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That's a good choice. If you need another Mythbuntu client though you might try the Intel Atom motherboard. They've made great strides in power efficiency and it seems they'll make more.

I recommend the Pico PSU power kit to go with both yours and this new one. DC is the wave of the future.

Of course, nobody in their right mind will buy it for their new computer, or their home rig. I wonder who buys it? Highly-regulated IT stuck with a boatload of old hardware?

It supports USB storage devices. A 500GB hard drive is another $100, or you can hook up an 8GB USB pocket drive for $30. That's assuming you don't have those things already. For about $68 you can get an 80GB USB drive that doesn't require a separate power source or you can get a 120GB bus-powered one for $70.

Oh, and my 40 megabyte hard drive on my 286 can store quite a bit of information in the right formats. A 4GB drive was a mid-end desktop part ten years ago and a high-end server part five years before that.

You can always throw your own NAS on your local network, too. Cisco markets one under their Linksys brand that pulls 60 watts to power itself and two SATA drives. Being a NAS, you could use it with a handful of computers and split the energy costs. If you had 4 CherryPals and one of those from Linksys, you'd be running four desktops with a decent amount of shared storage at 68 watts.

It supports USB storage devices. A 500GB hard drive is another $100, or you can hook up an 8GB USB pocket drive for $30. That's assuming you don't have those things already. For about $68 you can get an 80GB USB drive that doesn't require a separate power source or you can get a 120GB bus-powered one for $70.

Oh, and my 40 megabyte hard drive on my 286 can store quite a bit of information in the right formats. A 4GB drive was a mid-end desktop part ten years ago and a high-end server part five years before that.

You can always throw your own NAS on your local network, too. Cisco markets one under their Linksys brand that pulls 60 watts to power itself and two SATA drives. Being a NAS, you could use it with a handful of computers and split the energy costs. If you had 4 CherryPals and one of those from Linksys, you'd be running four desktops with a decent amount of shared storage at 68 watts.

It supports USB storage devices. A 500GB hard drive is another $100, or you can hook up an 8GB USB pocket drive for $30. That's assuming you don't have those things already. For about $68 you can get an 80GB USB drive that doesn't require a separate power source or you can get a 120GB bus-powered one for $70.

Oh, and my 40 megabyte hard drive on my 286 can store quite a bit of information in the right formats. A 4GB drive was a mid-end desktop part ten years ago and a high-end server part five years before that.

You can always throw your own NAS on your local network, too. Cisco markets one under their Linksys brand that pulls 60 watts to power itself and two SATA drives. Being a NAS, you could use it with a handful of computers and split the energy costs. If you had 4 CherryPals and one of those from Linksys, you'd be running four desktops with a decent amount of shared storage at 68 watts.

Since we're talking about the walmart cluster try one of these gPC units for $199. Power is really low, but not as low as the item in TFA. I've bought them and they work great for linux or XP. Slap a couple terabyte SATA drives in there and it makes a fine media server.

If you want to save some watts and noise convert it to DC with a pico-psu for another fifty. If you're going for high density get four and mount the other three motherboards inside the first one, or mount them all on sheet of lexan - they make an interesting digital industrial wall covering for about the price of a nice framed print. BTW, if you're going for the wall covering look with the PicoPSU I would recommend Intel's Atom motherboard instead. It burns fewer watts and is cheaper because it doesn't come with a case and PSU. You'll have to buy a gig stick of DDR2 to go with it, but you're still money ahead going this way.

$138 dollars gets you a PC Engines 1C in a Mini ITX form factor:http://www.pcengines.ch/alix1c.htm

Specs:

CPU: 433 or 500 MHz AMD Geode LX
DRAM: 128 or 256 MB SDRAM on board
Storage: CompactFlash socket, 44 pin IDE
Power: 12V DC, DC-DC converter on board. No bulky ATX PSU needed.
Expansion: miniPCI + 3.3V PCI + LPC + optional I2C
Connectivity: 1 Ethernet channel (Via VT6105M 10/100)
I/O: 2 COM, 4 USB, 1 LPT, audio, VGA
Board size: 6.7 x 6.7" (miniITX), low profile.
Firmware: Award BIOS

Board: $138
Case: $10
PS: $12
4GB CF $14 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211191

Cheaper and more open.

