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Last week, I went to buy my first mp3 player, and I can't find a single one in my "budget" price range that has ogg support.

Here's one that's pretty cheap, just looking for a couple minutes. If I cared, I'd spend five or ten more minutes and find something half the price. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16855507005

I think the QNAP devices are far nicer, though they will be more expensive in the long run. They even run linux and are customizable (people run all sorts of different server services from them).

Here is a bunch of their different devices (newegg.com link).

I'm considering getting the TS-209 (or the PRO, haven't made up my mind), personally. I have two 320gb SATAII drives sitting around not doing anything since I've stopped running WHS and could really use a nice low power device to replace the computer I was using for this task. :)

The high end is much, much higher than 333Mhz -- more like 1.8 GHz for system memory. That link is for newegg's SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 15000). But besides that, consider cache speeds, which this is more likely to replace.

You truly are an idiot if you are spending $700 on Vista. Get the Vista Ultimate OEM at NewEgg for $169

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116213

8GiB SDHC for $51. The prices are coming down fast!

Whoops, copied the internal link, no idea why newegg seperates them..

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=5222774
should work.

As for the person saying I'm comparing desktops to laptops, yes I know that, my point is that its absurdly hard to reasonably spend $5000 on a computer as the OP implied. Getting near top of the line parts like I priced out ended up at $1400, and I was just using the $2000 MBP as a price comparison point as thats what I was originally going to buy. I'd really like to see someone try to put together a $5000 computer without going for obvious extreme overkill (PhysX, SLI top of the line cards, quad cpu server boards, huge raids, etc). The list I put together far surpasses vista's requirements.

> and ended up with https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.asp?ID=522277 ,

Can you pl. tell me your username and password at Newegg, trying to follow your link, I am prompted to.

$150 ever couple of years for an OS that, even on it's worst day, works better than anything MS has to offer is much better than $500+ to upgrade your machine that will almost definately require another $3000 in hardware to run it at any decent speed.

Maybe you are looking for something similar to a cell phone signal booster?

The problem is it adds no value to what I really would want it for: playing games. Personally, I couldn't give a damn about high-def movies, or browsing the web or playing games over the internet. There aren't any PS3's left with full back-compatability and of the games exclusive to the console, nothing even remotely interests me.

I couldn't give a damn about high-def movies, or browsing the web or playing games over the internet.

Just so you know, a 1GB flash card costs $5, so it shouldn't be a show-stopper to buying a device. Of course I don't know why manufacturers bother putting such a useless amount of memory to ship with their device in the first place.

Home users will have little choice but to migrate as and when they buy thier next new PC

Well, they could go out and buy one copy of the ~$300 Full Retail XP, which you are allowed to transfer from old PC (IE: remove it) to a new PC every 90 days (or sooner, if the old machine failed). For the first time in quite a while, there's a major reason to buy the retail box instead of the (untransferable) OEM!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883118003

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883118003
newegg carries them

Commercial or homebrew NAS is a reasonable network solution.

If you're just backing up a single workstation, get either another HD of the same make/model or a pair of something else, put the second drive in a mobile rack (mine is for SATA, they also have these for IDE as well), and run that drive as a bootable drive mirror. This solution cost me $22.99 + S/H over the cost of the HD, and I recommend it (with software that works on your OS) to everyone who is backing up a single machine.

Remove the tray with the HD in it and put it somewhere else when it's not being actively used in backup. If the main drive packs it in, make sure there isn't a hard drive-eating problem, then plug in the backup and boot.

I use an rsync script running off a customized Knoppix disk on my Linux box, I'm not sure what one would use in Windows these days.

I can say that my backup solution has saved my ass more than once. I also back up to DVD+R archives, but thankfully, I've only had to test bare-metal restores, my backup mirror has made it unnecessary for me to actually use them.

