download cachemanxp, it can give you real time values of what is left with your ram and cpu at system tray... better, if you need performance you should have atleast 512 physical ram, but for you as a multimedia professional, go for atleast 1024 ram. and you should set your virtual ram 3 times as your physical ram. additionally, you can set your display setting to maximum performance @ rightclick My computer>properties>advance>performance setting>adjust for best performance you can also schedule defragmentation everyday, normally xp will defrag every 3 days automate disk cleanup more tweaks http://www.j79zlr.com/reg.php http://www.tweakxp.com/performance_tweaks.aspx