ME. (shudder) Yeah, I'd upgrade to either 2K or XP. A ditto here for a full install instead of an upgrade. Less headache, but since you've got your PC builder doing it, he should be able to handle whatever you choose to do. Just make sure he has checked the compatibility lists at Microsoft. A lot of times you'll find links to where hardware drivers have been updated to run with XP and that will save you a lot of headache. XP Home isn't bad if you have a tech around to hack it into submission. Mine is so tweaked that the rated speed on my laptop processor actually matches the listed speed. I'm running XP with the NTFS, and have an external FAT32, and they work pretty blasted well together. The slowdown in data transfer is negligible. A partition for Poser alone is actually a pretty good plan. It fragments a drive SO fast it's almost unbelievable. A lot easier to separate it and have it not slowing anything else down. And remember ... it's ALWAYS a good idea to do TOTAL system backups every now and then.