If your expansion needs are limited (read: nil), you can get the Hawking HNAS1 for $50 at newegg. It's a small 1-drive box that you plug in via Ethernet. Runs Samba and FTP. Draws about 15 watts. It's not silent (it has a fan that runs 24/7), but it's not loud. Complete setup takes about a half-hour, from adding your own drive to setting up passwords. No client-side software is required, unlike some other solutions which use Zetera's pathetic software (free to good home: Netgear SC101 Storage Central. Slight damage due to flinging from rooftop. Have hours of fun wondering why zeteraservice.exe is locking up your machine).

I have a Thecus NAS that works very well. I've two of the five bays in RAID 1. The only downside is all the bays/drives have to be a part of the same config... So I can't have two drives in RAID 1 and three drives in RAID 0, which would be cool but not critical.
It's not cheap but a decent priced solution. It's plugged directly into my switch (NAS!).

I then have that unit setup to Rsync to a drive on my domain controller every other night. So I have about 1 day to catch any problems.
KM

Do you really need a NAS? I bought the Thecus 2050 RAID box (http://www.thecus.com/products_over.php?cid=10&pid=3). It's fast, expandable and transportable (i keep a second one in a safety desposit box). Supported harddrives are limited, but you can get two solid 500GB's and slap them in there, run RAID 0/1, and it just plugs into an included eSata 2.0 PCI card. I have 2 of these boxes, they are about $130/piece and they are faster than my internal Sata drives. IF you need to have availability to them on the network, just share them over the computer you have them plugged into. You can get 2 WD 500GB's for 100-130/piece: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=WD5000&x=0&y=0 I never understood why non-enterprise networks ever would need NAS? just use network sharing from your main (server) computer.

All you need now is an case, CPU, and Linux. Case and CPU you can probably salvage from on old PC, or a reused PC dealer for damn cheap. Linux is free (as in speech and beer).

All you need now is an case, CPU, and Linux. Case and CPU you can probably salvage from on old PC, or a reused PC dealer for damn cheap. Linux is free (as in speech and beer).

All you need now is an case, CPU, and Linux. Case and CPU you can probably salvage from on old PC, or a reused PC dealer for damn cheap. Linux is free (as in speech and beer).

You're making this too hard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&SubCategory=124&N=2000150124
Right there at the top is a 5/5 rated Lacie 320GB Ethernet Disk for $153.

If you want something a little more secure and flexible get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822102007
And add some of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148261
If you use two of those drives in a RAID 1 array, you have 250GB of redundant storage for a total around $370.

You're making this too hard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&SubCategory=124&N=2000150124
Right there at the top is a 5/5 rated Lacie 320GB Ethernet Disk for $153.

If you want something a little more secure and flexible get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822102007
And add some of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148261
If you use two of those drives in a RAID 1 array, you have 250GB of redundant storage for a total around $370.

You're making this too hard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&SubCategory=124&N=2000150124
Right there at the top is a 5/5 rated Lacie 320GB Ethernet Disk for $153.

If you want something a little more secure and flexible get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822102007
And add some of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148261
If you use two of those drives in a RAID 1 array, you have 250GB of redundant storage for a total around $370.

I work for a small business, and we've gone through nas boxes and external hdd's like you wouldn't believe.. here are some of my favorites, but it depends on what you're trying to accomplish. You specified NAS, so I assume you have already determined that's actually what you need and you know why you need it (not necessarily a safe assumption, as true nas isn't always needed).

We're currently using a lot of Buffalo Linkstations (100+ (we put software on them and then sell them)) and I've had a total of 1 go bad, and that was a firmware thing for the embedded linux that failed, so I removed the hard drive (and voided the warranty) and got my data off with no problem. A 500gigger is on newegg right now for $270, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822165021.

These have a few nice features you might like: 1- you can put two of them on a lan together and do some simple replication between them, and 2- you can attach a USB hard drive to it, and have the nas device back itself up to the external hard drive (or expand capacity by adding shares).

If you don't need a NAS device, we also use a lot of Maxtor usb hard drives, and we've only had two failures, one of which was again recoverable by removing the hard drive, but the other was actual data corruption which we did not figure out what caused it, and we had to use recovery software. That could have been Windows, though..

