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Not that rare, just VERY expensive. Newegg links:

Mobos:
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?desc ription=13-137-057&depa=0 (AOpen i855GMEm-LFS - $269, in stock)
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?desc ription=13-136-150&depa=0 (DFI 855GME-MGF - $270, in stock)

CPUs:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=p roperty&catalog=343&propertycodevalue=5170,%200,%2 00,%200,%200,%200,%200,%200&minprice=&maxprice=&mf rcode=0&DEPA=1&InnerCata=343
Pentium M 725 (1.6), 735 (1.7), 745 (1.8), 755 (2.0), and all at (slightly over) Intel list. They DON'T have the 715 (OCs just as well as the 725-745 on the DFI board) or the 765 (OCs to 2.8GHz).

Still, you can get a P-M desktop, and easily. It just costs a lot :-(

6 of these http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc ription=22-144-359&depa=1 300 GB Hardrives and chain them together... cutting the costs down more then half.

If you go buy a copy of XP at retail right now (at least the OEM copies that I buy) then you get XP w/SP1. If it hasn't already happened, it won't be long before that's XP w/SP2.

It has happened. I was at Fry's the other day and saw all their boxes of XP Pro and Home are the new SP2-style (white folding page in the upper left corner). Royalty OEM's (Dell, HP, etc.) are already required to ship SP2 preinstalled on all machines. Select and other volume license customers have already received SP2-slipstreamed copies. It's shipped out to MSDN customers so developers can start using it. System Builders acquiring OEM licenses from major resellers should for the most part be getting SP2 copies only by now - every geek's favorite online retailer is headlining its software page with SP2 copies of both Home and Pro edition. Any retailers still selling SP1 copies are just trying to deplete their onhand stock - let them know Microsoft has a trade-in program where they can exchange unsold SP1 copies for SP2 boxes. Technet and MSDN subscribers were carpetbombed with not only regular subscription copies of the SP2 patch, but also an extra copy to hand out to friends.

You can fault Microsoft for many things, but not aggressively getting SP2 out there is not one of them.

XP with SP2
All Operating Systems include Windows XP Service Pack 2 From Dell's Website
Order SP2 Free

RAID 0 across a good number of these bad boys.

On my home computer, I've got 500+ MB worth of results from simulations that I would like to back up but there's just no affordable way to do that.

Dude, you need to check out this if you need to back up that much data. I use it all the time to back stuff up:

Back up device 1

If you want to look towards the future, you can drop a few more bucks now and buy this, it will handle your data backup needs for a long time to come I suspect:

Back up device 2

Keep this hush hush though... this technology is bleeding edge and if there's a lot of people using these, the RIAA might get wind of it and start sueing people. It would be ugly. The MPAA might get involved in the second link's hardware as well.

So keep it on the DL brother, but I feel your backup pain. 500MB is a lot of Metal AE downloads.

On my home computer, I've got 500+ MB worth of results from simulations that I would like to back up but there's just no affordable way to do that.

Dude, you need to check out this if you need to back up that much data. I use it all the time to back stuff up:

Back up device 1

If you want to look towards the future, you can drop a few more bucks now and buy this, it will handle your data backup needs for a long time to come I suspect:

Back up device 2

Keep this hush hush though... this technology is bleeding edge and if there's a lot of people using these, the RIAA might get wind of it and start sueing people. It would be ugly. The MPAA might get involved in the second link's hardware as well.

So keep it on the DL brother, but I feel your backup pain. 500MB is a lot of Metal AE downloads.

I have one. HP zv5000z. I get 3-4 hours of battery life with the 12 cell battery. I just swapped in a Mobile-class Athlon 64 3200+ CPU (replacing the original DTR-class chip) to great effect (eMachines/Gateway already uses Mobile-class Athlon 64s). Right now I'm running 1.1GHz @ 0.8V, which means CPU power consumption is in... oh, probably the high single digits, wattage-wise. It'll do full speed at 1.2V too (35W max power consumption). But even without playing undervolting games like this you'll still get great battery life.

Expect the big AMD notebook onslaught to begin this Spring when their 25W 90nm Athlon 64 notebook chips are launched. Until then, I wouldn't mind a Ferarri (or this one)...

