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Just did some research....
500GB SAS 6gb drive for $125
2TB SAS drive for $260

As for SSDs...
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=2021&Tid=11691&name=Enterprise-SSD
What on that page looks even remotely comparable? I see several SSDs in the "multi-thousand" range, none of them hitting 2TB.

I would welcome if the EPA implemented and slowly phased in the ENERGY STAR program for all electronics sold with their very nice Watt-Hours (US) yellow stickers since this would start to bring the issue of power efficiency in appliances forward and allow the general populous see the actual numbers behind their products.

Solution 1 - Cancel your Cable or Satellite

I cancelled my DirecTV satellite subscription a few years back and don't miss it yet still get all my TV entertainment from the Internet and the Web without having to fork over $100+ to the cable company to subsidize their QVC shopping channel and the other 299-channels that I will never tune to or ever watch. My television viewing habits are now focused only on the very few shows that I do watch and my enjoyment of television has increased as I no longer waste any time on the increasingly annoying and idiotic product advertisements.

Solution 2 - Build your own Digital Video Recorder computer

HTPC - iAtom 1.8 2C, 2GB DDR3, 40GB SSD, 2TB HDD, Blu-Ray, ATSC+ClearQAM, Mini-ATX, 120mm Fan - Subtotal: $586.91

XBMC - Media Center Front-End with (Multi-OS Windows, Linux, Apple, etc.) - Does Not Support Recording or Capture, Playback Only
MythTV - Digital Video Recorder (Linux) - Does Support Capture and Recording

I build my own HTPC using Intel Atom and nVidia Ion 2 running XBMC front-end on Ubuntu Linux with a 40 GB SSD, 1.5 TB HDD, 2 GB RAM, and AverMedia Digital Capture card for Over The Air TV (that I never setup with MythTV and don't watch anyway). This little box has HDMI direct connection to my 50-inch TV so I get full video output and also fully accelerated MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 (ASP, and AVC H.264) decoding at 1080p without dropping any frames thanks to nVidia Ion 2 (aka Ion Next Generation) all on the low-power 1.8 GHz dual-core Intel Atom processors while only utilizing 5-7% CPU when doing playback. It is also dead quiet due to the SSD, WD Green HDD, quiet liquid 120mm ball-bearing fan, and fan-less motherboard cooling.

The whole box uses 45 Watts while idle, 50 Watts while watching a show, and 55 Watts when I do a full load test on all the components at once. I leave this box on permanently and it serves as my server for SSH, FTP, DDNS, Wake-On-LAN, BitTorrent, etc. It is a lot more energy friendly than any other desktop or server I ran previously in my house for same Linux server duties and I can use it to watch TV while it does all those other things in the background.

Solution 3 - Do Not Use Your Desktop as Media Box

For heavy processing or encoding, I use the desktop computer but keep it on only while I'm sitting down at it and that beast with the two monitors eats 465 Watts of power idle and will hit ~550 Watts if I hit the video card hard. That's a 10-fold increase in power utilization so I always turn my desktop off when I'm done with it and boot it back up in just a few seconds thanks to the new Intel 320 160GB SSD (upgraded from Intel 80GB G1 SSD). The two 3-second pauses during boot-up to go into the Silicon Image and Intel RAID menus take longer than load Windows 7 entirely otherwise my computer would be up in under 10-seconds.

Oh, citations.

http://www.amazon.com/Optical-Quantum-Blu-ray-Single-Layer-Recordable/dp/B002LU80QS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308884257&sr=8-1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817130187&cm_re=bd-r-_-17-130-187-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817501067&cm_re=bd-r-_-17-501-067-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118049&cm_re=bd-r-_-27-118-049-_-Product

Verbatim discs seem to be a little more expensive, but not drastically so. One of those is a cheaper brand that comes in at exactly $1/disc but still gets positive reviews. Drives are still fairly expensive at this point, but not nearly as bad as one might expect.

