Ah, you're no newbie, so i don't have to be friendly (; Just kidding (there's another thread going on)
Anyways, nope, didn't try anything else yet. I'd like to have a gigabit ethernet, but lack the resources to buy the hardware ATM (several NICs, switch, etc.). iSCSI is more for connecting dedicated hardware, like streamers and stuff, isn't it? I do have a large PST file on the same server the games are on, but honestly, i don't think this is a large performance hit. I didn't do any precise measurements, but in the Windows system monitor, i can't see any bandwith being used by just having the PST open in Outlook (i do most of the "mail work" on an IMAP server, though - the PST is for archiving purposes). What you are writing about Outlook chewing up bandwith sounds like one of those "Windows is evil"-myths one hears so much (; . I'm pretty sure the building of index files, as described above, will take roughly the same amount of time, no matter if Oulook is accessing the PST, or not.
To go on ranting: i _hate_ NFS, though i'm not quite sure why. It just seems so anachronical (?) to me. I've tried it once, but it's not really an option - maybe if the server was running Linux.
Optimization - no matter in which field - should be done once major bugs are fixed, and the devs have free time on their hands, IMHO. I'll always appreciate a little speed increase. (;