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I just bought a Coolmax Taurus PSU, which is designed to be silent. And it actually is near-silent. It uses a bigger fan that has a lower RPM. It's not extremely expensive, either. I recommend it.

Maybe I'm stupid here, but a $20 router will block incoming traffic. Just make sure you're not plugging your computer directly into the cablemodem/dsl/whatever and you should be fine.

As another option, get your base O/S hardened, then run VMWare and install a dup O/S in that, run it when you want-- you can have a "P2P" O/S that you know is going to get screwed with, but it's isolated, so it's not that bad. And if you need to go back to square-1, just re-load the original image.

Just three days ago, I bought this VIA C3 based system (processor dissipates 7W at idle), and they roll out sub 1W chips. Oh, well. Hard drive is gonna take 9W of power anyway.

Pegasos.

Terons

• "You know why it costs more, right?"
  
• "if you want easy, you pay for it, if you want cheap, you work for it"
  
• "if it's important, then $$ shouldn't matter"
  

I have never been happier with an online retailer than I have been with NewEgg.com.

What I can't find are any game time cards so I can give the game and a year's worth of playing to my brother as an extremely late Christmas present

If you have a credit card you could just pay for it when he installs it, or buy a WoW game card from newegg for $30 shipped.

But maybe your problem is that you don't have a credit card?

Hell, if I were to build a 5-desk office that needed a simple mail server and file server, the Mac Mini is just a RAID away from perfection, at less than a quarter the price of an XServe.

You might want to replace the stock mini HDD with one that can handle 24/7 operation. Several people have been recommending the Hitachi Travelstar "E" series, like this model.

One of them is sitting on my workbench, waiting for the mini that's going to house it. It will be replacing an old G3-upgraded Power Mac 7600 as the controller of my rather extensive X10 setup.

Lack of a second hard drive? Hardly. I bet you could connect a few hundred hard drives to an iMac or a Mini. (And don't try to tell me 127 is the limit, 'cause that's USB, and we all know USB is crap.)

Power supply tests typically have major shortcomings. They test only a few power supplies, usually the ones that are most heavily advertised, and therefore are the most expensive.

The power supplies in the review are available in the UK, and are from only 12 manufacturers. Most of them are so shockingly expensive that there would never be a case in which it was sensible to buy them.

How about a 300 Watt Power supply from a recognized manufacturer for $18.00 delivered in the U.S.? Need 600 Watts? Use two.

One thing you absolutely require: Dual fans. Two fans prevent uncooled areas in the power supply. Also, if one fan slows down, the other may keep the P.S. from failing.

"No word on pricing, yet."

Is that kind of like saying "if you have to ask, you can't afford it"?

P4 EE - $989

Gotta go; I have to sell a kidney or three to afford this thing...

There are plenty of games out for the Mac, if you're not some twitchy freak who has to have every cookie-cutter FPS that comes down the pike on the very day it's released.

In Mac-land, everything costs money. Every stupid little utility is crippled, time-limited shareware. Fuck that.

Yeah, you sure got their number. No Mac freeware at all, no sir! I must be imagining the 120+ pages of Mac freeware listed on VersionTracker.

Then, of course, there's the price of Mac hardware. For $1500, I can build one hell of a Windows machine.

And stop comparing your homebuilt whiz-bang PC to a complete system produced by a single manufacturer and covered by a warranty. The only fair comparison is a system built by Dell/HP/whoever.

By the way, you might want to edit your "Macs are too expensive" rant in light of the Mac mini:

$499 + $75 to upgrade to 512MB + $224 for a Dell 15" LCD + $51 for Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop OEM = $849 for a pretty capable little system, not including shipping.

For this to even have a chance of working, you'd have to get it preinstalled, and include things like setting up wine (for games) and tracking down/writing drivers in the package. Because otherwise, the sitiation would be "OK, I can use Windows for free (if it came with my computer) or for, at most $150, and I can just go to the store and find a game or a printer that will Just Work with it without doing a huge amount of research. Or, I can get this Linux administration package, and pay, say, $20 a month for as long as I use computers, and I'll have to to a huge amount of research every time I want to buy hardware or a game."
Gee, which do you think I'd choose (Hint: I'm a college student, and I do enough research for papers.)?

This Card? Unfortunately, no, it doesn't have an AM tuner in it. Belive me, I wish it did, because I'd use it to record all sorts of AM-only programming.