Oh, citations.

http://www.amazon.com/Optical-Quantum-Blu-ray-Single-Layer-Recordable/dp/B002LU80QS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308884257&sr=8-1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817130187&cm_re=bd-r-_-17-130-187-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817501067&cm_re=bd-r-_-17-501-067-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118049&cm_re=bd-r-_-27-118-049-_-Product

Verbatim discs seem to be a little more expensive, but not drastically so. One of those is a cheaper brand that comes in at exactly $1/disc but still gets positive reviews. Drives are still fairly expensive at this point, but not nearly as bad as one might expect.

Oh, citations.

http://www.amazon.com/Optical-Quantum-Blu-ray-Single-Layer-Recordable/dp/B002LU80QS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308884257&sr=8-1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817130187&cm_re=bd-r-_-17-130-187-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817501067&cm_re=bd-r-_-17-501-067-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118049&cm_re=bd-r-_-27-118-049-_-Product

Verbatim discs seem to be a little more expensive, but not drastically so. One of those is a cheaper brand that comes in at exactly $1/disc but still gets positive reviews. Drives are still fairly expensive at this point, but not nearly as bad as one might expect.

DDR3 Memory is DIRT CHEAP now. I'd strongly encourage you to buy more. If you are on a 32-bit OS, then upgrade!
e.g.: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277

There's a reason the parent used the words "random assemblage of lowest-bidder hardware" when talking about OEM computers. Sure you can get cheap PCs in the range of a few hundred bucks, but that's exactly what they are - cheap. The hardware is undoubtably low-spec, likely prone to defects or short lifespan, and the operating system is fraught with crapware and preloaded trials. On newegg.com, the cheapest "All-in-one" they have (computer-in-monitor w/ keyboard and mouse) is $600 MSRP. That's with a Dual-Core Celeron, a gig of RAM, and relatively dated Intel GMA graphics on a 19" CCFL display. Considering those specs, I'd rather have a mid-level iPad 2 or related device for the same price. Technically the specs are lower, but the "desktop" PC is far too underpowered for its form-factor and thus to me a smaller highly portable device is worth a lot more. Furthermore, the cheapest "recertified" PC (parts and/or entire PCs were recalled for defect and are now being reissued after "repair") is $300 MSRP and carries a Pentium 4 with a gig of ram and a 40 gig hard drive (yeah - really). Minus monitor and input devices. Not even close to worth that money, I assembled a dual core 1.8 GHz Atom ITX box with two 7200 drives running Ubuntu as a quick-n-dirty fileserver for $200. The next cheapest machine not recertified is one of those ASUS Atom boxes for $240. Again, relatively low specs downplay usefulness as a desktop machine, would much rather a portable device. The cheapest non-recertified non-Atom desktop appears to be an Athlon II system for $330. The specs are a little more respectable for light desktop use but again, many many consumer-level users are going to prefer portable devices for their email, facebook, etc. I don't even really count netbooks much in the game because so many of them are too underpowered or poorly configured even for that. Admittedly I haven't used any netbook released within the past year, but the ones I have used have really chugged along when loading web pages and youtube videos. I think many of us take the modern casual user for granted, assuming that dated generic hardware can support their web-related activities for granted. The reality is the bulk of the "social" internet can be very hard on system requirements, particularly when using older hardware that doesn't have all the optimizations current low-power stuff does. Devices like iPads and probably soon some Android tablets that are truly designed to support those use cases are heavily optimized for those users. They can accomplish more with less and their core design philosophies (portability, battery life, etc) make them a lot more attractive to users.

It is my belief that were it not for the naturally wasteful and capitalist nature of our society (cell phone companies want you to have both a smartphone and a smartpad with expensive data plans, for obvious reasons), our personal device usage would be moving in a more centralized direction. The cloud concept is part of a step in the right direction, but so far everyone that's embraced it has been far to single-minded, IMHO. I think the ideal solution is for individuals to have three separate "spheres" of computing. At the lowest level, an individual has their personal data and processing, something akin to carrying a tablet device with localized and cellular wireless capabilities. There's really no good reason for people to not carry a 5 to 10 inch device with a headset that serves as both a personal communications and an information access device. In simple terms, their iPad also double as their iPhone and their iPod. Moreover, there's no real reason that this device can't be a relatively powerful 15" notebook. For those that need such power on some occasions, it would mak

