Hi;

If I use the test render tool (or is it "area render"?  Anyways, that little camera icon that you click and then drag to make an outline of what you want rendered...).  When I use it, does it use the exact same settings as if I had performed a regular render of my scene (ie if my render settings had global illumination set, will it render gi too?) Also, if I use the test render with GI, will the render take into account all the other objects when determining lighting or will it only calculate lighting based upon objects in the area I've selected to render?

I think that the answer is yes, its use the same engine and settings that the final render so i think it best to do a low res render that a preview render.

I believe GKDantas is correct. The one big difference (in my experience) is that the "test render" doesn't seem to use all of your CPU's cores for rendering whereas a render set up in the render room does.

Yes, look that the area render dont use more then one core... and any move make it vanish...