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Did you a purchase a 17 inch flat screen monitor to go with that? Oh no you didn't... Ahh I see you forgot to add that

I just built my own home system for about $700. An AMD AthlonXP 2800+, 512MB DDR, 120 GB 7,200 ATA 133, 4x DVD+-/RW, case, etc. What NEW system does Apple have for under $800 that is not a crappy G4? I used G4's for sometime and they blow. Apple's bottom of the line is a $1,000 slow 1.25GHz G4 eMac that you cannot expand.

Alienware is one of the more expensive PC makers out there because of nice quality. There are tons of others where you can get fast P4 and AMD systems for under $1,000. Apple cannot touch that price range. You can also do like I did an BUILD YOUR OWN. Apple doesn't allow that.

But lets not forgot to look at the cinema displays as well.

I plan on getting one of these soon. Bonus they are waterproof. It's just a tad over the $25 you specified, less then $30.

I'd say that this was all way too clumsy for anyone to do, but the week before last I bought a USB2 hub specifically because the USB2VGA adapter I was trying to get working off a PCMCIA USB2 adapter was drawing too much power. Of course, if I'd bought a USB2 PCMCIA adapter with any sort of external power option, rather than the cheapest one I could find, then I wouldn't have needed the hub.

For me its still to expensive, for that configuration. I don't like the inbuild keypad also.

For $200 more you can get a much better tablet pc: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=929349&Tab=1&NoMapp=0
(NEC Versa LitePad Intel Pentium 3 Mobile 933MHz / 802.11a-b Wireless / 10.4-inch XGA / 256MB SDRAM / 20GB HDD / External CD-ROM / Windows XP Tablet Edition / Tablet PC)

--Some suggestions:

o Try putting the laptop hard drive in another computer:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=244974&CatId=81

o Investigate getting a used parallel port 100Meg Zip drive. I successfully installed Win98 on an old laptop that had a floppy but no CDROM with one, by copying the CD install files over to the HD.

HTH.

Gouging? Where? Show me another pre-assembled, pre-configured 1.8ghz 64-bit machine with a similar form factor, 17" widescreen LCD, running at 20-30db - all for $1299.

Here's one

Well, the screen is smaller, but it's also thinner and lighter than the iMac G5, has twice the ram, faster video, and integrated wifi.

Plus the cpu is faster. All for $1149.

Oh sure, it's a laptop, but I won't hold that against it.

1. NeXt cube was a long time ago so I wouldn't say that particular situation is relevant anymore
2. How many home users actually transport files? Most of them just work on their own computer.
3. If they need transfer files to work more likely than not they'll just e-mail themselves.
4. If they want to transfer onto a physical medium the can burn a cdr/cd-rw with any of the iMacs and burn dvd-r/dvd-rw on the top two models. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if more computers had CD-ROM or better than have floppy drives.
5. Who actually ever uses floppy disks anymore? I just use them to boot my old P.O.S. boxes I hobby on
6. There is USB for your pendrive (or whatever you want to call it) which is probably the most popular current transportable medium and leagues better than floppy drives.
7. I don't recall there being any floppy drives on any of the SUN UltraSPARC boxes at my school's lab and they are at least several years old.
8. I just went to Dell.com>Small Buisness>Desktops>Dimension and it doesn't look like any (let alone most or all) come with a floppy drive either.
9. You can get a USB floppy drive so that you can read your floppies without ruinng the sexy design of the iMac for everyone else with the added bulk.

200GB drive

Nexstar usb2 enclosure

200GB drive

Nexstar usb2 enclosure

This isn't too bad a price for a 60 gig.

I agree, I hate a ton of extra keys cluttering up my keyboard. I found this, it's branded as an IBM product but it's actually made my Micro Innovations - TigerDirect

It does have 2 extra keys on it, but they're quite useful - browser back and forward; and they work in linux with no special drivers or software (they do it by binding those keys to alt+left/right arrow, thank you xev).

Here's a better system for $374.97
Good ISP for parts of Canada This totals $35.40/yr
Or get any ISP that's $9.95/month = $119.40/yr

Grand total of $494.37 (374.97 + 119.40), it's much less then this AOL deal and a better computer.

I've noticed a trend from the last few years. As PC companys like dell and gateway stuck little extra 'multimedia' keys on the top of the keyboard, they also slowly began to shrik key size.