There's a reason the parent used the words "random assemblage of lowest-bidder hardware" when talking about OEM computers. Sure you can get cheap PCs in the range of a few hundred bucks, but that's exactly what they are - cheap. The hardware is undoubtably low-spec, likely prone to defects or short lifespan, and the operating system is fraught with crapware and preloaded trials. On newegg.com, the cheapest "All-in-one" they have (computer-in-monitor w/ keyboard and mouse) is $600 MSRP. That's with a Dual-Core Celeron, a gig of RAM, and relatively dated Intel GMA graphics on a 19" CCFL display. Considering those specs, I'd rather have a mid-level iPad 2 or related device for the same price. Technically the specs are lower, but the "desktop" PC is far too underpowered for its form-factor and thus to me a smaller highly portable device is worth a lot more. Furthermore, the cheapest "recertified" PC (parts and/or entire PCs were recalled for defect and are now being reissued after "repair") is $300 MSRP and carries a Pentium 4 with a gig of ram and a 40 gig hard drive (yeah - really). Minus monitor and input devices. Not even close to worth that money, I assembled a dual core 1.8 GHz Atom ITX box with two 7200 drives running Ubuntu as a quick-n-dirty fileserver for $200. The next cheapest machine not recertified is one of those ASUS Atom boxes for $240. Again, relatively low specs downplay usefulness as a desktop machine, would much rather a portable device. The cheapest non-recertified non-Atom desktop appears to be an Athlon II system for $330. The specs are a little more respectable for light desktop use but again, many many consumer-level users are going to prefer portable devices for their email, facebook, etc. I don't even really count netbooks much in the game because so many of them are too underpowered or poorly configured even for that. Admittedly I haven't used any netbook released within the past year, but the ones I have used have really chugged along when loading web pages and youtube videos. I think many of us take the modern casual user for granted, assuming that dated generic hardware can support their web-related activities for granted. The reality is the bulk of the "social" internet can be very hard on system requirements, particularly when using older hardware that doesn't have all the optimizations current low-power stuff does. Devices like iPads and probably soon some Android tablets that are truly designed to support those use cases are heavily optimized for those users. They can accomplish more with less and their core design philosophies (portability, battery life, etc) make them a lot more attractive to users.

It is my belief that were it not for the naturally wasteful and capitalist nature of our society (cell phone companies want you to have both a smartphone and a smartpad with expensive data plans, for obvious reasons), our personal device usage would be moving in a more centralized direction. The cloud concept is part of a step in the right direction, but so far everyone that's embraced it has been far to single-minded, IMHO. I think the ideal solution is for individuals to have three separate "spheres" of computing. At the lowest level, an individual has their personal data and processing, something akin to carrying a tablet device with localized and cellular wireless capabilities. There's really no good reason for people to not carry a 5 to 10 inch device with a headset that serves as both a personal communications and an information access device. In simple terms, their iPad also double as their iPhone and their iPod. Moreover, there's no real reason that this device can't be a relatively powerful 15" notebook. For those that need such power on some occasions, it would mak

