Crash,

You seem to be the man that knows about these things, so could you recommend a site that reviews (independently, if their is such a thing) 'puters, accessories etc. Am looking to upgrade some equipment and would like to read a little background on my options, if i could.

Thanks.

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I like Bing Lee.

Hi Mad,

I've been building and/or setting up computers locally for quite a few years now [make a few bob to bet with]. It might be a good idea to let me know what you have and what your upgrade ideas are and any particular purposes you have in mind. I might put you on the right track toward final decisions and what direction to look in and probably a few things worth considering that you might not have even thought about.

If you know what you want to do and need no further advice, here is one of the Tech. forums I am a member of that does a lot of genuine reviews etc. [among other things]. One of the best sites around that won't put you wrong: http://www.rojakpot.com/articles.aspx

You can contact me here or if you like: behn_scenic AT Yahoo.com.au

Good man crash, thanks for that.

Essentially i am looking to do one or perhaps a few things. First up i was looking to review some notebooks, as an addition to my desktop. Nothing hectic as i have a desktop for grunt work, although their isn't a lot of grunt work. Just want some mobility whilst running a program or two (e.g office) and perhaps an internet connection via wireless router. Perhaps in a year or two i'll upgrade my desktop, currently Dell, so it's always good to know where to look for reviews of equipment. Didn't want to use these "PCMAGS" etc as often their reviews are based upon amounts of advertising revenues derived. Finally i may or may not have use for some higher end equipment, and that will depend on the success of something i'm currently working on. However it may well require a reasonable amount of storage capacity, video editing, servers perhaps??? with a website established. However that may or may not eventuate so i'm a little vague on the requirements there myself.

__________________
I like Bing Lee.

mad,

A common problem with electronics is to buy not what you need now, but might need in the future and also to buy features and power etc. you might never use and probably won't need.

Considering the speed of digital development and the rapid price slide of all things digital, it makes no sense to buy anything you actually have no concrete plans to use right now or the [very] near future.
Think of the [unwise] early adopters of over pixeled cameras, HD video recorders, and too powerful [and heavy] laptops that all cost an arm and a leg a few years ago that can now be bought at often a quarter of the price with much better features, performance, weight etc. etc. Same goes with computers.

I run 2 rigs here. One is a real grunt-master with the video card alone costing more than many computers and an AMD64 3500 processor sitting in the motherboard that cost about $350, 4g of 'matched' ram and a screen costing around $500. The UPS power board alone cost another $350 and the whole rig is a continuious work in progress. It even has water cooling !

The other rig is a Pentium 2 that I cobbled together for less than $100 from second-hand parts that still has a 60g hard drive with 1/2 gig of ram and a pretty quick processor. It does everything most people would ever use a computer for and a lot more it will never be used for.

One is used for high-end gaming and photography editing and the other for almost everything else.

Look at the notebook reviews and work out exactly what you need it for now and in the [very] near future and then hunt down the best price. Don't take advice off a computer salesman about anything and never ask for their suggestions.

I would go small and light with the features you need, Look at battery cost and the time it lasts before re-charging.
1/2 the usage times claimed for it [about right] and check the ability to change it yourself easily when it needs it [about 2yrs.]. There have been some big advances in notebook HD's [no moving parts] which will revolutionize battery life before re-charging. HD's are the big power drain so avoid more G's than you need.

Cheers.

Avant browser,

There is a DAX error in this browser that the administrators admit they cant understand or fix.(on their troubleshooting website)

A lot of people are having serious problems with it,particularly when trying to access msn hotmail.

Other than that it gets an enthusiastic response from users.

Hotmail?

What the browser is doing is to trying to block all [window based] nasties :-))

Being serious, your only correct there if you haven't upgraded recently to the latest version of Avant. New users wouldn't have that problem.

I downloaded the latest edition yesterday and as I said the administrators dont have a solution for that problem as yet. Just ask them,

Have you tried using Yahoo mail [a slightly better life experience] ?

syllabus23,

Could you please post a post link to the [current?] problem you are talking about ?

Thanks.