OTOH, newbies who buy Prescott-core P4's (look for the E designation, ie P4E 3GHz) better be wearing their asbestos underwear. They don't call them the P4 "Blast Furnace Edition" for nothing.

First, he probably can't shell out the $558 for Photoshop CS, and it's not like they have an R&D budget.

Second, if they know Photoshop like the back of their hand, they're going to be inclined to follow Photoshop's method of doing things, which is not the Holy Grail of UI design.

I've used Photoshop on a friend's Mac and it is remarkably like GIMP 2's interface. I only use two windows besides the graphic window when I'm using the GIMP, and they are not difficult to use once you know where things are, and that's the same issue they will have with ANY UI design.

Slashdot, a prominent news web log claiming to be News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters has claimed victory over the Gay Nigger Association of America (GNAA).

With GNAA's trolls resorting to stale material which was relevant for five minutes about three months ago and enabling anyone to cut and paste a press release using the Open Source philosophy has led to GNAA's demise. Netcraft confirms it.

GNAA's founder timecop was seen locking up the headquarters one last time. An unassuming outdoor mens room deep in the heart of Tennessee was once host to numerous sessions of blowjobs, anal and creampies attended only by homosexual African-Americans. I reckon I jest likes fuckin' girls. White girls. [note broken link] was the only statement given to the press at this time. Former lovers and Windows users Lysol and Roloffle were found standing at half-mast upon the sad but inevitable occasion.

Robert W. Malda shared his feelings regarding the event. Oog the Caveman (a pioneer of ALL CAPS == TEH FNY), The Glorious Meept, Trollaxor, The Turd Report, WIPO Troll, Recipe Troll even goatse had something to contribute to our forums. GNAA is populated solely by crybaby attention whores who wouldn't know a rpm if it bit them on their tender, velvety asshole which is barely covered by a fine mist of downy, pre-pubescent hairs. After a brief reverie Mr. Malda conceded At least GNAA uses valid xHTML instead of dicey HTML 3.2

About GNAA: GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) was a troll organization known for its cut and paste style of trolls which are written once every six months. It was founded in July 2001 by timecop, found its heyday with ROR JEWS DID WTC and slowly faded into the background radiation. Its namesake, a Danish humor movie, is freely available via BitTorrent.

About Slashdot:
Slashdot is the first website dedicated entirely to duplicate articles, groupthink and brilliant trolls. Under the aegis of News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters and its connections with Open Source Lobbyists has ensured its continued presence on teh intorweb.

Do you have an Email address ? Do you have a computer ? If you answered Yes to all of the above questions, then Slashdot is exactly what you've been looking for! Join Slashdot today, and enjoy all the benefits of being a full-time Slashdot member. Why not? It's quick and easy - only 3 simple steps!

• First, you have to obtain a copy of Linux and attempt to install it. You can download the operating system using BitTorrent.
• Second, you need to succeed in First Post on slashdot.org, our website.
• Third, you need to join the official S

HDTV Wonder Remote Control Edition.
Here is a review of the product and some reviews by users.

"Standard" PCI has 1056Mbps of bandwith. According to the site he mentioned, they are using a machine that has a 64 bit bus at 66MHz, which yields 4224Mbps of bandwidth. So you'll need to spend at least $200 for a motherboard that can hold your $16k capture card. :^)

newegg

Get one, they're cheap... I'm sure you've got a spare 80 gig hard drive lying around somewhere. :)

Don't mention Celeron. I don't know why Intel keep on releasing it ... In today's market I just don't understand the need to have a low-end Celeron line.

They give low-budget a new low.

What's even worse are the laptop Celerons, which perform like 486 chips relabeled.

I'm not saying that Intel hasn't released some stinkers under their "Celeron" label. The Pentium 4-based Celerons sucked when they only had 128K of L2 cache, but now they have 256K and the Prescott core. Recent notebook Celerons had the same core as those sucky desktop Celerons, but now they use the highly-praised Pentium M core.

Two years ago, desktop and notebook Celerons did suck. But now, Dell offers a Celeron D desktop with PCI-Express (915G chipset) for $568. HP/Compaq sells a $599 notebook with a Dothan-based Celeron M. I think that's pretty good performance and technology for those prices.

