I have lots and lots of hard-drive space, and a computer that lets me set up several partitions.
I have divided up my 1 Tb of PC hard-drive, as follows LinuxMint-7 (Main) (150Gb) and also, have Xubuntu 9.10 (50Gb)and Debian Squeeze (testing) with Xfce (50Gb).
I have already made a new partition of 150 Gb that is waiting for LinuxMint-8 Helena.And a 10Gb Swap partition, leaving almost 600Gb as /home.
I actually, never worry about 'repositories' . . . I already have thousands of Apps to choose from? As for, updates/upgrades ... not a concern. I find what works and I use it.
I, too, will download the Helena RC when it is released
Talk about a Linux addict.