I'm back. With 2-gigs of memory + 160-gigs storage. Very impressive. Didn't know this krappy ol' laptop could still sing. Very satisfying upgrade. It's a new day in Radland.
Kinda sore at myself for not doing this sooner. From a seat-of-the-pants perspective, it feels roughly twice as fast. I mean, everything now takes half as long, and some thing are simply » 'whoa' quick.
Desktop icons rebuilding blows me away. And launching Outlook Express (where I have 2 years worth of emails) .. goes wicked-fast now.
Upgraded RAM first. Couldn't have been simpler. Almost too perfect .. if ya know what I mean. Like maybe I used up all my techno-luck on that one upgrade.