80ms to Lou Malnati's Chicago Style Pizza. 70ms to Newegg.

Some things are made of bits. For everything else, there's UPS and FedEx.

Hauppauge MediaMVP

it runs linux, and is hackable:

http://www.visi.com/~erl/
http://sourceforge.ne t/projects/mvpbtv/
http://www.dforsyth.net/mvp/so ftware.html
http://mvpmc.sourceforge.net/idx.php? pg=main
http://www.shspvr.com/forum/viewforum.php ?f=38
http://www.rst38.org.uk/vdr/mediamvp/

Eh, I think I can find those CPUs new, and cheap ;-)

Granted, no mobos (I can't find a Slot 1 mobo on DumpingGoods, or a Socket 7 mobo on Newegg), but I found the CPUs ;-)

That would be helpful advice if newegg actually shipped anywhere useful.

I'd concider newegg also.

NVidia Personal Cinema FX5700

• native component out. this is the way to go with HDTV. DVI is a nightmare, at least with my HDTV (a Toshiba).
• nvidia. I'm a linux user. Lots of linux users take issue with nvidia because of binary drivers, but for linux nothing works better

I know several online retailers (like Newegg) that show a "May we suggest" bar or a "Also purchased with this item" bar on the side of any product detail page. How is this anything new? And if they do win, how many other targets could they sue? It's just crazy.

The Althon 64 starts at $141 on NewEgg

See for yourself

And BTW, the 386 was 32 bit.

The price of writable DVD's is much too high for me, I think I'll stick with my cheap-o CD-R's for now :D

58cents/each is too costly for you for a DVD+/-R? If you pay attention you can get this media localy during sales and such. Rather than 38cents/each for CD-R media.

58cents / 4.7gig = 12.3cents/gig
38cents / 650meg * ( 1gig/1024meg) = 59cents/gig

To be fair, let's look at the lowest price 50pack of CDs on this site. $8.00/50 = 16cents each

16cents / 650 * 1gig/1024) = 25.2cents/gig

Under these conditions, DVD-R is cheaper per gig than CD-r.

The price of writable DVD's is much too high for me, I think I'll stick with my cheap-o CD-R's for now :D

58cents/each is too costly for you for a DVD+/-R? If you pay attention you can get this media localy during sales and such. Rather than 38cents/each for CD-R media.

58cents / 4.7gig = 12.3cents/gig
38cents / 650meg * ( 1gig/1024meg) = 59cents/gig

To be fair, let's look at the lowest price 50pack of CDs on this site. $8.00/50 = 16cents each

16cents / 650 * 1gig/1024) = 25.2cents/gig

Under these conditions, DVD-R is cheaper per gig than CD-r.

The price of writable DVD's is much too high for me, I think I'll stick with my cheap-o CD-R's for now :D

58cents/each is too costly for you for a DVD+/-R? If you pay attention you can get this media localy during sales and such. Rather than 38cents/each for CD-R media.

58cents / 4.7gig = 12.3cents/gig
38cents / 650meg * ( 1gig/1024meg) = 59cents/gig

To be fair, let's look at the lowest price 50pack of CDs on this site. $8.00/50 = 16cents each

16cents / 650 * 1gig/1024) = 25.2cents/gig

Under these conditions, DVD-R is cheaper per gig than CD-r.

Well, they each have their strengths and weaknesses. AMD chips on the other hand are on average cooler, which big datacenters like. And with their new packaging, they're a little more durable now too.

Mod parent up, this is great advice. I've had superb performance and reliability from software RAID 0 and 5 under Linux 2.4 and 2.6 for the last two years using a fast/wide PCI bus.

Hardware is a trio of Seagate X15-36LP Cheetahs connected to a Tekram U160 card running in a 64bit/66MHz slot of a dual Athlon XP 2000+ Tyan Tiger MPX motherboard [currently $215].

When I moved this controller and drive setup to the standard 32bit/33MHz slot of a dual P3/450MHz machine, disk performance was drastically cut while CPU usage wasn't much affected.

Modern hard drives are pushing 70MB/s transfer rates, so even two of them can saturate the classic PCI bus. PATA, SATA, and SCSI can all support high RAID transfer rates if their controllers are connected to the system by wide-enough / fast-enough interfaces and smart choices are made about [not] sharing channels.

