When games no longer enter in the equation...

[LAThierry]

You might say I'm getting old but since I've stopped playing games, graphic performance is no longer on my radar. Don't worry about me, there are still plenty I can obsess about:

- noise: I am forever thankful to the SPCR community in that regard

- power consumption: simply because less power generally means less heat, a bit less money each month, hopefully less noise

- overall size/footprint of computer: I'm a bit of a minimalist so I greatly appreciate the reduction of the footprint / volume of my computer, those nasty cables behind my desk, those annoying power bricks. Even if nothing is on the floor (which makes vacuuming easier ), even if neatly zip-tied, it's still there, accumulating dust and making unplugging, moving things around an ordeal

- data security: there were a couple of enlightening studies released in the last year (one by Google, another by a lady doing her PhD thesis if I recall correctly) about the reliability of hard drives, the difficulty of predicting failure and reinforcing, once again, the importance of backing up important data (not just once in a while...)

I may come across as a heretic, but the more I think about these, the more I find myself considering getting an iMac in October, that's when OS X 10.5 (including Time Machine) is supposed to come out. iMacs have been reviewed quite positively by SPCR. In case I find myself not able to fully dump Windows, I'll bootcamp it.

[ronrem]

---or there's 65 nm Semprons coming soon,which should be very low watt low heat and low $too. On a mobo like the Biostar with 690 chipset you get compact as well.

[Davinator]

LA,

I have a friend who went through a similar phase a couple years ago with the same concerns you highlight. He put his photography file server that he runs from home in a closet to eliminate that noise. (It's network connection is routed discretely to the network switch, and power to the wall.)

His Windows box he stripped down to use basic parts (lower performance/power/noise) as he no longer needed high performance for games when his activities amounted to email, browsing, organizing photos into web pages, and using Quicken.

Then he sampled one of those Mac Minis. He bought one, mounted the brick on the underside of the back end of his desk, and hooked it and his Windows box to a new (at the time) Samsung 213T, which has dual inputs. Now his financial records are all he keeps the Windows box sustained for since there's no Apple version of Quicken. Most times it's just the Mini running and that does everything he needs. When he does finances he fires up the Windows box and uses the button on the Samsung display to switch from one computer to another. (Many displays have two inputs and switch easily from one to the other.)

The Windows box is on a "shelf" under the desk a foot off the floor out of the way but not on the floor, so on his desk there is only the Mini, the display, the keyboard/mouse, his coffee cup and some reference books. All his cables are tied from the computers and network and are routed (power included) such that they are not on the floor. Vacuuming is therefore a snap.

While he did reduce overall power consumption, his priorities in the transition to minimalist necessities addressed noise and size/organization, as well as dealing with how he felt transitioning to Mac use. It sounds very close to your situation, and he's got no problem with the heresy of moving to a minimalist Mini with a Windows box on the side for finances. Regarding data security he does what I do and simply backs up on an external or second hard drive that only must be powered up for that purpose. Do it regularly, you can't be multiple copies (_on_separate_drives!) for data security.

- Dave