Read my mind! Most of my needs are calculation, not graphics. In fact the normal display of my boxen/laptops is sufficient to tell me if I'm on the right track. I'm still addicted to fractals after all of these years :) Started before fracint after a grad class at UCSC and have been hooked ever since. I've even toyed but not yet cut code with the idea of using the GPU version of the Amazon Cloud. The (pun alert) complexity is high, but the price is right! I figure that given what we are talking about as a initial breadboard, I could map out my code and then move to the Cloud. Don't know if you've seen the ultra hi res photos that allow substantial zooming, but that is more or less my target. Imagine a fractal that you can zoom in on without crunching the numbers, because they are pre-calculated! :)