Windows 7: Well, I had been sidetracked from my switch to a 64bit OS but with the release of Windows 7 I'm finally there and FINALLY...my OS sees all 6gig of my RAM.  I haven't had any issues with Windows 7 its self so far.  The main thing is availability and quality of drivers.  The old drivers for my onboard sound used to let me pick more types of output when I plugged something in...which meant I could plug my headphones into the line out port and just define it as headphones.  No such luck with the new drivers.  Thankfully I had a memory card reader with USB and front panel sound outputs (my case is too old to have them) and that MOSTLY solved the problem.  Oh, I also had a problem with video crashing but after installing the card mentioned below I found that there was some pretty significant dust buildup on my old card's heatsink, so it was just a coincidence.

Overall I really like Windows 7.  The half-maximized feature is particularly nice now that I have a widescreen monitor.  The extra RAM the OS sees helps to make things much more responsive.  It looks nice...yadda yadda.  I'm really not much into the look of the GUI though.  I'm more practical...but W7 is pretty practical too.

GTX260: Thank you spaceman!  WOOT!  I got a gift from a friend yesterday...a nice, refurbished (but pristine) Nvidia GTX260 graphics card.  It really helps now that I have a monitor capable of displaying full HD resolution.  Everthing runs well.  Crysis runs at about 30fps with high settings at 1920x1080 even with AA enable.  I forgot to try out very high since I didn't have a lot of time (needed to get in a nap before work).  Everything else I have runs like (insert concept combining a bat out of hell and greased lightning and crap through a goose).

Hard Drive: Well I actually installed Windows 7 on my father's 1TB hard drive.  There were some issues (although it's now looking like the problem was elsewhere) so I figured this would be as good a time to test as any (to leave my old install intact just in case).  HOWEVER, I just picked up an "open-box" 750gig hard drive from newegg for $52 shipped.  I'll actually be putting it in the server though, moving my stuff off and porting my W7 install back to the smaller, 400gig that my OS was on originally.  Even though it was "open-box" it was in its original, unopened mylar bag.  I tend to watch newegg's open-box (and refurbished) section and I've actually had pretty good luck with it.  I've had a Radeon HD2600 pro, Radeon 4650, motherboard and two hard drives come in factory sealed mylar bags (some with boxes that obviously had never REALLY been opened (just the shrink-wrap removed).  Aaaaanyway, as I said, I'll put the 750gig in the server along with the 500gig RAID array that's already in there.

Headsets: Ok, this annoys the shit out of me (excuse me while I run to the bathroom).  Every one of my headsets has had the exact same problem.  After several months the wires wear out, usually on the mic.  I've had similar problems with headphones...but thankfully the headphones were at least cheap.   I decided I'd look into repairing the ones I have (they are nice) and started trying to figure out a nice place to get a 5 or 6 conductor cable when I realised I could just cut up a 3line phone cable.

Seconds later, however I realized that cutting the cable was a complete waste of time.  If I'm going to go through the trouble of rewiring it, I might as well just make an adapter for each end and have one that uses PHONE CORDS!  Ah, I love coming up with a complete solution :D  As a friend observed...its actually kind of odd that they haven't done that already.  You get to pick the length of your cable.  Phone cables are generally more durable.  If they go bad...you replace them (that last one is probably what kills it for manufacturers...although I'm sure that wouldn't stop monster cables from coming up with a phone cable as thick as your arm that they claimed could transcend time and playback Bell's original message flawlessly.

System recommendations: I keep meaning to get back to updating them but I keep getting lazy.  Today is no exception.  I'll keep trying to try though.