I investigated using CF quite a bit before purchasing my 2400c; You can use the low capacity versions for VM and they reduce the disk access quite a bit. Also, you can grab one of the larger cards (say, 1GB) and use that to place an entire primary system onto. Say, do a bare-bones install of OS 9 onto the card, keeping your applications and critical software on the hard disk. Since the CF isn't volatile (so they say ;-) you gain speed (no disk access for primary system work) and a lot more battery life, because you can spin the HD down. I haven't personally tried this method- I think most PCMCIA card adapters can only recognize up to 512MB? 5400RPM and 7200RPM drives? Either equal to or greater than the price of a 2400c!!! The 7200Rpm drives use 5 watts max, which (please correct me if I'm wrong) would blow one of the fuses internally. 5400RPM drives with an 8MB or 16MB cache are nice, and would further your strategy of removing the disk hits. The Hitachi 5400RPM drive is much quieter than the stock drive(and much of the older drives) because of the fluid dynamic bearing tech. Does not get hot at all, and I didn't put any kind of spacer pad into the gap left over from the stocker. I can say that, without a doubt, that is where most of your performance bottlenecks will occur. If you're planning on doing OS X, plan on getting a large HD; OS X likes space ; ) As far as Linux, wasnt there a distro that ran totally off of the CDROM? Will that work with a PPC? If you're really into cooling, look at these pads: http://img113.ac.yahoo.co.jp/users/4/4/7/7/ari_ka-img500x324-108236820524mo1.jpg Anyone know where these can be obtained? Looked about online with no success. You could also get an external HD case with a PCMCIA card interface. Hmmm... anyone know what the transfer rate of the PCMCIA slot is? 40Mb? Might be faster.... might be slower!! Most people run 8.6 for some older apps and Cardbus compatibility, and 9/9.1 for updated software, iTunes, etc. I used 8 from 8.0 up until 9 came out. Since 9 allows me get iTunes and read/write in multiple languages, I run with that one. YMMV, though. I did try 9.2 and 9.2.2 on my 2400c, I didn't care for it. No sound, for one. Couldn't get the patch for that to work ;-( Also, I didn't notice any *dramatic* improvements over 9.1. So far I have seen Clear, Blue, Red, and Pink Yu-Plan keyboards. Wasn't there a smoked clear one? Orange would have been nice, too ;-) I haven't seen any reds or clears come up for auction recently ; - ( Hope this all helps! John __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25¢ http://photos.yahoo.com/ph/print_splash