iPod Networked Library and Size questions

[pretentious]

My notebook's hdd has became just too small for my library for iTunes. So I have ordered a very large drive for an older computer that I have sitting around and plan on moving my iTunes library on to that drive, but accessing it still via my laptop. I was wondering what kind of gotchas that I might find myself into from others with this kind of setup.
Like I was wondering about iTunes cache, should I turn off the Crossfade feature?
I would also imagine that updating my iPod would take a bit longer since has to pull the music off of a different computer. But can/should I rip CDs via my laptop?
I'm also wondering from the people with the huge libraries, how does iTunes scale? Has anyone taken iTunes to its limits? How large can you're library be, before it starts to breakdown?

 

[mad jew]

How are the two computers networked? What speed is the network? I stream music through an AirPort Express network well although I've never tried burning disks from a remote computer. The PCs handle it far worse than the Macs obviously but I've had both with libraries up to about 16,000 songs (only 13,000 now though) with no problems.

I wouldn't worry about the crossfade, I don't think it'll affect anything. iPod syncing will obviously be limited by your network speed which will be far slower than normal USB 2.0 or Firewire in most cases.