OT: Products Worth Looking At / Advice

<a href="http://www.pipingdesign.com/products.html">http://www.pipingdesign.com/products.html</a>

I've trimmed the page down to only include nifty stuff, none of which earns me money if you guys buy them.

The Google ads on that page seem to like dual processors and dual displays. I'd have to agree with that.

Two 19" CRTs are probably cheaper and more useful than one high-quality 20" LCD, but the coolness factor of LCDs can not be ignored. Stick with the big, heavy CRTs for now and enjoy the cheap visual huge real estate.

On RAM, get as much as you can afford (1 GB+), even if it means that your system might not have all the bells and whistles that you might like. With USB and Firewire, you can always add storage and peripherals later.

Operating Systems. Try to get a Linux version installed before Windows XP Professional and use it for web browsing and email.

Hard drives: many now are 7200 RPM with 8MB cache with a 5 year warranty. This promise is no guarantee, but it indicates long-term intentions of the manufacturer. A 250GB drive is not necessarily better than a 120GB drive. Or a 40GB drive.

Video cards: I'd hold off buying for now unless you feel an urgent need to buy. The higher-end gaming cards are approaching the level of specialized CAD-specific cards that cost $2K and up. Stay away and watch the downcoming prices if you have the time.

Dual processors: don't bother unless you have lots of money to spend and hate waiting that extra 0.05 second for something to happen. I love my 1.58 Athlon MP dual processor system, but current processors are so fast that the performance difference is not even noticeable.

Motherboards: Look into the company's website and what kind of support they still offer for older designs.

Paul Received on Sat Nov 06 09:59:00 2004