As usual, Anandtech has done an incredible job with its “guides”:http://http://anandtech.com/guides/ to buying PCs. I agree with most of the recommendations. Right now I’m getting a high-end system for video and photo editing and printing and another mid-range system for Calvin. Calvin’s old computer is dead and that means our backup now goes to my […]

While working on Bill’s Athlon 64, I discovered there are some things you can do for hot Athlon XPs. In the same “SilentPC”:http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?p=64530 piece, but there are some utilities that allow an Athlon XP to actually halt when idle. Apparently Windows XP doesn’t do this, so you need a special little utility to do it […]

Got down to San Diego. _I know, I know, guide to Beijing/Shanghai and San Diego are coming soon._ Anyway, checked out Bill’s Athlon 64 3200+ Shuttle SN85G4 is unstable after about 5 minutes. Here’s how to diagnose. Essentially, after about 5 minutes of running flat out, the machine hard shuts down. No windows error, the […]

I haven’t covered notebooks before as this is a big topic and don’t buy many, but with the model change to Dothan, they are becoming pretty interesting. Given the performance improvments of the new Intel chips (AMD doesn’t play in mobile much), you should probably wait until notebook folks swap to the new 7xx series […]