One thing I omitted to mention, is that if you can afford it put a RAID setup high on your list of priorities. I juggle optimal disk useage in the manner I've described above, and although I'm very happy with the results, I'm wasting the opportunity of using my RAID motherboard. If you can afford to employ two identical fast hard drives (rpm is crucial IMO) in a RAID systam, then you can reap the benefits of a permanent massive increase in both reading and writing speeds. Should a disk failure ever occur, you're also safeguarded against data loss.