This has been my experience on a Q6600 + ICH9R RAID box as well, minus the WLAN stuff. Not sure why Vista has such a problem with needless delays during normal (simple) file/memory operations. And this was with SP1 installed, to boot. Oh well. It may one day catch up to XP from a perceived usability standpoint but I wonder if it will require another generational leap in hardware to get there. I'm interested in seeing what they focus on in Windows 7.