It's not 2W, but the new Intel Atom boards let you do that in about 30W (4W for the processor itself).

Generally I find them less precise, and slower to do things like move the cursor across the screen. I also get annoyed by the "helpful" features like registering a tap as a click as I find I tend to trigger it accidently. I also find that they tend to be too small and annoy me when I'm typing when my wrists brush up against them, but that's more an issue with the laptop form factor than the actual touchpad.

You can buy them at Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826152008

They come either stand alone or integrated into a keyboard.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826152007

My friend uses a laptop style touchpad ever since crushing his hand in a security door. The one he bought has small sections around the edge of the surface which can be used for scrolling, and there is software so you can disable this or change the function of these sections.

What the hell? They're cheap now? Looking on newegg, Core 2 Duos seem to hover around $200, while Athlon 64 X2s hover around $100. If 2x the price of your competitor is "cheap", what the fuck is "expensive"?

I recommend looking at the prices for Intel's Core 2 Extreme line if you want to see "expensive". :)

An even more interesting question is, what would it take to get them delivered with Server 2008 (64bit)?

Dell probably wont ship it with Server 2008 ... but you can buy your own for the same price. Dell charges ~$700 for Server 2008 standard.

You can also get it here for $680.

Check out newegg http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=368&name=Operating-Systems Vista Home Premium 64-bit and 32-bit are the same price, $109.99. I got my version (64-bit) for $99.

Links, or it didn't happen.

Ask, and ye shall receive.

Processor (x2): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147056 (I think, I'm not positive if this is the case I picked earlier)
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145175
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131232
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152031 (again, I think... I didn't save these links so I'm not sure on some parts)
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121082
Hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098

And I tacked on $40 for an optical drive, I believe. I overshot, looking now it looks like they're $25. Even better.

Links, or it didn't happen.

Ask, and ye shall receive.

Processor (x2): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147056 (I think, I'm not positive if this is the case I picked earlier)
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145175
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131232
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152031 (again, I think... I didn't save these links so I'm not sure on some parts)
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121082
Hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098

And I tacked on $40 for an optical drive, I believe. I overshot, looking now it looks like they're $25. Even better.

Links, or it didn't happen.

Ask, and ye shall receive.

Processor (x2): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147056 (I think, I'm not positive if this is the case I picked earlier)
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145175
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131232
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152031 (again, I think... I didn't save these links so I'm not sure on some parts)
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121082
Hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098

And I tacked on $40 for an optical drive, I believe. I overshot, looking now it looks like they're $25. Even better.

Links, or it didn't happen.

Ask, and ye shall receive.

Processor (x2): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147056 (I think, I'm not positive if this is the case I picked earlier)
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145175
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131232
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152031 (again, I think... I didn't save these links so I'm not sure on some parts)
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121082
Hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098

And I tacked on $40 for an optical drive, I believe. I overshot, looking now it looks like they're $25. Even better.

Links, or it didn't happen.

Ask, and ye shall receive.

Processor (x2): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147056 (I think, I'm not positive if this is the case I picked earlier)
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145175
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131232
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152031 (again, I think... I didn't save these links so I'm not sure on some parts)
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121082
Hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098

And I tacked on $40 for an optical drive, I believe. I overshot, looking now it looks like they're $25. Even better.

Links, or it didn't happen.

Ask, and ye shall receive.

Processor (x2): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147056 (I think, I'm not positive if this is the case I picked earlier)
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145175
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131232
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152031 (again, I think... I didn't save these links so I'm not sure on some parts)
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121082
Hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098

And I tacked on $40 for an optical drive, I believe. I overshot, looking now it looks like they're $25. Even better.

Links, or it didn't happen.

Ask, and ye shall receive.

Processor (x2): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147056 (I think, I'm not positive if this is the case I picked earlier)
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145175
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131232
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152031 (again, I think... I didn't save these links so I'm not sure on some parts)
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121082
Hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098

And I tacked on $40 for an optical drive, I believe. I overshot, looking now it looks like they're $25. Even better.

I turn off referrer headers for privacy (set network.http.sendRefererHeader to 0 in about:config in Firefox). Now it seems that it can also save me from malware :-).

Why would you want it enabled, anyway?

Silly websites that check it as some sort of "security." Easily foiled by sending the site's own URL as the referer though.

