Drat! I had a nice post going, then something got buggered up and it was lost! Well, I'll just sum it up. I agree with JohnRender. Too many people get caught up in software gluttony, and don't prepare for the occasional infrastructure (OS and hardware) upgrades that will eventually be required. If you don't have the money, I sympathize with you. But that doesn't change the fact that you need to be responsible to yourself and plan for big expenses. 3D graphics is a big hobby/lifestyle/way to make a living, and so you can expect to occasionally have big expenses. I know that what I say next will sound overly simplistic and maybe a bit hard-hearted on my part, but it is, in fact, the prescription for the problem. And I offer this with only the best of intentions and love for all of you fine folks: Either decrease your other costs (rent, food, bad habits such as smoking, drinking, eating out too often, or getting tattoos), or increase your income (find a second job, deliver newspapers, work weekends someplace). If you are carrying high-interest consumer debt such as credit cards, 90-day-same-as-cash loans (that you couldn't pay off in 90 days), or high-interest loans of any type, then you need to pay those off as soon as possible. Until your consumer debt is paid off, you probably should NOT be making non-essential purchases of any kind. Think about this: If you have just $10,000 in credit card debt, you could be getting dinged for upwards of $300 or more per month in finance charges! So if you have finance problems, do yourself a huge favor. Find out where your money is going, how much you need (or want), and make an adult decision as to what to do next. If you can make extra money by producing art or models, then more power to you! If that's just not in the cards, then you may need to find something else to help make ends meet. Do it now. Start this weekend. What else were you planning to do that is more important? Watch the teevee? Go drinking with your buddies? Be responsible and kind to yourself and your financial future! Let's face it, Windows 98 and ME are long in the tooth. They're poor memory handlers, and they're not designed to protect the OS and applications from errant or self-destructive applications. Windows 2000 is better, and Windows XP is even better yet, assuming that it is set up correctly. But life is full of harsh realities: These OSs require faster machines meeting the newest industry standards (ie; chipsets, memory, video, and disk I/O subsystem advancements) in order for the OSs to do their job. You'll only be disappointed if you try slapping Windows XP onto a Pentium 100 machine with 128 MB of RAM and a 20 GB hard drive. I hope I haven't irked too many people, especially as seeing how I'm a newbie here on R'osity. Good luck to those of you who need to upgrade your infrastructure.