Chris,

>Also, I had never thought of a dual monitor system. How would I take advantage of that?

Unless you've used the posters included in VS.NET to wallpaper your workspace, having the context-sensitive help open on the secondary monitor is a killer productivity enhancement. Articles and code samples from the web can go into the secondary display too.

Without a 25" LCD display at some insane resolution, there never seems to be enough room in the designer window for me. I would dock every VS.NET window except the designer, solution/class explorer and properties window on the secondary display.

If you are wondering about the hardware and drivers, go for an Nvidia dual display card or Matrox dual-head card. The Nvidias are more expensive, but are really nice if you want to play some games on the same box. Matrox has been doing dual-head displays longer than everyone else, and their drivers and customer support are the best, IMO. Also, while it is not required by the hardware, your life will be a lot simpler if you get matching monitors as well.

The video display drivers all have roughly the same functions for configuring the dual display. You set up the resolution, color depth & refresh for each monitor separately. Then you set up your desktop to span both monitors, but set the Start toolbar to only extend across the primary display.

Then you open up all of the windows that you will be working with regularly - VS.NET, IE, VS.NET External help, etc. and place them where you want them to be. Once they are set, you can permanently dock the windows to their locations or at least to one display exclusively. Once this is done, maximizing a window will only maximize it to the display it is on.

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One note about the hardware for the computer: Get as much RAM as the motherboard will hold. It's dirt cheap when compared to other components, and nothing will have a greater effect on the overall speed when developing for .NET.