It was slightly noticeable that the 'full size' keyboard on my powerbook was bigger than the one on my girlfriends PC, but the kicker came when i dug my old Amiga 500 out of storage. The keyboard seemed so massive!

So i ended up taking a very old keyboard from a server in my attic and using that. It's so old it has no windows keys, and the big clunky keys are heavenly compared to the modern flat logitect styles.

I would imagine that if the usb flash drives were going to be used enough to the point where people would have dozens of them, smaller sized thumb drives would certainly become more commonplace. For example: Ultra USB 2.0 thumb drive. If they are that small today, they could certainly decrease in size with newer technology, although it then becomes a question of how small you would actually want a thumb drive to be (issues arise involving losing them and how fragile they would be).

In any case, you could probably fit hundreds in the space that a 12 disc CD/DVD case takes up.

the part that made me ill was him not knowing what doohicky he knocked off.

I can relate to components not fitting in certain configurations;CD rom drives that were 2cm to long for the mobo/case combination i was trying to install them in, or powersupplys right up against cpu heatsinks blocking the air flow. with infinite combinations comes infinite ways to screw things up.

I once put a HUGE heatsink/fan combination on a CPU for a friend. it was an aerocool deep impact limited edition (gold plated heatsink with iridescent fans) as seen here without the 80mm fans mounted on it or the gold plating. i had to use a dremel to trim the shroud around one of the fans so it would clear a memory module. but I figured "hey, you can't see it from my house"

heres another source I found: DVD recorder prices fall as production surges in Taiwan

But it apears that they are already cheap if you know where to shop.

I have been using this one with both my Dell Inspiron 7000 (W2K and W98se) and my iBook (OSX 10.2) with no problems or glitches whatsoever. I vaguely recall Red Hat not being able to find the mouse during one installation but I don't remember the details or how/if I worked around it.

Does that wireless print server support USB and Parallel?

"It's going to be a matter of what the consumer will be willing to pay for a quiet computer," he said.

Are these guys not familliar with items like this? Somehow I don't see these fans costing that much.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/c ategory_slc.asp?CatId=92.

Tigerdirect is selling what they claim to be "The Next Level of Computer Security for Your Home or Office". I think their definition of computer security may be a bit different than yours or mine however, as one of the major selling points is a "-110 decibel siren to sound alarm and scare off intruders". Imagine that bad boy going off every time the machine is violated by the Windows worm de jour! ;)

I am a cheap college student, so I haven't bought books in over two years. However, when I did buy books, I found bestbookbuys.com to be an excellent place to get books since it searches other sites online and finds the best deals. I buy my $150 engineering books there for $50 in excellent condition. You can also buy non-school books there as well.

For my computer accessories, I use Tiger Direct, and subscribe so I get the email deals. I bought my Logitech wireless mouse for $5 there.

My family buys their desktop computers at ibuypower.com, although I prefer to buy my laptops on Tigerdirect. Ibuypower has some awesome desktop deals.

Occasionally, I like to check Dealtime, although I have never purchased anything there. It occasionally gives me an idea of the going market price for things.

Tiger Direct has pretty good prices on tech stuff.
Tiger Direct

Example
Of Floating Graphic At Tiger Direct It's apparently a javascript function.

Or if you really have money to burn, you can get one from IBM at a blistering 3840 x 2400 for a measly $8k

The 3849x2400 IBM T221 is only ~$3000 brand-new on eBay. It is $4000 at tigerdirect.

Look at screens. Graphics cards have improved massively (electronics), screens (optics) used to be 1024x768 quite a while back, and typically aren't more than 1600x1200 now. The LCDs will hopefully change that though, since they're much more scalable (make more pixels) than a CRT (move beam faster).

See, this is why I want one of these. Unfortunately, there are no Mac-compatible video cards (yet) that can drive this puppy, and the PC cards that can still cost thousands of dollars. Still I must say, 3840x2400 at 22" (204dpi) is nothing to sneeze at. (or on.)

Then again, my Dell laptop packs 1920x1200 resolution into a 15" display, which is razor-sharp in its own right (150dpi). Jarring to realize that's barely over 2 megapixels.

Of course, as soon as they have a WHUXGA screen (7680x4800) on a 12" laptop, I'm there.

So... you couldn't use a regular projector?

There are other cheaper hd based players out there.. best bang for buck i have seen is the Classic 10gb player for 120 bucks! Can't verify the quality of it, though.

