Formatting & Parbreastioning Brand New Dell E510 52

The box was $1K even including upgrade to 1GB RAM. My wife doesn't like monitors over 17" (don't ask. A friend of mine described this as a crime against humanity), so I got the Ultrasharp 1704fpv for another $289. The reason for the external burner is that the box is going to live in a closet in the next room because my wife doesn't want any sound coming from the computer in the room we watch video in (closet just happens to be adjacent to the study desk with all the networking equipment and connections in it). That was why I upgraded to the PCI Express with DVI out, so I could run a 15' cable to the monitor (didn't want to chance a VGA connection). The 1704fpv includes a 4-port USB 2.0 network hub, which will be convenient, but I bought a seperate 15' USB cable for a direct connection to the burner to be safe. So a DVD writer in the box doesn't do me much good. I just have the reader in there and floppy for bootup type stuff. I am planning on using the BIOS for morning wakeup, and use the automatic scheduler for SHUTDOWN.exe late at night. I got a ROKU Soundbridge as a birthday present and plan on using Windows Media Connect to serve it to the Living Area stereo.

3rd hard drive was maybe just ignorance. I took a piece of forum advice that parbreastioning could be less reliable. Didn't seem like a big deal for $90 each.

Don't think I have a need for big gaming. My daughters will play things like Zoo Tycoon on it. I see music serving as critical, couldn't care less about video serving.

Now, if you have any advice that would be useful going forward, I would greatly appreciate it. I can't see myself returning the computer.