Hi, Cecil.

>Hi Craig, long time no see. Why so much RAM? I am curious.
>
>BTW, I will not be going to the Southwest Fox Conference this time. [Bummer!] I've got too much going on here. Are you going this year?

I totally agree with Craig. I have now (since a few months) a machine that I really like.

It is an HP/Compaq nx7010 with a 15.4" monitor (wide screen) and it is not bulky at all. I have 2 Gb of RAM and I'm about to replace the 40 Gb HD with a 100 Gb for USD 250. If you're purchasing it right now, maybe you can ramp your budget a bit and get it with as much RAM and Disk as possible from the scratch and same time (and money).

Giving today procesor power, the most important issue remaining performance-wise is RAM. The difference when you are running several apps at the same time (and we developers always do this) is incredible.

And going back to Craig's comment, Virtual PC (I prefer VMWare, but it is almost the same) is really a great technology allowing you to test on fresh machines whenever you need, trying out beta software without so much problems, etc. But you need RAM, and disk space to store your virtual machines (a tyipical VM with just the OS with the service packs takes about a 1.5 Gb).

Also, if you don't need so much power now, maybe you can wait. I see prices going down and down every month. Maybe RAM/HDs are half the price in 6 months...

Best luck!