There's a reason the parent used the words "random assemblage of lowest-bidder hardware" when talking about OEM computers. Sure you can get cheap PCs in the range of a few hundred bucks, but that's exactly what they are - cheap. The hardware is undoubtably low-spec, likely prone to defects or short lifespan, and the operating system is fraught with crapware and preloaded trials. On newegg.com, the cheapest "All-in-one" they have (computer-in-monitor w/ keyboard and mouse) is $600 MSRP. That's with a Dual-Core Celeron, a gig of RAM, and relatively dated Intel GMA graphics on a 19" CCFL display. Considering those specs, I'd rather have a mid-level iPad 2 or related device for the same price. Technically the specs are lower, but the "desktop" PC is far too underpowered for its form-factor and thus to me a smaller highly portable device is worth a lot more. Furthermore, the cheapest "recertified" PC (parts and/or entire PCs were recalled for defect and are now being reissued after "repair") is $300 MSRP and carries a Pentium 4 with a gig of ram and a 40 gig hard drive (yeah - really). Minus monitor and input devices. Not even close to worth that money, I assembled a dual core 1.8 GHz Atom ITX box with two 7200 drives running Ubuntu as a quick-n-dirty fileserver for $200. The next cheapest machine not recertified is one of those ASUS Atom boxes for $240. Again, relatively low specs downplay usefulness as a desktop machine, would much rather a portable device. The cheapest non-recertified non-Atom desktop appears to be an Athlon II system for $330. The specs are a little more respectable for light desktop use but again, many many consumer-level users are going to prefer portable devices for their email, facebook, etc. I don't even really count netbooks much in the game because so many of them are too underpowered or poorly configured even for that. Admittedly I haven't used any netbook released within the past year, but the ones I have used have really chugged along when loading web pages and youtube videos. I think many of us take the modern casual user for granted, assuming that dated generic hardware can support their web-related activities for granted. The reality is the bulk of the "social" internet can be very hard on system requirements, particularly when using older hardware that doesn't have all the optimizations current low-power stuff does. Devices like iPads and probably soon some Android tablets that are truly designed to support those use cases are heavily optimized for those users. They can accomplish more with less and their core design philosophies (portability, battery life, etc) make them a lot more attractive to users.

It is my belief that were it not for the naturally wasteful and capitalist nature of our society (cell phone companies want you to have both a smartphone and a smartpad with expensive data plans, for obvious reasons), our personal device usage would be moving in a more centralized direction. The cloud concept is part of a step in the right direction, but so far everyone that's embraced it has been far to single-minded, IMHO. I think the ideal solution is for individuals to have three separate "spheres" of computing. At the lowest level, an individual has their personal data and processing, something akin to carrying a tablet device with localized and cellular wireless capabilities. There's really no good reason for people to not carry a 5 to 10 inch device with a headset that serves as both a personal communications and an information access device. In simple terms, their iPad also double as their iPhone and their iPod. Moreover, there's no real reason that this device can't be a relatively powerful 15" notebook. For those that need such power on some occasions, it would mak

There's a reason the parent used the words "random assemblage of lowest-bidder hardware" when talking about OEM computers. Sure you can get cheap PCs in the range of a few hundred bucks, but that's exactly what they are - cheap. The hardware is undoubtably low-spec, likely prone to defects or short lifespan, and the operating system is fraught with crapware and preloaded trials. On newegg.com, the cheapest "All-in-one" they have (computer-in-monitor w/ keyboard and mouse) is $600 MSRP. That's with a Dual-Core Celeron, a gig of RAM, and relatively dated Intel GMA graphics on a 19" CCFL display. Considering those specs, I'd rather have a mid-level iPad 2 or related device for the same price. Technically the specs are lower, but the "desktop" PC is far too underpowered for its form-factor and thus to me a smaller highly portable device is worth a lot more. Furthermore, the cheapest "recertified" PC (parts and/or entire PCs were recalled for defect and are now being reissued after "repair") is $300 MSRP and carries a Pentium 4 with a gig of ram and a 40 gig hard drive (yeah - really). Minus monitor and input devices. Not even close to worth that money, I assembled a dual core 1.8 GHz Atom ITX box with two 7200 drives running Ubuntu as a quick-n-dirty fileserver for $200. The next cheapest machine not recertified is one of those ASUS Atom boxes for $240. Again, relatively low specs downplay usefulness as a desktop machine, would much rather a portable device. The cheapest non-recertified non-Atom desktop appears to be an Athlon II system for $330. The specs are a little more respectable for light desktop use but again, many many consumer-level users are going to prefer portable devices for their email, facebook, etc. I don't even really count netbooks much in the game because so many of them are too underpowered or poorly configured even for that. Admittedly I haven't used any netbook released within the past year, but the ones I have used have really chugged along when loading web pages and youtube videos. I think many of us take the modern casual user for granted, assuming that dated generic hardware can support their web-related activities for granted. The reality is the bulk of the "social" internet can be very hard on system requirements, particularly when using older hardware that doesn't have all the optimizations current low-power stuff does. Devices like iPads and probably soon some Android tablets that are truly designed to support those use cases are heavily optimized for those users. They can accomplish more with less and their core design philosophies (portability, battery life, etc) make them a lot more attractive to users.