These TV boards are easy to set up with a radio - FM and VHF TV signals interlap in spectra. AM Radio requires another piece of tuner hardware mated to the device.

Of course, someone brainier than me will now correct my usage of the word spectra . .

The one button mouse, or rather glidepoint, drives her nuts. Not the glidepoint itself (she loves that), but the single button that forces her to memorize somekey+mouseclick to do basic things the rest of us do with the right mouse button and, in the case of us Linux/*BSD folks, the middle mouse button.

Tell her to buy one of these. It's a Bluetooth mouse, so as long as her PowerBook has built-in Bluetooth (mine does), she's set. It's got two buttons plus a scroll-wheel, and it's so tiny it can fit in the same pocket with my power adapter (I have one of those really tiny InCase laptop sleeves for my 15" PowerBook. The thing takes two AAA batteries, and has an on/off switch so that the batteries don't drain while it's not being used. It's kinda cheaply made (plasticy), but it's really useful, and I love not having to carry dongles around with me.

Even with the 1GB RAM the performance is still sluggish, kind of reminds me of using a Knoppix Live CD.

If the sluggish performance you see is mostly during operations that read or write a lot of data to the hard drive, the problem is almost certainly the slow notebook hard drive. Hard drive speed in notebooks has been a problem for years, it's the one thing that really holds them back from totally replacing desktops for a lot of disk-intensive uses. And in order to make a whole computer that small, you have to use a notebook hard drive.

If you're interested in making it perform more like a desktop machine, try replacing the 4200rpm (5400rpm?) notebook drive inside with a 7200rpm notebook drive. I've never seen one before now, but apparently Hitachi just started making 40GB and 60GB 7200rpm drives. You've already replaced the RAM yourself, so this shouldn't be too difficult. I think you'll be shocked by the difference in performance. Oh, and check out the warranty on the 60GB model: 3 years! All the reviewers say it runs about as cool as the drives they are replacing, so heat shouldn't be a problem. The 8MB buffer should help too.

I wouldn't be too surprised if Apple started using these very same drives in updated versions of the Mac mini. It would certainly stem a lot of the "my Mac mini is slow" comments. Then again, an improved Mac mini might start competing a little too well with the Power Mac line.

While you're at Newegg you might want to pick up a Macally Firewire/USB enclosure for your 80GB drive so you can use it as external storage/backup. The notebook-size enclosures can usually be powered by the Firewire bus, so no extra power adapters or wires. One tiny computer with desktop-level power, one tiny external storage drive connected with a single cable.

Dammit, I'm drooling on my keyboard again...

Even with the 1GB RAM the performance is still sluggish, kind of reminds me of using a Knoppix Live CD.

If the sluggish performance you see is mostly during operations that read or write a lot of data to the hard drive, the problem is almost certainly the slow notebook hard drive. Hard drive speed in notebooks has been a problem for years, it's the one thing that really holds them back from totally replacing desktops for a lot of disk-intensive uses. And in order to make a whole computer that small, you have to use a notebook hard drive.

If you're interested in making it perform more like a desktop machine, try replacing the 4200rpm (5400rpm?) notebook drive inside with a 7200rpm notebook drive. I've never seen one before now, but apparently Hitachi just started making 40GB and 60GB 7200rpm drives. You've already replaced the RAM yourself, so this shouldn't be too difficult. I think you'll be shocked by the difference in performance. Oh, and check out the warranty on the 60GB model: 3 years! All the reviewers say it runs about as cool as the drives they are replacing, so heat shouldn't be a problem. The 8MB buffer should help too.

I wouldn't be too surprised if Apple started using these very same drives in updated versions of the Mac mini. It would certainly stem a lot of the "my Mac mini is slow" comments. Then again, an improved Mac mini might start competing a little too well with the Power Mac line.

While you're at Newegg you might want to pick up a Macally Firewire/USB enclosure for your 80GB drive so you can use it as external storage/backup. The notebook-size enclosures can usually be powered by the Firewire bus, so no extra power adapters or wires. One tiny computer with desktop-level power, one tiny external storage drive connected with a single cable.

Dammit, I'm drooling on my keyboard again...

Even with the 1GB RAM the performance is still sluggish, kind of reminds me of using a Knoppix Live CD.