You could also go with a hot swap sata bay like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817364016 and just buy oem hard drives when you need them.

Then there's this thing, and it has got to be the cutest raid backplane I've ever seen, but I don't know if it would fit your needs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816119006 ($62) It's a regular hot swap sata enclosure, but it takes 4 laptop hard drives and fits them in an exposed 5 1/4 bay.. Then get 4 of these 160gig hard drives for $90 each http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136071 and a cheap 4 port raid 5 pci card like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132013 ($35), and there's 480 gigs of raid 5 goodness in a 5.25 bay.

I work for a small business, and we've gone through nas boxes and external hdd's like you wouldn't believe.. here are some of my favorites, but it depends on what you're trying to accomplish. You specified NAS, so I assume you have already determined that's actually what you need and you know why you need it (not necessarily a safe assumption, as true nas isn't always needed).

We're currently using a lot of Buffalo Linkstations (100+ (we put software on them and then sell them)) and I've had a total of 1 go bad, and that was a firmware thing for the embedded linux that failed, so I removed the hard drive (and voided the warranty) and got my data off with no problem. A 500gigger is on newegg right now for $270, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822165021.

These have a few nice features you might like: 1- you can put two of them on a lan together and do some simple replication between them, and 2- you can attach a USB hard drive to it, and have the nas device back itself up to the external hard drive (or expand capacity by adding shares).

If you don't need a NAS device, we also use a lot of Maxtor usb hard drives, and we've only had two failures, one of which was again recoverable by removing the hard drive, but the other was actual data corruption which we did not figure out what caused it, and we had to use recovery software. That could have been Windows, though..

You could also go with a hot swap sata bay like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817364016 and just buy oem hard drives when you need them.

Then there's this thing, and it has got to be the cutest raid backplane I've ever seen, but I don't know if it would fit your needs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816119006 ($62) It's a regular hot swap sata enclosure, but it takes 4 laptop hard drives and fits them in an exposed 5 1/4 bay.. Then get 4 of these 160gig hard drives for $90 each http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136071 and a cheap 4 port raid 5 pci card like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132013 ($35), and there's 480 gigs of raid 5 goodness in a 5.25 bay.

I work for a small business, and we've gone through nas boxes and external hdd's like you wouldn't believe.. here are some of my favorites, but it depends on what you're trying to accomplish. You specified NAS, so I assume you have already determined that's actually what you need and you know why you need it (not necessarily a safe assumption, as true nas isn't always needed).

We're currently using a lot of Buffalo Linkstations (100+ (we put software on them and then sell them)) and I've had a total of 1 go bad, and that was a firmware thing for the embedded linux that failed, so I removed the hard drive (and voided the warranty) and got my data off with no problem. A 500gigger is on newegg right now for $270, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822165021.

These have a few nice features you might like: 1- you can put two of them on a lan together and do some simple replication between them, and 2- you can attach a USB hard drive to it, and have the nas device back itself up to the external hard drive (or expand capacity by adding shares).

If you don't need a NAS device, we also use a lot of Maxtor usb hard drives, and we've only had two failures, one of which was again recoverable by removing the hard drive, but the other was actual data corruption which we did not figure out what caused it, and we had to use recovery software. That could have been Windows, though..

You could also go with a hot swap sata bay like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817364016 and just buy oem hard drives when you need them.

Then there's this thing, and it has got to be the cutest raid backplane I've ever seen, but I don't know if it would fit your needs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816119006 ($62) It's a regular hot swap sata enclosure, but it takes 4 laptop hard drives and fits them in an exposed 5 1/4 bay.. Then get 4 of these 160gig hard drives for $90 each http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136071 and a cheap 4 port raid 5 pci card like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132013 ($35), and there's 480 gigs of raid 5 goodness in a 5.25 bay.

I work for a small business, and we've gone through nas boxes and external hdd's like you wouldn't believe.. here are some of my favorites, but it depends on what you're trying to accomplish. You specified NAS, so I assume you have already determined that's actually what you need and you know why you need it (not necessarily a safe assumption, as true nas isn't always needed).