BTW, at least a few of the common Linux filesystems are smart enough to automatically configure themselves efficiently when formatted on top of a RAIDed partition.

Connect them with these

Wow, i have compared prices between Apple and their competitors, and this hasn't been the case. Take for instance, the iPod. I can buy a 40 gig iPod for $400, or a 40 gig Creative Nomad Zen for $236 at http://newegg.com/. Their laptops are similarily overly expensive. Now, I don't doubt their sexiness, especially the aforementioned items which have a definate aesthetic appeal, but I've never been able to find anyone who is capable of proving the price point. There is simply no ground. You may love your Mac, but you ARE being gouged.

I think the term you are looking for isn't "User" but rather Bigot . I use a Mac at work. I even like it. I even didn't mind adding Mac troubleshooting skills to my Windows and Linux skills-- it wasn't that different. I would even go so far as to say that I prefer doing 90% of my Real Work at a Mac. (Games are another story.) But I while I think the iPod is kinda cool, I'm not planning on replacing my Archos Jukebox 20 until it keels over dead... which, incidentally, won't be due to the batteries. I have better ways to waste my money than donating to the Church of Steve.

I'd also disagree slightly with the assessment of the review. Based on what's said, there may be some interest in the material to anthropologists (amateur and professional) who study computer nerds. If I see the book at Barnes & Noble, I might sit down and leaf through it for an hour or two. I might check it out if it hits the local library. I wouldn't spend real money on it, though.

Slashdot, a prominent news web log claiming to be "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters" has claimed victory over the Gay Nigger Association of America (GNAA).

With GNAA's trolls resorting to stale material which was relevant for five minutes about three months ago and enabling anyone to "cut and paste" a press release using the Open Source philosophy has led to GNAA's demise. Netcraft confirms it.

GNAA's founder timecop was seen locking up the headquarters one last time. An unassuming outdoor mens room deep in the heart of Tennessee was once host to numerous sessions of blowjobs, anal and creampies attended only by homosexual African-Americans. "I reckon I jest likes fuckin' girls. White girls. [note broken link]" was the only statement given to the press at this time. Former lovers and Windows users Lysol and Roloffle were found standing at "half-mast" upon the sad but inevitable occasion.

Robert W. Malda shared his feelings regarding the event. "Oog the Caveman (a pioneer of ALL CAPS == TEH FNY), The Glorious Meept, Trollaxor, The Turd Report, WIPO Troll, Recipe Troll even goatse had something to contribute to our forums. GNAA is populated solely by crybaby attention whores who wouldn't know a rpm if it bit them on their tender, velvety asshole which is barely covered by a fine mist of downy, pre-pubescent hairs." After a brief reverie Mr. Malda conceded "At least GNAA uses valid xHTML instead of dicey HTML 3.2"

About GNAA:

GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) was a troll organization known for its "cut and paste" style of trolls which are written once every six months. It was founded in July 2001 by timecop, found its heyday with "ROR JEWS DID WTC" and slowly faded into the background radiation. Its namesake, a Danish humor movie, is freely available via BitTorrent.

About Slashdot:

Slashdot is the first website dedicated entirely to duplicate articles, groupthink and brilliant trolls. Under the aegis of "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters" and its connections with Open Source Lobbyists has ensured its continued presence on "teh intorweb".

Do you have an Email address? ?

Do you have a computer ?

If you answered "Yes" to all of the above questions, then Slashdotis exactly what you've been looking for!

Join Slashdot today, and enjoy all the benefits of being a full-time Slashdot member.

Why not? It's quick and easy - only 3 simple steps!

• First, you have to obtain a copy of Linux and attempt to install it. You can download the operating system using BitTorrent.
• Second, you need to succeed in First Post on

The iPod Photo will still, of course, sell well, because certain people will buy anything Apple produces no matter what it is. I think iPod Photo is way overpriced for its features, though the size of the hard drive might make it usable as a portable hard drive with a mp3/aac player.

The iPod Photo will still, of course, sell well, because certain people will buy anything Apple produces no matter what it is. I think iPod Photo is way overpriced for its features, though the size of the hard drive might make it usable as a portable hard drive with a mp3/aac player.