If the sluggish performance you see is mostly during operations that read or write a lot of data to the hard drive, the problem is almost certainly the slow notebook hard drive. Hard drive speed in notebooks has been a problem for years, it's the one thing that really holds them back from totally replacing desktops for a lot of disk-intensive uses. And in order to make a whole computer that small, you have to use a notebook hard drive.

If you're interested in making it perform more like a desktop machine, try replacing the 4200rpm (5400rpm?) notebook drive inside with a 7200rpm notebook drive. I've never seen one before now, but apparently Hitachi just started making 40GB and 60GB 7200rpm drives. You've already replaced the RAM yourself, so this shouldn't be too difficult. I think you'll be shocked by the difference in performance. Oh, and check out the warranty on the 60GB model: 3 years! All the reviewers say it runs about as cool as the drives they are replacing, so heat shouldn't be a problem. The 8MB buffer should help too.

I wouldn't be too surprised if Apple started using these very same drives in updated versions of the Mac mini. It would certainly stem a lot of the "my Mac mini is slow" comments. Then again, an improved Mac mini might start competing a little too well with the Power Mac line.

While you're at Newegg you might want to pick up a Macally Firewire/USB enclosure for your 80GB drive so you can use it as external storage/backup. The notebook-size enclosures can usually be powered by the Firewire bus, so no extra power adapters or wires. One tiny computer with desktop-level power, one tiny external storage drive connected with a single cable.

Dammit, I'm drooling on my keyboard again...

"I wouldn't like to shop here then... http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1867.html (note lower rating)"

Agreed! I wouldn't buy from Dell if you paid me.

This is been posted here before, I'm sure, but Newegg is just about the only place that I give any business to. Check out their rating..

Aero

Yes, but who needs to buy IBM to take advantage of this commoditized espionage stretegy when there's Newegg!

a DVD writer - $60

a firewire card - $15

an 80Gb drive $57

movie editing software - OSS

DVD authoring software - OSS

So, grand total of $132 (chances are, the guy already has all the hardware too, in which case $0)

-Em

a DVD writer - $60

a firewire card - $15

an 80Gb drive $57

movie editing software - OSS

DVD authoring software - OSS

So, grand total of $132 (chances are, the guy already has all the hardware too, in which case $0)

-Em

a DVD writer - $60

a firewire card - $15

an 80Gb drive $57

movie editing software - OSS

DVD authoring software - OSS

So, grand total of $132 (chances are, the guy already has all the hardware too, in which case $0)

-Em

Way to totally miss the point. What's so standard about propriety cases with propriety motherboards that take propriety chips and are powered by propriety power supplies? If you want to see standard try here.

Sure, you can connect standard USB and firewire devices to your Mac, and even throw in a PCI card too (except on the Mini). Yeah, I can do that to my pile of crap, non-standard Dell too. But upgrade the motherboard? Replace a broken power supply with an off-the-shelf part? Forget about it!

> all you're looking at is the cost of the whole G5 machine, which includes other goodies like a liquid cooling system and SATA and FW800, etc.

Hahaha, I cat get SATA and FW800 for much cheaper than a G5. And the AMD64 chips are quite cool running, so there is no need for watercooling unless one intends to overclock!

> All PPC's beat x86 architecture parts when it comes to price vs performance.

Name one such part costing around $150, and show me where I can buy one of them along with a compatible motherboard that has SATA and FW800.

Please.

> all you're looking at is the cost of the whole G5 machine, which includes other goodies like a liquid cooling system and SATA and FW800, etc.

Hahaha, I cat get SATA and FW800 for much cheaper than a G5. And the AMD64 chips are quite cool running, so there is no need for watercooling unless one intends to overclock!

> All PPC's beat x86 architecture parts when it comes to price vs performance.

Name one such part costing around $150, and show me where I can buy one of them along with a compatible motherboard that has SATA and FW800.

Please.

Regarding power efficient motherboards.

Ivan256 writes:

My server (with a smaller by far RAID) used to be a dual athlon too. I got tired of paying for the electricity, so I switched it to a Athlon-M 2500+ and setup all the powersaving stuff. (It took ages to find a desktop board with a PowerNow capable BIOS and voltage regulator...) Kernel compiles are a little slower, but 90% of the time (even streaming data at 100mbit) the processor stays in it's low power mode. What once took 350watts now takes 70. Highly recommended.