Even that doesn't work for all sites. Newegg, for example, won't let you finish checking out if you forge the referrer. I had to add an exception to it to RefControl.

P.S. I have RefControl set to Forge by default, which sends the site's base URL as the referrer.

Bullshit. The processors alone would cost $1430 from NewEgg.

A Dell Precision T5400 configured as close as I could get to the $2800 Mac Pro (Two quad-core Xeon 2.8ghz/2gb RAM/320gb HDD) priced out to $4315.

Although it is indeed frustrating that Apple doesn't offer a "normal" desktop box, their machines seem to be a good value for the money, provided that you fit the profile of one of their offerings.

I believe if buy XP, it will be SP2 or 3 now. Not really sure. I don't buy whole system for myself but at work, they are Dell Desktop shop.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16837116195 -- XP retail copy from newegg with SP2 preinstalled.

... So I'll make sure mine does. My argument might be that Apple computers - while they do not typically represent a great value - They really aren't as over priced as everyone tries to make them sound. I'm far from an Apple fanatic, but I have to tell you, I get tired of seeing people argue something they've made no effort to crunch numbers on.

For example, their $2800 Mac Pro Desktop has Dual 2.8Ghz Xeons (Harpertown, quad-core). On Newegg, they are each over $700 a pop. The board to put them in is a Dual 771 socket Intel board. Newegg lists a PC version of this for $650. The Mac Pro also includes 2GB of *buffered* ECC DDR-2 800Mhz. Registered RAM is considerably more expensive and I'm sure that'll run you at least $100.

($700 x 2) + $650 + $150 = $2200. I can probably stop here, but don't forget the snazzy case + 320GB hard drive + mediocre Radeon HD 2600 XT + pretty nice keyboard and mouse + support and warranty and that fantastic Apple packaging.. That doesn't really leave a lot for profit, does it? :\

I can do simliar comparisons with the Macbook and other Apple computers. Would you like me to? And true - they aren't budget computers - but you know what, they aren't a bad value for the speed, features and quality that you get. Even more specialized systems like the Mac Mini and iMac really aren't bad values when you factor in the unique design and functionality. Then there's those cool things like firewire target disk mode and magsafe that you just don't see on PCs... This is worth extra money and you pay for that, which I think these unique things could be considered part of the "Apple experience".

Apple doesn't do a very good job catering to gamers since their video cards are rarely 'cutting edge', but explain to me again how Apple is so egregiously overpriced for what you get?

... So I'll make sure mine does. My argument might be that Apple computers - while they do not typically represent a great value - They really aren't as over priced as everyone tries to make them sound. I'm far from an Apple fanatic, but I have to tell you, I get tired of seeing people argue something they've made no effort to crunch numbers on.

For example, their $2800 Mac Pro Desktop has Dual 2.8Ghz Xeons (Harpertown, quad-core). On Newegg, they are each over $700 a pop. The board to put them in is a Dual 771 socket Intel board. Newegg lists a PC version of this for $650. The Mac Pro also includes 2GB of *buffered* ECC DDR-2 800Mhz. Registered RAM is considerably more expensive and I'm sure that'll run you at least $100.

($700 x 2) + $650 + $150 = $2200. I can probably stop here, but don't forget the snazzy case + 320GB hard drive + mediocre Radeon HD 2600 XT + pretty nice keyboard and mouse + support and warranty and that fantastic Apple packaging.. That doesn't really leave a lot for profit, does it? :\

I can do simliar comparisons with the Macbook and other Apple computers. Would you like me to? And true - they aren't budget computers - but you know what, they aren't a bad value for the speed, features and quality that you get. Even more specialized systems like the Mac Mini and iMac really aren't bad values when you factor in the unique design and functionality. Then there's those cool things like firewire target disk mode and magsafe that you just don't see on PCs... This is worth extra money and you pay for that, which I think these unique things could be considered part of the "Apple experience".

Apple doesn't do a very good job catering to gamers since their video cards are rarely 'cutting edge', but explain to me again how Apple is so egregiously overpriced for what you get?

... So I'll make sure mine does. My argument might be that Apple computers - while they do not typically represent a great value - They really aren't as over priced as everyone tries to make them sound. I'm far from an Apple fanatic, but I have to tell you, I get tired of seeing people argue something they've made no effort to crunch numbers on.

