A similarly configured Dell system that we looked at was only about US$200 cheaper, and it lacked the integration and style that are Apple's hallmarks.

So how expensive is this iMac?
And which inputs is it missing compared to a 24" Dell or Samsung LCD monitor?

It'd be interesting to replace the HDDs by NAS. The noise from the HDDs would then be gone and the optical drive is only used sporadically.

Unfortunately booting from NAS doesn't appear to be easy (or even possible) with Windows.

What you could've done to reduce the downtime due to DNS: create a new domain in advance (new.silentpcreview.com) and have it point to the new server. Then you can have the old server redirect to the new domain and there's less downtime due to DNS.

there is dedicated cabling between any two points (remember, USB uses bus) Not completely true, it assumes the network is idle. and it's built to work reliably over distances few orders of magnitude greater than USB (5m vs. 1500m). 1500m? That's optical and most home networks use copper (I guess).

valnar wrote:Well, if you went with software RAID.

Why would you not go with Linux software RAID?

Devonavar wrote:I suppose USB storage is an option, but I don't think - USB 2 = 480 Mbps; GigE = 1000 Mbps (latency is worse though)

Why does/would ethernet have higher latency?

jaganath wrote:It depends what you define as 'small'. For example the Vcore difference between the highest and lowest P-states of my Sempron 3300 is only 0.3V, but at 1Ghz @ 1.1V it can be run passive, whereas at 2Ghz @ 1.4V it cannot.

But you changed more than just vcore.

L1: 16k, L2: 512 kB (Manchester)
L1: 16k , L2: 1MB (Toledo)

Don't the AMD CPUs have much more L1 cache?

And are there any plans to compare the power efficiency/usage of different motherboards (VRMs, but also chipsets)?

Another factor is dual core. AMD's top processors all feature two cores, but this feature has yet to show up in their Turion 64 lineup. When it does, expect a change in socket to render the dual core Turions incompatible with desktop equipment.

Why should a socket change be expected?