Ivan256 further writes:

It's a Shuttle MK40VN. Any Via KM400 board with an AMI bios instead of an Award BIOS should work though.

MK40VN motherboards run about $39 from NewEgg.

Regarding RAID setups, I thought Gherald had some interesting comments.

You see, the typical budget RAID 5 builder just wants to store his collection of MPEG4s, MP3s, and other downloads or perhaps uncompressed hobbyist video. It's not a database, it's not a 150+ employee corporate file server, it's just personal. Performance is not a concern.

And if performance is a concern (say he wants / on these disks) then the cheap way to go is software RAID 0, 1 or 1+0 (aka 10) *COMBINED* with a RAID5.

For instance, I just built myself a new system with four 300gb drives and partitioned each one like so:

50mb - /boot
1gb - swap
20gb /
5gb - /tmp and /var /home

For the 50mb, I made a bootable RAID 1 of four drives (grub can boot this, dunno about lilo)

For the 1gb swap, I made a RAID 1 with two drives and a RAID 1 with the other 2. Thus I have a net of two 1gb swap partitions, with redundancy so my system will never crash due to drive-induced paging errors. This is essentially a RAID 0+1, though I let the kernel's swap system handle the RAID 0 aspect by giving them equal priorities.

For the 20gb /, I did the same thing (pair of RAID 1s) and put a RAID 0 on top of that, for a net of 40gb redundant and fairly speedy storage.

For the 5gb /tmp and /var I made a simple 10gb RAID 0 for each. Not a whole lot of need for redundancy here, I make a point of backing up the important /var stuff.

With the four equal-sized partitions that were left, I made the RAID 5 for /home

Don't you see what a great cost-effective approach this is?!?

rimu guy offered some cogent advice:

Build RAID support and RAID1,and RAID5 into the kernel (not as modules). You'll need that if you boot from a raid1 boot partition. Note: if you are using RAID5 you'll need RAID1 built in (since I beleive in the event of a failed disk the raid personaility swaps from RAID5 to RAID1).

Don't forget to enable S.M.A.R.T. drive monitoring as suggested by k.ellsworth a

Buy everything piecemeal. I just priced out a 900Gb NAS for $800, shipping included. Slap it all together, put your favorite Linux distro on it, and run Samba.

You won't be able to beat the price of the real thing by much, though: big hard drives are still expensive, and so are RAID cards (if you go that route).

Name one. I have a recent NEC 21" Diamondtron. Sure, it'll sync up to whatever the video card can churn out, but I'm quite confident there's only about 1600 physical 'dots' from left to right.

2048x1536 CRTs from my two favorite CRT manufacturers:

1. NEC MultiSync FP1355
2. NEC MultiSync FP1370
3. NEC MultiSync FP1375X
4. Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2060u
5. Samsung SyncMaster 1100DF

Heck, even a Newegg.com search got twelve results for 2048x1536 CRTs.

Sucky low resolution support

And prohibitively expensive high-resolution support. The cheapest high-res (above 1600 pixel width) LCD panel from NewEgg costs about four times as much as a comparible-resolution CRT. And there's nothing much you can do about it, from a manufacturer's stand point. Getting a chunk of live pixels that large costs money.

But golly, with an LCD I've got all this room to put loads of crap behind my panel. Yay! And it's so lightweight, for all those times when I'm moving my entire computer system around the house.

...USB/DVI KVM switch. The cheapest one that I've found is this one. NewEgg has the Belkin model for $133 not including cables (another $32 from NewEgg.) I'd like to get a MacMini, but it's not going to be able to replace my current workstation immediately and as such, I need some kind of KVM. Are there any others out there that are cheaper?

OS: Windows XP Pro (No cheaping out on the crappy home version) - $135.99

That alone brings you up to $585.11 and that's without adding in a few cheapo games, some stipped-down office that's equivalent to Appleworks, and a suite of video and audio editing software equivalent to iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand and the rest of the iLife '05 stuff...

If we're going to compare costs here, you can't forget the software, and using your pirated XP cd doesn't count.

Hokay...