It is my belief that were it not for the naturally wasteful and capitalist nature of our society (cell phone companies want you to have both a smartphone and a smartpad with expensive data plans, for obvious reasons), our personal device usage would be moving in a more centralized direction. The cloud concept is part of a step in the right direction, but so far everyone that's embraced it has been far to single-minded, IMHO. I think the ideal solution is for individuals to have three separate "spheres" of computing. At the lowest level, an individual has their personal data and processing, something akin to carrying a tablet device with localized and cellular wireless capabilities. There's really no good reason for people to not carry a 5 to 10 inch device with a headset that serves as both a personal communications and an information access device. In simple terms, their iPad also double as their iPhone and their iPod. Moreover, there's no real reason that this device can't be a relatively powerful 15" notebook. For those that need such power on some occasions, it would mak

I'm not sure if this was changed late in 10.5 or somewhere in 10.6 (it wasn't in early builds of 10.5 for sure) but you can use pretty much any Mac to back up another, and you don't even need this hack. Just turn on file sharing: Apple Menu -> System Preferences -> Sharing -> [x] File Sharing

I have two machines at work: an old G5 with 10.5 and two hard drives and a MacBook pro with 10.6. The MBP connects to the G5's second hard drive with file sharing over the network for Time Machine.

Or you can also use Time Machine with any external USB or FireWire drive. A 500 GB USB Seagate costs $60 at NewEgg.

Wikipedia lists the upgrade editions and what path that was required because there were so many different versions of Vista. Newegg lists the prices but does not list the path .

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122318&cm_re=powerline_networking-_-33-122-318-_-Product

There are many other options out there, but that's the one I am using, for exactly the purpose that the GP has suggested. No stringing wires needed at all, and throughput is plenty adequate for wifi.

Dell and HP have several knockoffs, and if you go to Newegg theres an entire section dedicated to "All-in-one" PCs (read, iMac knockoffs)

And they all look like unshaven ass (with apologies to those who enjoy unshaven ass). (Look at some of the Lenovo and Asus offerings! Ewwww CHEEEZY!), are underspec-ed compared to the iMac, or are by a company one would get fired for even considering spec-ing into a business environment (MSI), are rebranded who-knows-what by a monitor company (Viewsonic), and/or are as expensive as an iMac anyway (HP). I note that you didn't include a link. How telling.

So, I think I will...

And BTW, since people are always talking about the so-called "Apple Tax", why doesn't anyone whine about the damned SONY TAX?!?

Dell and HP have several knockoffs, and if you go to Newegg theres an entire section dedicated to "All-in-one" PCs (read, iMac knockoffs)

And they all look like unshaven ass (with apologies to those who enjoy unshaven ass). (Look at some of the Lenovo and Asus offerings! Ewwww CHEEEZY!), are underspec-ed compared to the iMac, or are by a company one would get fired for even considering spec-ing into a business environment (MSI), are rebranded who-knows-what by a monitor company (Viewsonic), and/or are as expensive as an iMac anyway (HP). I note that you didn't include a link. How telling.

So, I think I will...

And BTW, since people are always talking about the so-called "Apple Tax", why doesn't anyone whine about the damned SONY TAX?!?

Don't buy an overpriced spray-and-pray blotter printer. Get a real laser printer.

It is indeed possible to buy a color laser for only $229.99 new (or $309.99 if you want reasonably priced consumables), but the colors are not as brilliant as an inkjet's. The brilliancy of color laser tonor works for almost all applications, but there are some applications where you want the extra oomph of brilliancy from an inkjet.

