xpsp2, multi hdd, virtual memory location, & app locatio

It's personal preference really. One advantage of apps being on another drive is that if you have to reinstall the OS, your apps preferences should be intact. I will comment quick on VMem. You should not allow the OS to manage virtual memory. Instead, set the intial and maximum size the same and have them about 1 and half the size of physical memory. Keeping the sizes the same ensures that the OS doesn't go spreading v mem all over the HD, so it's faster access. That was a quick and dirty rundown.