>Has any solid research been done in reference to performance after re-indexing before verses after defragmentation of the drive?
In addition to degragmentation, you should also consider re-ordering the table to its "natural" order. For example, if you have a table that's ordered by one particular field, re-building that table so that the records are in that order can yield a reduction of index size of up to 20%.
George
Ubi caritas et amor, deus ibi est