Dye sublimation is almost as brilliant as inkjet and of course much better resolution, but is expensive for full 8.5"x11" (although it's very cheap for photo size, evidently due to mass production; I still don't know why dye sub hasn't caught on enough for mass production after 20 years for 8.5"x11").

Don't buy an overpriced spray-and-pray blotter printer. Get a real laser printer.

It is indeed possible to buy a color laser for only $229.99 new (or $309.99 if you want reasonably priced consumables), but the colors are not as brilliant as an inkjet's. The brilliancy of color laser tonor works for almost all applications, but there are some applications where you want the extra oomph of brilliancy from an inkjet.

Dye sublimation is almost as brilliant as inkjet and of course much better resolution, but is expensive for full 8.5"x11" (although it's very cheap for photo size, evidently due to mass production; I still don't know why dye sub hasn't caught on enough for mass production after 20 years for 8.5"x11").

i dont know here you live, but let's assume the USA:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709+600038364+4025+600001667&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=48&description=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&AdvancedSearch=1&srchInDesc=

newegg has 28 low profile cards under $50, and you can choose between pci, agp or pci-e and ati or nvidia

FYI, i just bought this 24" 1900*1200 monitor. Absolutely love it. And with a matte screen.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824176141

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220060
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883155126
Yes, those things are hideous. And the price! I cant buy anything thats less than $1000; its too cheap.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220060
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883155126
Yes, those things are hideous. And the price! I cant buy anything thats less than $1000; its too cheap.

You were saying?

Right now, on newegg, im only seeing USB3.0 on highend multi-hundred-dollar motherboards, so it seems to be a wash in that regard.

Bullshit

Sigh. Newegg says otherwise.

You mean no improvement aside from being able to do the same thing?

FTFY

Right now, on newegg, im only seeing USB3.0 on highend multi-hundred-dollar motherboards,

Starting at $68.
In fact, there's nearly 100 to choose from for under $100.

If you think theres no compelling difference between the CPU-bound USB 3.0 and what is essentially an external PCIe connector, you need to go back and do some more research. LightPeak /Thunderbolt is just plain better than USB3.0; downsides do include lack of backwards compatibility, and that may prove to be its biggest obstacle, but to argue that "USB3.0 is good enough" is just wrong.

As for price, USB3.0 has been out for about a year now, with Thunderbolt only having rolled off the shelves-- and this, only in Apples computers so far-- a few months ago. Right now, on newegg, im only seeing USB3.0 on highend multi-hundred-dollar motherboards, so it seems to be a wash in that regard.

Its way too early to tell, and anyone saying otherwise is full of it.

You see, only what you want to see: USB 3.0 Motherboards starting at $69
The expansion cards for USB 3.0 start at $29.
USB 3.0 consumer devices were released about a year and a half ago.

Apparently you belong to those who "need to go back and do some more research". You make blanket claims of thunderbolt > USB3.0 but offer no specifics to support this argument. Finishing your post with "anyone saying otherwise is full of it" is just bait for someone like me to come and blow holes in your fail of a thought. Care to try again?

Right now, on newegg, im only seeing USB3.0 on highend multi-hundred-dollar motherboards

Newegg says you're wrong.

Right now, on newegg, im only seeing USB3.0 on highend multi-hundred-dollar motherboards

Newegg says you're wrong.

You just spent 3 sentences telling people why anyone who argues differently from you is wrong, yet you provided not a single reason. The only fact you provided is easily disproven:

Right now, on newegg, im only seeing USB3.0 on highend multi-hundred-dollar motherboards, so it seems to be a wash in that regard.

Most certainly not! I see 29 USB 3.0 motherboards less than $100 at newegg.. The $500 HTPC I bought this year has 2 USB 3.0 ports, as does my 8 month old laptop. By next year even the low-end will have it because manufacturers will have unloaded their USB 2.0 chipset boards.

Pretty nice for only $1220...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824176177

No, it's not. I just looked on Newegg yesterday and found a bunch of models in 1920x1200, and a bunch in even higher resolutions.

