Ah,64 bit,thats accounts for a lot of the speed,but appart from that Iv pretty much the same setup.
Im going to buy a new Pc for this as Im getting more work now and as you said a stand alone machine is by far the safer bet and definitely no internet conection,as for the anti virus and malware I turn them off whilst rendering on my old machine,the malware scans every frame rendered and slows things down.
interested in what type of problems exhist now after thee new patch?

pete.