There's enough firepower to do anything I ask of the machine. Colors are quite good even without xcmsdb , and better when properly calibrated. I find the touchpad easy to use for text work, though for graphics I prefer the force stick. I like the feel. DVD is available, as is a CD burner.
Zip drive is available.
When the headphone jack is inserted the speakers are muted, and phone sound quality is excellent. See below about the necessary driver. Suspend to ram, it lasts over 100 hours. WinNT and Microsoft Office available at extra cost. I overdid it, trashed Windows, and ended up repartitioning the disc the way I wanted it, and reinstalling Windows.