First, let's set the hardware spec target:
Mac Mini:
CPU: 1.25ghz G4 RAM: 256MB of PC2700
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 32mb DDR, 4x AGP
Drive: 40GB Ultra ATA Drive: DVD/CD-RW
1394: 1 USB2: 2 Ethernet: 10/100
Modem: v.92 Audio: yes

amd64 system:
CPU: 1.8ghz amd64 - $114
Heatsink/Fan: Zalman 7000 - $39.99
RAM: 256MB of PC2700 - $30.75
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 64mb DDR, 8x AGP - $47.50
Drive: Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM - $45.89
Drive: DVD/CD-RW - $30.50
FOXCONN "755A01-6EKRS" SiS755 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL - $77.00
1394: 2 USB2: 8
Ethernet: 10/100/1000 Audio: yes
Modem: v.92 - $11.49
Case: Antec mid tower, 300w PS - $52.00

Total: 449.12

You have ~$50 to blow on better parts if you like. That $50 can go a long way. Keep in mind most of the hardware spec'd (video, drive, ethernet, audio, etc) is already superior to the mac mini.

Also, the amd64 system is 64 bit. The mac mini isn't.

For over $900 you can build a totally killer amd64 pc.

Hokay...

First, let's set the hardware spec target:
Mac Mini:
CPU: 1.25ghz G4 RAM: 256MB of PC2700
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 32mb DDR, 4x AGP
Drive: 40GB Ultra ATA Drive: DVD/CD-RW
1394: 1 USB2: 2 Ethernet: 10/100
Modem: v.92 Audio: yes

amd64 system:
CPU: 1.8ghz amd64 - $114
Heatsink/Fan: Zalman 7000 - $39.99
RAM: 256MB of PC2700 - $30.75
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 64mb DDR, 8x AGP - $47.50
Drive: Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM - $45.89
Drive: DVD/CD-RW - $30.50
FOXCONN "755A01-6EKRS" SiS755 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL - $77.00
1394: 2 USB2: 8
Ethernet: 10/100/1000 Audio: yes
Modem: v.92 - $11.49
Case: Antec mid tower, 300w PS - $52.00

Total: 449.12

You have ~$50 to blow on better parts if you like. That $50 can go a long way. Keep in mind most of the hardware spec'd (video, drive, ethernet, audio, etc) is already superior to the mac mini.

Also, the amd64 system is 64 bit. The mac mini isn't.

For over $900 you can build a totally killer amd64 pc.

Hokay...

First, let's set the hardware spec target:
Mac Mini:
CPU: 1.25ghz G4 RAM: 256MB of PC2700
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 32mb DDR, 4x AGP
Drive: 40GB Ultra ATA Drive: DVD/CD-RW
1394: 1 USB2: 2 Ethernet: 10/100
Modem: v.92 Audio: yes

amd64 system:
CPU: 1.8ghz amd64 - $114
Heatsink/Fan: Zalman 7000 - $39.99
RAM: 256MB of PC2700 - $30.75
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 64mb DDR, 8x AGP - $47.50
Drive: Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM - $45.89
Drive: DVD/CD-RW - $30.50
FOXCONN "755A01-6EKRS" SiS755 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL - $77.00
1394: 2 USB2: 8
Ethernet: 10/100/1000 Audio: yes
Modem: v.92 - $11.49
Case: Antec mid tower, 300w PS - $52.00

Total: 449.12

You have ~$50 to blow on better parts if you like. That $50 can go a long way. Keep in mind most of the hardware spec'd (video, drive, ethernet, audio, etc) is already superior to the mac mini.

Also, the amd64 system is 64 bit. The mac mini isn't.

For over $900 you can build a totally killer amd64 pc.

Hokay...

First, let's set the hardware spec target:
Mac Mini:
CPU: 1.25ghz G4 RAM: 256MB of PC2700
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 32mb DDR, 4x AGP
Drive: 40GB Ultra ATA Drive: DVD/CD-RW
1394: 1 USB2: 2 Ethernet: 10/100
Modem: v.92 Audio: yes

amd64 system:
CPU: 1.8ghz amd64 - $114
Heatsink/Fan: Zalman 7000 - $39.99
RAM: 256MB of PC2700 - $30.75
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 64mb DDR, 8x AGP - $47.50
Drive: Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM - $45.89
Drive: DVD/CD-RW - $30.50
FOXCONN "755A01-6EKRS" SiS755 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL - $77.00
1394: 2 USB2: 8
Ethernet: 10/100/1000 Audio: yes
Modem: v.92 - $11.49
Case: Antec mid tower, 300w PS - $52.00

Total: 449.12

You have ~$50 to blow on better parts if you like. That $50 can go a long way. Keep in mind most of the hardware spec'd (video, drive, ethernet, audio, etc) is already superior to the mac mini.

