The best box that Apple makes is the Mac Pro. The best box that Dell makes is the Precision Workstation, commonly abbreviated as PW. Both are business machines first and foremost. It is very easy to configure either to run you $20,000 for final cost. How to do it? Simple. Check off every single possible option you can throw in when configuring it. First, the Mac...

LCD monitors are great. No question. They’re thin, can be moved around easily, don’t use much electricity, don’t produce static when turned on or off, have a crisp picture that stays crisp, and so on. However there is one failing of LCD monitors and a big one at that. It’s a lack of vertical resolution. I’ll explain. Let’s say...

If you’ve bought enough computers over the years, chances are you’ve had at least a few of them that dropped in value so fast it made your head spin. Before listing the worst, the best concerning resale value has always been laptops. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Lenovo, Macbook, Dell Inspiron or what-have-you. The laptop will always retain...

I saw an interesting post on Slashdot not too long ago where someone asked the a question regarding a RAID setup. What I found interesting was not so much their question, rather the comments from the replies. If you are considering using RAID in your setup, this is a great thread to read. One commenter put it best: [T]he reason for using RAID is NOT as a backup....

Longevity is a factor when buying or building a new computer, no question. You don’t want to put your money down on something that will break in less than two years. Even though computers are dirt cheap these days, it always just plain sucks when something busts on your computer box because it just wrecks your day. Computers that last a long time are not...

The original Sony Walkman is 30 years old as it was originally introduced in 1979. I do distinctly remember these things from my childhood. I never specifically owned a true Sony model (only the cool kids were able to afford one), but the word Walkman was so widely used that it was the standard term used to describe a portable cassette player. In today’s...

Last Friday I went to configure my father’s new PC, a Dell Inspiron 531 mini-tower. This is Dell’s lowest-priced offering and it’s as basic as basic can get. A box with Windows XP, mouse, keyboard, power cable and not much else. This box comes provided with a 1.6GHz single core AMD Athlon 2560e 512K, your option of Vista or XP (the chosen OS...

USB flash drives have become so standardized and normal that people don’t think much of them anymore. Whereas they used to be fairly expensive (considering), nowdays you can easily get 8GB drives for as little as $20. Reminds me of the old days when we had to use floppy diskettes and we thought we were rocking out with modern technology. Since there is...

What exactly does "doesn’t need a PC" mean? It means this printer doesn’t need a PC at all. It’s web-connected on its own. This is called the HP Photosmart Premium and yes, it has its own 4.33-inch touch screen. When I say it doesn’t need the PC at all, I meant it. According to this article, this will be introduced in the fall...

The typical tech people put into cars are music players, DVD decks, PNDs (personal navigation devices) and smartphones. And the most annoying thing is how to mount it. You have seven basic options for mounting tech in a car:Proprietary in-dash Semi-proprietary in-dash In-mirror Gooseneck/Bracket Suction mount to adhesive plate Suction mount to glass...