40 Gigs was the cheapest drive they sell on NewEgg. If I'd been willing to spen more time to go to another site to find a 20gig, I bet I could have gotten pretty close to $100. But then, I'd rather spend a little more to get some slightly more powerful that a vanilla 1.3 Athlon.

$21 Rosewill 184-Pin 128MB DDR PC-3200, Model RW400/128 - Retail
$26 PCChips "M811LU" KT266A Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
$10.75 POWMAX 320W Power Supply for Intel and AMD systems Model "VP-320ATX" -RETAIL
$41 AMD Athlon 1.33 GHz, 266MHz FSB, 256K Cache Processor - OEM

Total: $98.75

Quick notes, I didn't buy a case so don't step on it. Also, I didn't buy a heatsink or fan so it'll only run for about 12 seconds. Also, you need to boot off the lan. Also, you won't be able to see anything, and not because the processor poofed, but also it has no video card.


For full good system, I did it once for about 220 bucks. Harddrives and cases pah! Who needs them. My system will turn on for $98.75!

$21 Rosewill 184-Pin 128MB DDR PC-3200, Model RW400/128 - Retail
$26 PCChips "M811LU" KT266A Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
$10.75 POWMAX 320W Power Supply for Intel and AMD systems Model "VP-320ATX" -RETAIL
$41 AMD Athlon 1.33 GHz, 266MHz FSB, 256K Cache Processor - OEM

Total: $98.75

Quick notes, I didn't buy a case so don't step on it. Also, I didn't buy a heatsink or fan so it'll only run for about 12 seconds. Also, you need to boot off the lan. Also, you won't be able to see anything, and not because the processor poofed, but also it has no video card.


For full good system, I did it once for about 220 bucks. Harddrives and cases pah! Who needs them. My system will turn on for $98.75!

$21 Rosewill 184-Pin 128MB DDR PC-3200, Model RW400/128 - Retail
$26 PCChips "M811LU" KT266A Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
$10.75 POWMAX 320W Power Supply for Intel and AMD systems Model "VP-320ATX" -RETAIL
$41 AMD Athlon 1.33 GHz, 266MHz FSB, 256K Cache Processor - OEM

Total: $98.75

Quick notes, I didn't buy a case so don't step on it. Also, I didn't buy a heatsink or fan so it'll only run for about 12 seconds. Also, you need to boot off the lan. Also, you won't be able to see anything, and not because the processor poofed, but also it has no video card.


For full good system, I did it once for about 220 bucks. Harddrives and cases pah! Who needs them. My system will turn on for $98.75!

$21 Rosewill 184-Pin 128MB DDR PC-3200, Model RW400/128 - Retail
$26 PCChips "M811LU" KT266A Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
$10.75 POWMAX 320W Power Supply for Intel and AMD systems Model "VP-320ATX" -RETAIL
$41 AMD Athlon 1.33 GHz, 266MHz FSB, 256K Cache Processor - OEM

Total: $98.75

Quick notes, I didn't buy a case so don't step on it. Also, I didn't buy a heatsink or fan so it'll only run for about 12 seconds. Also, you need to boot off the lan. Also, you won't be able to see anything, and not because the processor poofed, but also it has no video card.


For full good system, I did it once for about 220 bucks. Harddrives and cases pah! Who needs them. My system will turn on for $98.75!

Assuming there is Linux support for the motherboard's built in video and LAN:

($35) 1.2ghz AMD Duron
($35) Sis740 Socket A Mobo w/ Video+Lan
($20) Generic 128MB PC2100 DIMM
($45) Maxtor 40G 7200rpm HDD
($25) Black ATX Mid-Tower w/ 350W PS

Total: $160

$15 of that is shipping on for the case. Add $5-10 for 256M instead of 128M RAM.

Assuming there is Linux support for the motherboard's built in video and LAN:

($35) 1.2ghz AMD Duron
($35) Sis740 Socket A Mobo w/ Video+Lan
($20) Generic 128MB PC2100 DIMM
($45) Maxtor 40G 7200rpm HDD
($25) Black ATX Mid-Tower w/ 350W PS

Total: $160

$15 of that is shipping on for the case. Add $5-10 for 256M instead of 128M RAM.

