Patches?

[Imp]

I've worked long enough in IT to readily admit that I know very little of it. Special programs for sound systems may very well require that OS and program are on the same drive. A basic media computer at home works better the way Imp described ... or at least it's much easier to solve the problems of saving data when the Mickeysoft product stops working if nothing else.

To clarify I would class anything that is needed to get the system up & running like sound graphics as system stuff on C. Stuff you do not interact with once set up plus could chuck your zip program there.
Creative programs games things that produce data stick elsewhere.
At the end of the day speed of modern computers it really does not make much diffrence on day to day running just as I said far easier for things like backup searching & virus scanning defrag etc.
Your programs update rarelly but microsofts operating system seems to constantly.
If you do a lot of graphics work which is memory intensive esp 3D page file on a hardly used drive can speed things up in my view. If you have the money for a spare drive mirroring or copying C to it means it just sits there so stick page file on it. Lose C just switch boot drives & your back though modern drives seem pretty good.
Best solution with graphics though after the processor probably get as much Ram as you can once you are running low system slows. If your page file is constantly in use doubling your RAM can give a 30% speed boost because of this as you build get the best type of RAM you can.
A further thought when you upgrade can set to dual boot but must install earliest operating system first as in your old XP disk then the new one & yes avoid Vista at all costs apart from its quirks its a resource hog. If Win 7 is the same your computer will run much faster using XP or at least my AMD64 one did when tested seem to remember Vista gobbles half a Gig before you even do anything.