For example, their $2800 Mac Pro Desktop has Dual 2.8Ghz Xeons (Harpertown, quad-core). On Newegg, they are each over $700 a pop. The board to put them in is a Dual 771 socket Intel board. Newegg lists a PC version of this for $650. The Mac Pro also includes 2GB of *buffered* ECC DDR-2 800Mhz. Registered RAM is considerably more expensive and I'm sure that'll run you at least $100.

($700 x 2) + $650 + $150 = $2200. I can probably stop here, but don't forget the snazzy case + 320GB hard drive + mediocre Radeon HD 2600 XT + pretty nice keyboard and mouse + support and warranty and that fantastic Apple packaging.. That doesn't really leave a lot for profit, does it? :\

I can do simliar comparisons with the Macbook and other Apple computers. Would you like me to? And true - they aren't budget computers - but you know what, they aren't a bad value for the speed, features and quality that you get. Even more specialized systems like the Mac Mini and iMac really aren't bad values when you factor in the unique design and functionality. Then there's those cool things like firewire target disk mode and magsafe that you just don't see on PCs... This is worth extra money and you pay for that, which I think these unique things could be considered part of the "Apple experience".

Apple doesn't do a very good job catering to gamers since their video cards are rarely 'cutting edge', but explain to me again how Apple is so egregiously overpriced for what you get?

I mean, I don't know, but my experience with 69 dollar hard drives is they often don't last more than 2 or 3 years. Often they are refurbs. Granted, it's been 3 or 4 years since I actually bought a hard drive, but back then the 69 dollar jobs were the refurbs.

That's the price of a top quality hard drive. You can get the Enterprise version with a longer warranty for $10 more, but it's pretty much the same hardware, except with a few features designed for servers' constant random access.

Western Digital is around the same price and same quality. Between Seagate and WD, they've battled back and forth for the best drive in that capacity, according to many reviews. You can't expect any hard drive to last more than 5 years.

Now if this were an iPod size drive, or smaller, they might have some justification for the high price. As it stands, it's a complete ripoff.

There is more to buying a product that just the specs. Specs are definitely an important factor, but just as important to me are honest reviews such as those at newegg.com, price, reliability, etc.

The Asus router you mention is $89.99 at newegg and has only 1 review (so I can determine nothing of its reliability). The WRT54GL is $61.99 (after $8 rebate) and has 1423 reviews (with close to a 5 star rating).

The Asus is 45% more ((89.99 - 61.99)/61.99). That's a big difference. The specs say nothing about the reliability of the product. The reason I'm so happy with the WRT54GL is the reliability. I know that if I want a lot more software features I can easily install other firmware. A faster processor, twice the ROM and RAM, and 2 USB ports mean nothing to me, since they would have no noticeable effect on my experience of the product. And there's a non-trivial chance that the Asus would turn out not to be as rock-solid reliable. For me, there is no question as to which is the better deal.

There is more to buying a product that just the specs. Specs are definitely an important factor, but just as important to me are honest reviews such as those at newegg.com, price, reliability, etc.

The Asus router you mention is $89.99 at newegg and has only 1 review (so I can determine nothing of its reliability). The WRT54GL is $61.99 (after $8 rebate) and has 1423 reviews (with close to a 5 star rating).

The Asus is 45% more ((89.99 - 61.99)/61.99). That's a big difference. The specs say nothing about the reliability of the product. The reason I'm so happy with the WRT54GL is the reliability. I know that if I want a lot more software features I can easily install other firmware. A faster processor, twice the ROM and RAM, and 2 USB ports mean nothing to me, since they would have no noticeable effect on my experience of the product. And there's a non-trivial chance that the Asus would turn out not to be as rock-solid reliable. For me, there is no question as to which is the better deal.

I have a Netopia 3387WG-ENT that I love. The ENT in the model name denoting the fact that it comes with the enterprise firmware (no GUI interface, telnet only). And the WG denoting it has wireless built in as well. I have VPN set up on it so that I can connect to my home LAN from wherever I am at on the road. And it doesn't cost nearly as much as a Cisco SOHO router. The 3387WG-ENT currently costs only 117.99$ at Newegg (though when I bought mine they were about $200. Nice price drop.). Here's the Newegg link.