Ya, component is pretty important if your doing HDTV (at least on my set). I'm using the GrandTec Ultimate 2000, but its pretty much a pass through and I have to set modeline that make my head hurt. I'd try (I guess I probably will try) the GrandTec Ultimate XP Pro next. It lists composite, S-Video, YCbCR (component) and RGB video output. The trouble with the modelines is some software will take control of the video card directly and switch it to a mode that my HDTV can't support. The GrandTec Ultimate XP Pro should do the conversion itself in hardware, I got the one I did because I thought it would be better to have one I could configure to support ANY resolution supported by my video card and TV. But its a huge pain in the ass and they don't really work well together without a regular converter to bridge the gap (I guess my video card wasn't really designed for HDTV output).

Ya, component is pretty important if your doing HDTV (at least on my set). I'm using the GrandTec Ultimate 2000, but its pretty much a pass through and I have to set modeline that make my head hurt. I'd try (I guess I probably will try) the GrandTec Ultimate XP Pro next. It lists composite, S-Video, YCbCR (component) and RGB video output. The trouble with the modelines is some software will take control of the video card directly and switch it to a mode that my HDTV can't support. The GrandTec Ultimate XP Pro should do the conversion itself in hardware, I got the one I did because I thought it would be better to have one I could configure to support ANY resolution supported by my video card and TV. But its a huge pain in the ass and they don't really work well together without a regular converter to bridge the gap (I guess my video card wasn't really designed for HDTV output).

I'm using a GrandTec Ultimate 2000 but Tigerdirect carries a lot of them. Look for something that can output to the highest resolution you'll need (XVGA at least if you'll be plugging into a HDTV). Otherwise get one thats has the right price. I've seen a few higher priced ones, but have yet to see any advantages (other then a lighter wallet). I've used the AVerKey iMicro with my only complaint being the output resolution (I'd just bought a new HDTV and wanted more then standard NTSC TV out).

The GrandTec Ultimate XP looks pretty good.

I'm using a GrandTec Ultimate 2000 but Tigerdirect carries a lot of them. Look for something that can output to the highest resolution you'll need (XVGA at least if you'll be plugging into a HDTV). Otherwise get one thats has the right price. I've seen a few higher priced ones, but have yet to see any advantages (other then a lighter wallet). I've used the AVerKey iMicro with my only complaint being the output resolution (I'd just bought a new HDTV and wanted more then standard NTSC TV out).

The GrandTec Ultimate XP looks pretty good.

I'm using a GrandTec Ultimate 2000 but Tigerdirect carries a lot of them. Look for something that can output to the highest resolution you'll need (XVGA at least if you'll be plugging into a HDTV). Otherwise get one thats has the right price. I've seen a few higher priced ones, but have yet to see any advantages (other then a lighter wallet). I've used the AVerKey iMicro with my only complaint being the output resolution (I'd just bought a new HDTV and wanted more then standard NTSC TV out).

The GrandTec Ultimate XP looks pretty good.

$500 for something similar, I suppose, but didn't read the manufacturer's specs because there site is down.

>Not enough to motivate even cheap Chinese manufacturers to bother. >The cost/GB notwithstanding, the jukebox approach has too many disadvantages. But someone came up with this and it got manufactured. Not that it sells well. It doesn't even read the media!!! I am sure it would cost sony a whole 1 hour of engineering to convert their dvd players to be computer compatible.

First, go pick up this CD organizer. Holds 100 CDs/DVDs and runs $50. Connects via USB.
Now run out and spend $20 or so on a slotload DVD-Rom. Now all you have to do is work a little hack magic to place the slotload DVD-ROM where the CD/DVD ejects, and there's your jukebox.
It's slow, not very hightech, but it'll get the job done and run you $70 or so each.
I have planned on doing this for quite some time, just haven't had the time to sit and devote to it yet. Be a nice little hack though.

You can actually get a DVD+/-R for under $100 as well (affiliate link removed).

Y'know, you could've avoided that Troll mod by just providing a direct link instead of pimping an affiliate link.

Besides, TigerDirect sucks (compare their score to Newegg, for instance).

This is not an ad for them, but Tiger Direct sells some systems that don't suck. tigerdirect

Over the years I've seen three of their computers work well for relatives.