We're currently using a lot of Buffalo Linkstations (100+ (we put software on them and then sell them)) and I've had a total of 1 go bad, and that was a firmware thing for the embedded linux that failed, so I removed the hard drive (and voided the warranty) and got my data off with no problem. A 500gigger is on newegg right now for $270, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822165021.

These have a few nice features you might like: 1- you can put two of them on a lan together and do some simple replication between them, and 2- you can attach a USB hard drive to it, and have the nas device back itself up to the external hard drive (or expand capacity by adding shares).

If you don't need a NAS device, we also use a lot of Maxtor usb hard drives, and we've only had two failures, one of which was again recoverable by removing the hard drive, but the other was actual data corruption which we did not figure out what caused it, and we had to use recovery software. That could have been Windows, though..

You could also go with a hot swap sata bay like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817364016 and just buy oem hard drives when you need them.

Then there's this thing, and it has got to be the cutest raid backplane I've ever seen, but I don't know if it would fit your needs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816119006 ($62) It's a regular hot swap sata enclosure, but it takes 4 laptop hard drives and fits them in an exposed 5 1/4 bay.. Then get 4 of these 160gig hard drives for $90 each http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136071 and a cheap 4 port raid 5 pci card like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132013 ($35), and there's 480 gigs of raid 5 goodness in a 5.25 bay.

I work for a small business, and we've gone through nas boxes and external hdd's like you wouldn't believe.. here are some of my favorites, but it depends on what you're trying to accomplish. You specified NAS, so I assume you have already determined that's actually what you need and you know why you need it (not necessarily a safe assumption, as true nas isn't always needed).

We're currently using a lot of Buffalo Linkstations (100+ (we put software on them and then sell them)) and I've had a total of 1 go bad, and that was a firmware thing for the embedded linux that failed, so I removed the hard drive (and voided the warranty) and got my data off with no problem. A 500gigger is on newegg right now for $270, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822165021.

These have a few nice features you might like: 1- you can put two of them on a lan together and do some simple replication between them, and 2- you can attach a USB hard drive to it, and have the nas device back itself up to the external hard drive (or expand capacity by adding shares).

If you don't need a NAS device, we also use a lot of Maxtor usb hard drives, and we've only had two failures, one of which was again recoverable by removing the hard drive, but the other was actual data corruption which we did not figure out what caused it, and we had to use recovery software. That could have been Windows, though..

You could also go with a hot swap sata bay like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817364016 and just buy oem hard drives when you need them.

Then there's this thing, and it has got to be the cutest raid backplane I've ever seen, but I don't know if it would fit your needs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816119006 ($62) It's a regular hot swap sata enclosure, but it takes 4 laptop hard drives and fits them in an exposed 5 1/4 bay.. Then get 4 of these 160gig hard drives for $90 each http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136071 and a cheap 4 port raid 5 pci card like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132013 ($35), and there's 480 gigs of raid 5 goodness in a 5.25 bay.

I have a hammer myshare (seen http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822111012) that works well.

It supports SMB the best, but is supposed to have support for FTP and NFS as well.

It runs Linux internally, but telnet support is technically disabled (although possible to enable if you work at it).

I use the 500GB version, which has 2x250GB HD's in RAID level 1 (mirror). This enables me to have two hard drives that have copies of all of my backup data.

There is a good review of this product at smallnetbuilder (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30056/75/).

It is also quite inexpensive, as it runs about $260 on newegg (link above). Just my $.02

I'm currently considering one of these little boxes for non-NAS backup:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817716028
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817716051

Or this puppy, which looks fricken sweet, on-line array expansion, and does NAS as well as direct-connect:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3143432&Sku=D162-1000

Just add hard drives.

I'm currently considering one of these little boxes for non-NAS backup:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817716028
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817716051

Or this puppy, which looks fricken sweet, on-line array expansion, and does NAS as well as direct-connect:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3143432&Sku=D162-1000

Just add hard drives.

