N70 Firmware upgrade and backing up the phone

I'm getting my N70 firmware upgraded to V 3.0546.2.3 18-11-05 RM-84
tomorrow night by my local Nokia service centre, I've been having Bluetooth
problems. I have quite a number of applications installed on the phone
memory and the memory card and I understand that all the phone memory
applications will be erased. Is the Nokia suite software good enough to
backup the phone memory or should I not bother and install all the
applications again from scratch. If I do install all the applications again
is there any advantage speed wise in putting the applications on the memory
card instead of the phone memory, i.e. if there is more free phone memory
will it run quicker and be more stable. Also my phone is an Orange one with
the Orange software installed. Do I really need that Orange software on or
will my phone run better without it, I realise this will invalidate my
Orange warranty but not my Nokia one.

TIA.


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