Heat pipes still use water as the cooling medium, albeit in thicker pipes and under a slight vacuum. I bought a Thermaltake SilentTower to replace an Alpha PAL 8942 with a Vantec Tornado fan (A.K.A. a vacuum cleaner) and I'm pretty satisfied. It keeps the CPU way cooler than a passive ever could, and I didn't have to go through all the crap like when I built my friend's machine with a Thermaltake Aquarius.

you mean like this board?

I really thought about running raid to speed up work, and increase reliability, but it's just not really worth it on the desktop.

raid-0: decreases reliability since you have 2 drives that can go bad instead of 1, lose 1 drive and you're dead in the water.

raid-1: doesn't give an performance increase, in fact it's a performance hit for a lot of things.

raid-5: I didn't know of any boards that did it at the time, and they extra cards are expensive, plus the extra 2 drives.

raid 0+1: gives you some good reliability, but now you're talking 4 drives to buy and worry about instead of 2 or 3.

I came to the conclusion, just got the fastest single ide drive you can buy, and go with that. (74 gig WD Raptor 10k SATA) And back up your stuff. The beauty of one drive is that there's only 1 drive to go bad and replace, you also use up less power and it's quieter. With raid-5, not only are you buying 3 drives, but if you really want that reliability, you better have an extra drive on hand just in case.

Anyone going the Asus route would be well advised to pray and pray that the hardware never fails, because to say that Asus tech support sucks would be a gross understatement. Their hardware is decent, but woe be unto him that has to deal with them on a customer service issue of any kind. I spent over a month recently trying to get a video card issue resolved with them and finally gave up. Luckily the reseller http://www.newegg.com/ DOES have good customer service and gave me a refund of the current market value. I've bought my last Asus product.

Getting Media Center Edition no longer requires purchasing a new overpriced system. Some references:

MCE 2005 OEM (Software) - $140
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc ription=32-102-311&depa=0

MCE 2005 Remote - $40
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?desc ription=80-100-851&DEPA=0

Xbox MCE Extender software (includes remote - is what this whole article is about) ... $58
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10385209 &loc=101&sp=1

LinkSys MCE Extender (standalone/wireless) -
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10382669

HP has one too also can't find it for sale yet
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?product =438918&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&

Getting Media Center Edition no longer requires purchasing a new overpriced system. Some references:

MCE 2005 OEM (Software) - $140
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc ription=32-102-311&depa=0

MCE 2005 Remote - $40
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?desc ription=80-100-851&DEPA=0

Xbox MCE Extender software (includes remote - is what this whole article is about) ... $58
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10385209 &loc=101&sp=1

LinkSys MCE Extender (standalone/wireless) -
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10382669

HP has one too also can't find it for sale yet
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?product =438918&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&

This Celeron D is only listed at 1.3v in the review and only 1v on Newegg's site. I couldn't locate the correct voltage on Intel's site. Does anybody know the correct answer? Looking to build a low wattage system and this CPU seems perfect

"I just want a desktop Pentium M system, without having to browse some Japanese-only Hitachi site.

I don't want more power, I want a fast enough machine that runs silently.

I guess it's my fault for waiting for Intel to provide this instead of just buying a Mac."

Athlon XP 2200+ Mobile:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc ription=19-103-440&depa=0

Power Consumption: 35W. Undervolted and underclocked: 25W.

No need to buy a Mac.

I dontt know if anyone else has suggested it but MobileEdge makes some really killer, high quality stuff. I haul my laptop, books and various other items to class in it everyday. The quality is better than anything from Targus amd probably cheaper if you get em' here: About $55 Shipped http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc ription=34-997-609&depa=0

I like this backpack by Mobile Edge on ebags.com: http://www.ebags.com/mobile_edge/select_backpack/p roduct_detail/index.cfm?ModelID=18154
If you look closely at the pictures you'll see that it even has a special pocket for a CD/MP3 player with a hole for the headphone cord. That way you can listen to music without even taking the MP3 player out of the backpack. There's a detachable pocket for your cell phone. It also doesn't look obviously like a laptop bag. Some of the reviewers thought it was a little small if you wanted to carry a lot of other things. I won't know until next week when I get mine! Newegg.com (where I got mine) does have a better price, they have the black version of this for $50: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc ription=34-997-609&depa=3. The also have the blue version for $55.