Followed the advice in the thread about setting up a Mac Mini and turned off Dashboard and used a different USB port (also suggested by Bemopti above), and the situation is much improved. The 27" iMac with the quad-core processor is very quick compared to my old Core Duo, and the display is also much nicer. I am on a university's faculty, and i got an iPod Touch with my computer purchase as part of the summer education store promotion, and the iPod Touch makes a nice remote.