#Letter to Santa
The ramdisk (or James' disk caching method) will definitely help, but your
VGA card will affect performance as well. What kind of VGA chipset are you
using? Of course, doing a flat-shaded test in low-res to videotape is
always important before you do a FINAL render.
The Dell would certainly solve this problem for you completely. It's a
pretty optimal solution. I can't say about the 4D's speed differential…
I haven't had one around for testing purposes lately! <g>
– G