Also, the amd64 system is 64 bit. The mac mini isn't.

For over $900 you can build a totally killer amd64 pc.

Hokay...

First, let's set the hardware spec target:
Mac Mini:
CPU: 1.25ghz G4 RAM: 256MB of PC2700
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 32mb DDR, 4x AGP
Drive: 40GB Ultra ATA Drive: DVD/CD-RW
1394: 1 USB2: 2 Ethernet: 10/100
Modem: v.92 Audio: yes

amd64 system:
CPU: 1.8ghz amd64 - $114
Heatsink/Fan: Zalman 7000 - $39.99
RAM: 256MB of PC2700 - $30.75
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 64mb DDR, 8x AGP - $47.50
Drive: Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM - $45.89
Drive: DVD/CD-RW - $30.50
FOXCONN "755A01-6EKRS" SiS755 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL - $77.00
1394: 2 USB2: 8
Ethernet: 10/100/1000 Audio: yes
Modem: v.92 - $11.49
Case: Antec mid tower, 300w PS - $52.00

Total: 449.12

You have ~$50 to blow on better parts if you like. That $50 can go a long way. Keep in mind most of the hardware spec'd (video, drive, ethernet, audio, etc) is already superior to the mac mini.

Also, the amd64 system is 64 bit. The mac mini isn't.

For over $900 you can build a totally killer amd64 pc.

Hokay...

First, let's set the hardware spec target:
Mac Mini:
CPU: 1.25ghz G4 RAM: 256MB of PC2700
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 32mb DDR, 4x AGP
Drive: 40GB Ultra ATA Drive: DVD/CD-RW
1394: 1 USB2: 2 Ethernet: 10/100
Modem: v.92 Audio: yes

amd64 system:
CPU: 1.8ghz amd64 - $114
Heatsink/Fan: Zalman 7000 - $39.99
RAM: 256MB of PC2700 - $30.75
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 64mb DDR, 8x AGP - $47.50
Drive: Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM - $45.89
Drive: DVD/CD-RW - $30.50
FOXCONN "755A01-6EKRS" SiS755 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL - $77.00
1394: 2 USB2: 8
Ethernet: 10/100/1000 Audio: yes
Modem: v.92 - $11.49
Case: Antec mid tower, 300w PS - $52.00

Total: 449.12

You have ~$50 to blow on better parts if you like. That $50 can go a long way. Keep in mind most of the hardware spec'd (video, drive, ethernet, audio, etc) is already superior to the mac mini.

Also, the amd64 system is 64 bit. The mac mini isn't.

For over $900 you can build a totally killer amd64 pc.

Hokay...

First, let's set the hardware spec target:
Mac Mini:
CPU: 1.25ghz G4 RAM: 256MB of PC2700
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 32mb DDR, 4x AGP
Drive: 40GB Ultra ATA Drive: DVD/CD-RW
1394: 1 USB2: 2 Ethernet: 10/100
Modem: v.92 Audio: yes

amd64 system:
CPU: 1.8ghz amd64 - $114
Heatsink/Fan: Zalman 7000 - $39.99
RAM: 256MB of PC2700 - $30.75
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 64mb DDR, 8x AGP - $47.50
Drive: Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM - $45.89
Drive: DVD/CD-RW - $30.50
FOXCONN "755A01-6EKRS" SiS755 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL - $77.00
1394: 2 USB2: 8
Ethernet: 10/100/1000 Audio: yes
Modem: v.92 - $11.49
Case: Antec mid tower, 300w PS - $52.00

Total: 449.12

You have ~$50 to blow on better parts if you like. That $50 can go a long way. Keep in mind most of the hardware spec'd (video, drive, ethernet, audio, etc) is already superior to the mac mini.

Also, the amd64 system is 64 bit. The mac mini isn't.

For over $900 you can build a totally killer amd64 pc.

Hokay...

