Gene,
First, I doubt you need a ton of new network cards and switches, etc. Sure, it is always good to have Gb everything which means NICs and switches, etc. But, you aren't sending a lot of packets around that requires 1,000Mbs speeds all the time. You already said it yourself. I always think of two things. And, people give me a hard time for it.
First, get rid of the wireless for security issues and speed. Secondly, while it may not make a difference, XP Pro computers were meant to run programs, e.g. AC while servers and server OS were meant to run background services. Again, peer-to-peer is fine, but you will never get the performance you will from a server and domain.
Servers specialize in file sharing and as stated, background services. They tweak drive reading, processor use and RAM.
One experiment you may wish to try to make your main machine more like a server is to change it from being optimized to run programs to being optimized to run background services.
My computer | properties | advanced | performance ? settings | advanced | change from ?programs? to ?Background Services?. On the tab next to that ?visual effects, if it doesn?t automatically change, set it to ?adjust for best performance?.
If your main computer that you are using ONLY for AC (which is great) has nice blue borders and nifty sliding menus, then you are using up valuable resources. Make it look like WIN 98.