Here's about 30 models:
link

Looks like they start at about $260, plus shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Property&Subcategory=20&Description=&Type=&N=100007617&IsNodeId=1&srchInDesc=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&PropertyCodeValue=1099%3A9240&PropertyCodeValue=1099%3A9242&PropertyCodeValue=1099%3A57803&PropertyCodeValue=1099%3A9238&PropertyCodeValue=1099%3A25153

On a related note, I can't understand why someone can't actually provide HARDWARE write protect on a USB stick

If you're looking for one I've been using one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820709013&cm_re=kanguru_flashblu_ii-_-20-709-013-_-Product

Running a persistent Linux OS off of it and the hardware write protect switch is nice as Windows tries to helpfully format anything that's not FAT/NTFS. Of course I've gotten kernel panics more then once booting off this when I forget to turn it back, as it fails to remount the root filesystem R/W...

I absolutely agree with you. I think that a part of the problem is a lack of demand - or a perceived lack of demand. People who buy monitors seem to be looking at diagonal size, not resolution. I'm sure they tell focus groups that this is what they care about. And there are monitors out there that go to 2560x1600, but they are marketed at "professionals" and are absurdly expensive. What's worse, they seem to be immune to whatever force that's rapidly driving down the prices of the 1080p monitors. Some manufacturer needs to take the plunge and produce these in mass quantities, so they can charge a slightly lower price. I'd become interested once this started to approach $700. Maybe in two years? For now I'm getting by OK with 1920x1200 - a nice monitor resolution that also seems to have gone extinct.

That's funny, There's not a single X4 that uses that much electricity even at full tilt.

Something is fishy about the benchmark, why are they using Corsair DDR3 ram in the AMD machine while they use Kingston DDR3 ram in everything else. They don't even use the same video cards and for some reason are trying to measure total system power consumption?

But back in the Athlon 64 days, the numbers used to have actual meaning and were related to Intel's processor performance. An Athlon 64 3800+ performed on par with a 3800 MHz Pentium 4

Actually this is not correct. The comparison between the AMD chips and Intel's Stopped with the Althon XP. Those were the chips that could perform at or near the same level as Intel with a lower clock. Performance Rating also called Pentium Rating or P4 Rating

Anything beyond the XP cpu's is nothing more than marketing ploys used by AMD. Although the XP numbers were also a marketing ploy but they could live up to it. Even today AMD uses PR capaigns to try and make up for the lack of performance.

Using the same site you linked for the Athlon64, AMD's highest CPU the Phenom II X6 1100T 3.3GHz @ $214 on the EGG has 30 Intel CPU's above it in performance benchmarks the 11th one being the mid range Intel core i-5 2500K 3.3GHz @ $224 on the EGG. Even several Intel Mobile CPU's out perform AMD's highest pride and joy.

When AMD releases a CPU that is truely benched at what they claim it can do, and I dont mean playing WOW on medium settings, I will consider the argument they are the better value. But when a 6 core high end CPU by AMD get stomped on by a mid range 4 core from Intel, I think I will stick with my Xeon Workstation for my Solidworks and AutoCAD.

But back in the Athlon 64 days, the numbers used to have actual meaning and were related to Intel's processor performance. An Athlon 64 3800+ performed on par with a 3800 MHz Pentium 4

Actually this is not correct. The comparison between the AMD chips and Intel's Stopped with the Althon XP. Those were the chips that could perform at or near the same level as Intel with a lower clock. Performance Rating also called Pentium Rating or P4 Rating

Anything beyond the XP cpu's is nothing more than marketing ploys used by AMD. Although the XP numbers were also a marketing ploy but they could live up to it. Even today AMD uses PR capaigns to try and make up for the lack of performance.

Using the same site you linked for the Athlon64, AMD's highest CPU the Phenom II X6 1100T 3.3GHz @ $214 on the EGG has 30 Intel CPU's above it in performance benchmarks the 11th one being the mid range Intel core i-5 2500K 3.3GHz @ $224 on the EGG. Even several Intel Mobile CPU's out perform AMD's highest pride and joy.

