transferable. But, for about $100 you should be able to get a very good card, which will bump the performance a lot. And they will guarantee that it works properly and guarantee the card.

While they are there, have them check your bios, as if you just upgraded and it is 3 years old, it seems like you got rooked, or there is no real upgrade available (which is most probable).

Looked at your pictures of NYC, and they reminded me of when I used to live there in the East 50's. What I miss most is the excellent pizza at those little windows on the street, and the excellent deli's.

But I am glad I now live in east Texas, fine friendly people, and warm weather, not much traffic, and great sausage, BBQ, and cajun food. And I live under trees and don't have to get on a crowded subway to go find one.