I wonder how often voltage (5V vs. 3.3V) is a factor in UDMA problems...
Like the previous poster, I use a Transcend CF card to run XP and Ubuntu on a laptop. I recently "upgraded" to the 16GB 300x version, since it was supposed to run at UDMA5. I wrote the review here.

Short story: According to Transcend, the card has to run at 3.3V in order to run in UDMA5 mode. I'm also using that Addonics 2-card CF-to-IDE adapter, and it doesn't offer voltage choices, so I'm stuck at 5V and the slower speeds -- auto-detected at UDMA4 in XP and UDMA2 in Ubuntu.
Next up, I'm gonna try this single-card solution, since it has a hardware voltage switch (jumper).

Oh, yeah -- and for the purposes of mounting these CF-IDE adapters in notebooks, the Addonics is a real pain (super glue was involved), since it doesn't have the same dimensions & threaded holes as a standard 2.5" HD. According to another reviewer, the Syba addresses that.

I wonder how often voltage (5V vs. 3.3V) is a factor in UDMA problems...
Like the previous poster, I use a Transcend CF card to run XP and Ubuntu on a laptop. I recently "upgraded" to the 16GB 300x version, since it was supposed to run at UDMA5. I wrote the review here.

Short story: According to Transcend, the card has to run at 3.3V in order to run in UDMA5 mode. I'm also using that Addonics 2-card CF-to-IDE adapter, and it doesn't offer voltage choices, so I'm stuck at 5V and the slower speeds -- auto-detected at UDMA4 in XP and UDMA2 in Ubuntu.
Next up, I'm gonna try this single-card solution, since it has a hardware voltage switch (jumper).

Oh, yeah -- and for the purposes of mounting these CF-IDE adapters in notebooks, the Addonics is a real pain (super glue was involved), since it doesn't have the same dimensions & threaded holes as a standard 2.5" HD. According to another reviewer, the Syba addresses that.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211244

and

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822998003

Hah, ok, so its a 32GB CF card and a CF->IDE adapter. But regardless, the combo works remarkably well, today, for tolerable prices.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211244

and

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822998003

Hah, ok, so its a 32GB CF card and a CF->IDE adapter. But regardless, the combo works remarkably well, today, for tolerable prices.

$3.45 per gigabyte and spinning disk costs about $0.38 per gig

Newegg is showing me anywhere from $12-25 per gigabyte.
Someone want to check my math? Are we talking US dollars? If you find a place that sells for $3.45/g then a 128GB for $441.60 definitely sounds affordable.

Newegg has the Eee PC 901 for $599
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=Eee+PC+901&x=0&y=0

No need to guess.

Is getting smaller and denser all the time!

KEEP WITH IT

With JBOD rebuilding and MTF of flash we could have switchable 5 slot uber raid in every laptop.

Don't go back to HD's they are big, noisy, clunky and prone to failure!

This is what storage will look like .

Especially these days where you can't get XP at retail anymore.

You can't?

Winmodems are indeed a pain when not using Windows.

Until rather recently I was on dial-up, and ended up getting this dial-up modem. It works like most routers/modems; you connect your machines to it via Ethernet and control it via its internal web server, so any OS that has a web browser can use it. Dialing out and hanging up can be automated by URL parameters sent to its web page, so with a tiny bit of programming you can make a command-line modem control program. My Solaris, FreeBSD, Windows, and Linux machines all work very well with it.

If you're on dial-up, the $50 or so for such a modem is well worth it if you're interested in using non-Windows OSes.

Eh...you don't need $60. Just goto newegg and buy the nod32 oem version for $30.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832114005

I've always thought grey-to-grey was going from [128,128,128] to [0,0,0] (or [255,255,255]) and back.

Either way, grey-to-grey is faster than a standard measurement (be it white-to-black or white-black and back, or whatever "standard" panel manufacturers use), almost always by a factor of 2.

When you find an LCD with specs that list 2 different measurements, the GTG or G2G one is slower. See http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824014173 for example.

Either way, you're absolutely right - the specs are often more like speculation that specifications.
 