When AMD releases a CPU that is truely benched at what they claim it can do, and I dont mean playing WOW on medium settings, I will consider the argument they are the better value. But when a 6 core high end CPU by AMD get stomped on by a mid range 4 core from Intel, I think I will stick with my Xeon Workstation for my Solidworks and AutoCAD.

Especially since you can count the number of PC models shipping with a Blu-Ray drive on one hand.

I can only count to 31 on one hand. 58 laptops with bluray drives at Newegg

... out of over 650. Less than 9%.

Hey, Apple also offers less than 9% of their computers with Blu-Ray.

Especially since you can count the number of PC models shipping with a Blu-Ray drive on one hand.

I can only count to 31 on one hand. 58 laptops with bluray drives at Newegg

"he's conveniently omitting convertibles like the above ThinkPad, which likely make up 90%+ of PC tablet sales."

I wouldn't be so sure, Fujitsu has a large line of popular LifeBook Tablet PCs, and Newegg has a wide variety of tablet pcs available with the most models coming from Panasonic and their $2400-$4000 Toughbook series

Either of those, and a Linksys WRT54GL router, dirt simple to set up. More info here.

They (e.g., Dell, HP) were selling P4s in 2006. Five years might seem like ten or even a hundred to some people, particularly those with fat wallets. However, there is not a big difference between a hyperthreading 2.4GHz P4 with 400MHz DDR memory and a new quad-core Core7 running 2.4GHz with 8GB of 1600 DDR3 if you are just running XP and a browser. Almost all the latency will be in the network. Adding a gigabyte of DRAM would solve the problem for $30 -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820178282. I know that cracking cases can be expensive, time wise, but so can tweaking software that doesn't quite fit.

My motherboard (MSI Fuzion 870a) lets me mix CrossFireX and SLI cards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130297

Powered by the Fuzion technology that offers Non-Identical & Cross-Vendor Multi-GPU processing, the MSI 870A Fuzion allows you to install two different level and brand graphics cards (even ATI and NVIDIA Hybrid) in a single system, providing flexible upgradability and great 3D performance.

The WRVS4400N has mediocre reviews at Amazon and Newegg.

If they just made a 1 U case that could fit an mini itx and 6 drivers.

If you dont mind paying for laptop drives, here you go (first link desktop mini-itx cases w/5.25" slot; second link rackmount 1u cases with 5.25" slot; third link a 6-drive 5.25" hotswap drive RAID cage).

If they just made a 1 U case that could fit an mini itx and 6 drivers.

If you dont mind paying for laptop drives, here you go (first link desktop mini-itx cases w/5.25" slot; second link rackmount 1u cases with 5.25" slot; third link a 6-drive 5.25" hotswap drive RAID cage).

If they just made a 1 U case that could fit an mini itx and 6 drivers.

If you dont mind paying for laptop drives, here you go (first link desktop mini-itx cases w/5.25" slot; second link rackmount 1u cases with 5.25" slot; third link a 6-drive 5.25" hotswap drive RAID cage).

Did freenas fix the ZFS performance issues? And why would you want a hardware raid? If you controller dies you will have to get a compatable replacement to rebuild the array. Also might I suggest Openfiler as also worth looking at.
Oh and this would IMHO make a nice NAS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182234

You get 6 sata ports 2 x 1000Mbit network ports plus it uses VGA and PS/2 so KVMs are cheap and easy with this. It even has a serial port if you need it. Put FreeNas on a USB drive and you have a crap load of storage with this. Or use the PCI slot to add more SATA ports and really increase you storage space. If they just made a 1 U case that could fit an mini itx and 6 drivers.

There is cheaper no tablet out there. Full Stop. After a year of existence, the iPad is still the cheapest tablet selling*

This "Apple is always more expensive" trope needs to be killed, because the facts don't agree.

The last time I checked, $300 was less than $350. Oh, and that's for a new Viewsonic tablet versus a refurbed iPad.

I don't think Apple is even selling the iPad new anymore (at least, I couldn't find it in the store), you have to go with the $500+ iPad 2 if you don't trust refurbed items.