SVDL, I don't think you can attribute the performance difference in your systems to disk configuration, especially since the Hard Disk is not a factor in Jim Burton's Benchmark. My P4 2.8C (192 secs) is faster than both of your machines (Athlon XP -- 205 secs, P4 2.8 -- 210 secs). We need to find two people with the same machine, except for the disk configuration, then run Jim Burton's benchmark to establish a baseline, then run a benchmark that works the disk.