$700 isn't all that much for a quality monitor. Why does that number seem so ridiculous? It's easy to spend over $1000 on a display. Were I picking a display for a long-term investment right now, I'd be getting something in the Samsung XL Series or the ViewSonic VLED221 (the only standalone LCDs on the market right now with an LED backlight). My experiences with ViewSonic monitors I've supported in the field aren't that great though, so I'd likely wait until the Samsung dropped below $1000, or Dell gets around to putting an LED backlight in their UltraSharp series.

You could spend less on a quality monitor if you compromise on size, but then you can also spend less on a PC... (The typical entry level dell being sub-$500 these days...)

Also, please point out where I told you what to buy ("Stop buying [...] and [...]" was describing an action and effect, not telling you what to do. Though that should have been obvious.)

Also, since I'm a "fucking retard", I'll continue buying four or five PCs without replacing my monitor, instead of replacing the monitor every time. That way I can either save money in the long run, or have higher-end PC components on average than I would have been able to afford on the same budget.

Instead, it sounds like you yourself have been buying "cheap piece[es] of shit" and have not been enjoying your monitors, so you decide to bury your shame and buyer's remorse by pretending you buy only the best.

Oooohh-kay... Somebody's been smoking a little too much of something. Sorry if I insulted your stuff by saying "cheap piece of shit". Getting all defensive about it by slinging groundless speculation won't solve anything. You should have dropped it after calling me out on the 'decades' bit, 'cause at least you had some straws to grasp at in that argument...

$700 isn't all that much for a quality monitor. Why does that number seem so ridiculous? It's easy to spend over $1000 on a display. Were I picking a display for a long-term investment right now, I'd be getting something in the Samsung XL Series or the ViewSonic VLED221 (the only standalone LCDs on the market right now with an LED backlight). My experiences with ViewSonic monitors I've supported in the field aren't that great though, so I'd likely wait until the Samsung dropped below $1000, or Dell gets around to putting an LED backlight in their UltraSharp series.

You could spend less on a quality monitor if you compromise on size, but then you can also spend less on a PC... (The typical entry level dell being sub-$500 these days...)

Also, please point out where I told you what to buy ("Stop buying [...] and [...]" was describing an action and effect, not telling you what to do. Though that should have been obvious.)

Also, since I'm a "fucking retard", I'll continue buying four or five PCs without replacing my monitor, instead of replacing the monitor every time. That way I can either save money in the long run, or have higher-end PC components on average than I would have been able to afford on the same budget.

Instead, it sounds like you yourself have been buying "cheap piece[es] of shit" and have not been enjoying your monitors, so you decide to bury your shame and buyer's remorse by pretending you buy only the best.

Oooohh-kay... Somebody's been smoking a little too much of something. Sorry if I insulted your stuff by saying "cheap piece of shit". Getting all defensive about it by slinging groundless speculation won't solve anything. You should have dropped it after calling me out on the 'decades' bit, 'cause at least you had some straws to grasp at in that argument...

On newegg, lite-on actually sells a pretty nice black and silver keyboard. The space bar needs quieted down a bit by attaching some masking tape around one of the metal connector rods, but besides that its great. Its small but not cramped and fits my desk perfectly. It works great for gaming, albeit the cord is a bit short. They have one with media keys and one without them (i dont have them), but it appears the media key version is out of stock. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823107120 Wait until a free shipping day to get it though; thats rediculous right now...i got mine for free shipping back when fedex did supersaver on there lol... But really, I bet anyone could find that this keyboard is the best gaming keyboard for the money + a few pieces of tape :)

I agree with you on Ergonomics, but I find the Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 better:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109026&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Keyboards-_-Microsoft-_-23109026

It can be had for about $20 at the store and for many people the plus is that it doesn't have so many extra buttons - just stuff like to pop up calculator (very useful). It does not have the dozens of extra buttons the higher models do.

It's also wired (which can be a positive). I only bought a higher microsoft model recently because it was bundled with a laser mouse - making it cheaper than this keyboard... but I still prefer the lowly 2000.

Sounds like you want a NAS unit with capabilities for a Small Office, Home Office (SOHO). Strangely, I find no mention of the Thecus line of NAS units. http://www.thecus.com/ These would be worth investigating. I personally run the thecus N5200, and two of my clients run the N5200 PRO's. The N5200 series are the only SOHO NAS units with 5 available slots and raid 5.

