Once you have it synced, it is fairly easy to maintain. I personally, just make sure to let it run overnight at least once per month and that is basically all you need to do to maintain it. Especially if younthink you will need access to some coin in a few days, it is a good idea to do. MINT does about 87,000 blocks per month, so it is a lot to sync, but I just think of it as the tradeoff for a fast coin. There is literally almost no wait with transactions, and it is awesome! After using MINT for a while, you'll get used to the speed for transactions. Then try having to use BTC again and other coins to send to an exchange or something and it taking more than 5 minutes or more, using BTC especially will start to make you angry. Speed for MINT is great if you want to capitalize on an arbitrage opportunity or something.  No waiting. Bam, its there. Love it!!!