I'm currently considering one of these little boxes for non-NAS backup:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817716028
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817716051

Or this puppy, which looks fricken sweet, on-line array expansion, and does NAS as well as direct-connect:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3143432&Sku=D162-1000

Just add hard drives.

If you are willing to go with a slightly lesser 8600GTS model, here's a passively-cooled card that I put into my quiet machine last month. FWIW, I get decent frame rates on Oblivion (running on WINE) w/ high quality settings. I hesitate to post a product link/shill for a company, but then again you did ask.

My plan is to wait until these drop below $100, then get another for a silent SLI configuration.

MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256EZ HD GeForce 8600GTS 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127287

The x38 chip set does support 1600 mhz FSB... http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200280+1070731640&Configurator=&Subcategory=280&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=

Well that was fast, 1TB drives for less than $300. We can now welcome our new unforgetful overlords. $289.99 $279.99 $279.99

Newegg.com - EVEREX gPC TC2502 VIA C7-D 1.5GHz 512MB DDR2 80GB VIA UniChrome Pro Linux gOS - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883118003

Perhaps he's not talking about US dollars. If he was, why would he quote the Euro price and then give a conversion? The Eee is sold by a number of US retailers for $399. I know it sold out quickly most places, but NewEgg is showing it in stock again. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220244
(If I had the money to buy one, there's no way I'd post this till I had my order in.)

These days $200 would get you a decent 19-20" (probably widescreen) monitor. just a quick example from newegg

$300 ain't cheap for a computer optical drive (and it doesn't burn the new formats), but that's a heck of a lot less than the set top hybrid players I've seen so far (~$700 is the cheapest I've seen). HTPC components are getting better, cheaper, and more numerous. I may never buy a set top video player again.

Quick, cheap HTPC config (all prices Newegg except case from eWiz):

• LG optical drive: $300
• In Win IW-BK623 case w/power supply: $50
• GIGABYTE GA-73PVM-S2H motherboard with HDMI and digital audio out: $90
• Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2140: $75
• 2GB memory: $45
• Windows Home Premium: $112
• 80GB Hard Drive: $37
• Total: ~$709

A power consumption meter is essential to monitor the ghost loads of stuff around the house. The makers of the KillAWatt meter have a new model out so the old ones are just $16. Check out what your TV and DVD player are up to -- they waste just as much power as a monitor. When I found out how much, I put them on a power strip so I could switch them off -- *really* off -- easily when I go out of town.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882715001

Sorry, I did understand your point, but got stuck on the cable thing and didn't finish the argument. My fault.

The point I was trying to make was that bestbuy just sells overpriced stuff. Period. They're not selling hard drives as loss leaders to get people to buy their other stuff. Their hard drives (cheapest internal 500gb $139.99) are also overpriced compared to other places ($99.99, same specs)

They're especially bad with things that are supposed to be extremely cheap, like cables, but nothing is really cheap there. Actually, you can buy dvd's for decent prices at best buy. That's just about the only thing I buy there unless I'm in some type of hurry and can't wait for the mail delivery time.

Oh, and before I mess up this post as well, no, newegg isn't selling their hard drives as loss leaders for cables either. You can search their site for HDMI cables and see the 10' $6.99 one and 5' power cable for $3.49. I really like newegg, most of their prices are quite reasonable, and they ship things very quickly.

Microsoft is selling the 120 GB hard drive for the Xbox 360 for $180. For the same price, you could get a 750 GB hard drive for your PC. Or, you could buy a 160 GB hard drive for $50.

Microsoft is selling the 120 GB hard drive for the Xbox 360 for $180. For the same price, you could get a 750 GB hard drive for your PC. Or, you could buy a 160 GB hard drive for $50.

Microsoft is selling the 120 GB hard drive for the Xbox 360 for $180. For the same price, you could get a 750 GB hard drive for your PC. Or, you could buy a 160 GB hard drive for $50.