First, let's set the hardware spec target:
Mac Mini:
CPU: 1.25ghz G4 RAM: 256MB of PC2700
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 32mb DDR, 4x AGP
Drive: 40GB Ultra ATA Drive: DVD/CD-RW
1394: 1 USB2: 2 Ethernet: 10/100
Modem: v.92 Audio: yes

amd64 system:
CPU: 1.8ghz amd64 - $114
Heatsink/Fan: Zalman 7000 - $39.99
RAM: 256MB of PC2700 - $30.75
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 64mb DDR, 8x AGP - $47.50
Drive: Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM - $45.89
Drive: DVD/CD-RW - $30.50
FOXCONN "755A01-6EKRS" SiS755 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL - $77.00
1394: 2 USB2: 8
Ethernet: 10/100/1000 Audio: yes
Modem: v.92 - $11.49
Case: Antec mid tower, 300w PS - $52.00

Total: 449.12

You have ~$50 to blow on better parts if you like. That $50 can go a long way. Keep in mind most of the hardware spec'd (video, drive, ethernet, audio, etc) is already superior to the mac mini.

Also, the amd64 system is 64 bit. The mac mini isn't.

For over $900 you can build a totally killer amd64 pc.

Hokay...

First, let's set the hardware spec target:
Mac Mini:
CPU: 1.25ghz G4 RAM: 256MB of PC2700
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 32mb DDR, 4x AGP
Drive: 40GB Ultra ATA Drive: DVD/CD-RW
1394: 1 USB2: 2 Ethernet: 10/100
Modem: v.92 Audio: yes

amd64 system:
CPU: 1.8ghz amd64 - $114
Heatsink/Fan: Zalman 7000 - $39.99
RAM: 256MB of PC2700 - $30.75
Video: ATI Radeon 9200, 64mb DDR, 8x AGP - $47.50
Drive: Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM - $45.89
Drive: DVD/CD-RW - $30.50
FOXCONN "755A01-6EKRS" SiS755 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL - $77.00
1394: 2 USB2: 8
Ethernet: 10/100/1000 Audio: yes
Modem: v.92 - $11.49
Case: Antec mid tower, 300w PS - $52.00

Total: 449.12

You have ~$50 to blow on better parts if you like. That $50 can go a long way. Keep in mind most of the hardware spec'd (video, drive, ethernet, audio, etc) is already superior to the mac mini.

Also, the amd64 system is 64 bit. The mac mini isn't.

For over $900 you can build a totally killer amd64 pc.

You can buy a 60G 7200 Hitachi drive for around $150 at newegg and upgrade the ram to 1Gig for around $100. You can then Ebay the 4200 40g drive and the 256meg stick for maybe $100. So delta cost would be $150 or so. The Hitachi laptop drive is as fast as a normal desktop drive. You will end up having a killer system for $650 or so.

What I'd like to see is a product like this drive cage (fits four 1" drives in three standard 5.25" bays), except built with 2.5" laptop size drives in mind.

Just eyeballing the space, it looks like you could fit about 8 laptop drives in two 5.25" bays. Seagate already has 37 and 73 GB SCSI models available, so all that's missing is the convenient RAID enclosure for a workstation.

Place the HDs in the bottom 3-1/2 bay and they'll be cooled by most case front-fans just fine; if not an option, and you're paranoid about heat reducing the life of your drives, then go for 5400rpm or simply buy some cheap HD bay cooling fans. And noise hasn't been a problem for me in quite a while, especially with those fluid dynamic bearings.

$210.

Like here and here and here.

Those are LCDs, you could go even cheaper and get this, or this one.

That, or whip out an old one all the PC people claim to have that keeps them from buying an iMac or eMac because they 'already have that stuff'

Like here and here and here.

Those are LCDs, you could go even cheaper and get this, or this one.

That, or whip out an old one all the PC people claim to have that keeps them from buying an iMac or eMac because they 'already have that stuff'

Like here and here and here.

Those are LCDs, you could go even cheaper and get this, or this one.

That, or whip out an old one all the PC people claim to have that keeps them from buying an iMac or eMac because they 'already have that stuff'

Like here and here and here.

Those are LCDs, you could go even cheaper and get this, or this one.

That, or whip out an old one all the PC people claim to have that keeps them from buying an iMac or eMac because they 'already have that stuff'

Like here and here and here.

Those are LCDs, you could go even cheaper and get this, or this one.

That, or whip out an old one all the PC people claim to have that keeps them from buying an iMac or eMac because they 'already have that stuff'