Number of Ultrapeer -> Ultrapeer Connections: 32
Number of Ultrapeer -> Leaf Connections: 30; hosts reach the 4000 limit in stats quite smoothly in about 10 minutes--pretty typical of what I've seen with this ISP (128kbps DSL)
unsharing a folder containing~8500 items/ .5GB helped the CPU usage, but less than I'd expected (still 40-60%), and window redraws were still unusually slow. Switched to LimeWire version 3.5.1jum205 (uses Apple's dp Java version 1.4.1_01)--CPU looked ~10% less, but similar. Reshared the folder (nice--no rehash required!), and CPU was generally up in the 50-88% range. Key difference noted was window redraws were quick--no spinning beachball.

Switched back to LW Pro 3.5.2 Beta (after a shutdown of machine and 128k modem)--saw beach ball between window redraws at first/less later. Tried running more apps--mail, safari; downloaded some music and watched the iTunes fire up and start playing smoothly (nice feature!), but the only stat which seemed to reflect the CPU jumping up over 90% was the QRP->Sent, often when the Unsent jumped over 300 (max 1268 messages per sec).

Does dropping queries require a lot of processing power?

Sorry again for the length and mumbo jumbo numbo's, but my trial with this ISP ends tonight. Thanks for reading: I don't know how you gurus filter so much information into sensible sentences.