Yes, you can turn on/and off any option you like. The shoutbox refreshes like every minute or so.... but you can set that time limit as well... or disable it.
It's totally customizable.
IIP can be tougher on the server (with lots of queries) because there's lots of info.... but JustDave included an option to "force public" and thus cache information, so it's only updated every so often which saves server load and increases speed.