One of my clients has a ReadyNAS, so I've had the opportunity to compare all 3 units directly. Note that this unit wasn't a ReadyNAS+, but from what I've read, there's been no increase in speed. The largest difference is speed of file serving, although the web-based configuration is a factor as well. The Thecus blows the ReadyNAS out of the water. ReadyNAS gets about 10MB/s on a good day, and the Thecus N5200Pro units approach 30 MB/s. My older N5200 unit does about 20MB/s over gige.

Today's prices are even more convincing- The N5200PRO is available for about $750 at http://www.eaegis.com/, http://www.newegg.com/ has the ReadyNAS+ for about $900.

The N5200's have other advantages- 5 bays for instance. They also run linux, with the source for each model available at Thecus. They also have modules for special types of file serving, and you can even ssh to the box while it's running.

Here's the thing. I fell into NAS because I needed more storage space at home, to hold all my business data. And system backups. And stuff. I started with a home-built linux server running samba, but quickly realized that stock linux raid fails in the areas of raid expansion (adding more drives) and raid migration (let's run raid 5, now that I have enough cash to actually buy 3 drives). You can migrate, but you have to put the data somewhere else while you're doing it. I wanted a simple box that would do those things for me. On my N5200 unit, I have personally migrated from raid 1 to raid 5, and expanded the raid from 250GB to 320 GB drives. I now have 5 drives, will be expanding the raid with 750's soon. That would be have rather painful on a simple linux based server. I don't know about Freenas, but the hardware it supports is rather limited. Same thing for a zfs solution, not to mention that I'd have run Solaris -yuch.

If you're going to fully populate the unit from the start with the biggest drives available, raid migration and expansion won't mean much. The Thecus N5200PRO still wins as it's the only unit with 5 bays, so you get the full 4 TB's possible. That being said, the linux/freenas/zfs server options can be nice, because you'll have more control over your server, and can possibly be cheaper.

The big point here is that raid is not backup. raid is high availability, and you'll need some way to back it up. What do I do? Well, since the raid is HA, all I need is simple windows box with raid 0 or spanning and a few drives. That's if I'm doing CIFS. It'd be a linux box and nfs if that were what all my home/office boxes were. As long as the Thecus or the backup is up, I'm good.

Good luck on your search

Well mine isn't that advanced but I ordered a NAS kit from Newegg.com where you can put in your own HD (IDE in my case) and it has a web interface for the setting it up. The NAS runs ftp, smb, http, torrent downloader, and it runs on embedded UCLInux.

I honestly cannot recommend the Keytronic Design Keyboard enough.

The keyboard has a definitive "clack" that is not quite as resistant as the M, but its a lot better than other off the shelf keyboards. It also has a slight curve to it that makes it fantastic for those of us that spend hours a day typing.

IANAKOEE (I am not a keyboard or ergonomics expert), but I have owned the M, a Unicomp customizer, a few Saiteks, a Logitech G15 and countless others. I can say without a doubt that for I would hurt a small kitten if Keytronic decided to stop making them.

I love it so much that I actually sent back a Customizer because its simply not as good. Now excuse me while I /afk to go do disgusting and possibly illegal things to my keyboard.

I have a QNAP TS-209. I bought after getting tired of running Dell PowerEdge Servers (Linux/RedHat-based) for ~ten years. It's great to go from a giant, honking, noisy Dell RAID server to something that (when idle) uses less power than most light bulbs. You're not going to get that with an old PC, either. Oh, and hot-swappable drive enclosure is great. That alone is worth the extra $$ you pay for this unit. I hooked up an external USB drive, though, for backups. Can't be too careful. Manually added a cron job to rsync to the USB drive. To get the most out of this unit, it helps to know your way around Unix shell. Root/admin shell is possible, but you have to enable it. Manufacturer seems to encourage hacking, which is a plus. I migrated existing files from a RedHat server, and getting the permissions 'just so' (i.e., working with Samba) was a bit of a pain. The good news, though, is that it's doable. If you're migrating from an existing Windows/Samba server, you won't have these issues. Note the following set of reviews: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822107008&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Network+-+Storage-_-QNAP-_-22107008 Despite the above reviews, this unit has been fabulous for me, especially with the new 2.x firmware. This is a good unit. Richard

Double that at least if you're looking for 2TB backup. (+ tapes, remember)