I've been planning to buy a cheap Duron machine just to play MP3s, DVDs, etc. and hooking up a video card like this one (under $50 w/ remote!) so I could play everything thru the TV. Pricing everything out, it seems I could do this for about $300.

Since this thing seems to need a computer anyway, can anyone tell me what this would buy me above and beyond the above mentioned cheap PC?

I have not personally tried the Gatos project's drivers, but I find the XFree86 "radeon" driver to be rock-solid.

Decent Radeons are getting cheap too. Just a couple weeks ago I purchased a 64MB DDR AGP4x/2x Radeon 7000 with TV out and both VGA and DVI outputs for $60, before the $30 mail-in rebate from TigerDirect.

I should note I don't care about 3D performance as I'm not a gamer, so YMMV if you're going for 3D. Also, people bitch and moan about how horrid ATI's Windows drivers are, but in five years of owning nothing but ATI video cards I haven't had a minute's trouble with any of them. Nvidia, on the other hand...their drivers are so bad even in the Windows area that half the Windows games I used to play don't even display properly (parts of characters or objects missing, less than 30 fps, etc).

Some notes:

Dell price does not include monitor.

Dell price does include Windows XP (Home, not Professional), because there's no way to not buy Windows XP from Dell. So, yeah, that's $100 there.

As for the productivity software, to get that price, I selected the crappiest (read: cheapest) of the possible options, which is the WordPerfect Family Pack, for $60.

That's $160 worth of questionable stuff, and it still leaves dell at slightly under $1100.

Yeah, sure, for someone who doesn't know anything about computers and doesn't want to know, I wouldn't recommend they go out and do put one together. But for anyone who does have a clue, I can't imagine buying from Dell. Even if you're going to buy a full system, buying from a place like Tiger is cheaper. I'd only recommend Dell to someone who needs the 24/7 technical service, and has no other alternative for it.

Some notes:

Dell price does not include monitor.

Dell price does include Windows XP (Home, not Professional), because there's no way to not buy Windows XP from Dell. So, yeah, that's $100 there.

As for the productivity software, to get that price, I selected the crappiest (read: cheapest) of the possible options, which is the WordPerfect Family Pack, for $60.

That's $160 worth of questionable stuff, and it still leaves dell at slightly under $1100.

Yeah, sure, for someone who doesn't know anything about computers and doesn't want to know, I wouldn't recommend they go out and do put one together. But for anyone who does have a clue, I can't imagine buying from Dell. Even if you're going to buy a full system, buying from a place like Tiger is cheaper. I'd only recommend Dell to someone who needs the 24/7 technical service, and has no other alternative for it.

slashcode no like the long URL as text.
clicky clicky works much better.

I'm guessing you are referring to this machine. And it does look like a nice machine. But if you intended it as a dig at Apple's pricing (which I'm not sure you did) keep in mind that TigerDirect's own ad says it sells for $3400 from HP/Compaq. TigerDirect regularly buys random closeouts cheap from various sources (ie custom builds for companies that changed their minds) and sell them cheap. So saying a limited time/quantity closeout is cheaper than another company's retail price seems like an unfair/invalid arguement.

The PC in the picture can be found here. Silly thing doesn't come with a harddrive, but otherwise seems to be fairly decent for a home (not gaming) machine.

I have a Dual G4, thought I was getting ripped off, 5 months later and they announce the G5's as G4 crushers. Glad to know that it isnt true. I would of really felt bad if the the Single G5 CPU's crushed the dual 1.42ghz. Quickest drop in price I've had on computer hardware in some time. Also my first Apple purchase. DOH!

BTW, Tiger Direct has Dual 2.4ghz Xeons for 1600 bux.

Because it's done by M$? Because it's done via "tilting"? 4-D mice are not new.

2 wheels
1 wheel (presumably via kybd modifier)
a trackball

Move along, people, nothing to see here. Please, go back to slamming Real or something much more important.

Tiger direct has a 256MB pen drive for $50, and one of their 512MB models is only $110. The 1GB drives are still up there.

Last month when I was building my new computer I was able to get a GeForce 4 (4xAGP, 64MB DDR) for $20 after rebate from Tiger Direct. Granted, it's not the greatest card in the world, and I've never been much of a gamer, but it should be enough for all but the most hardcore of gamers.

Toshiba Magnia SG20

Certainly, rolling your own is a learning experience but this is hard to beat. Where to you get a switch to put in a roll-your-own box?