» A Custom PC Specification from 2003 «

Notes

First off I tend to review this page on an annual basis, expect some of the prices to drop real fast! I have other pages that monitor component prices on a weekly basis. This is more an archive thing .
Interestingly, but of no great surprise, between drafting this in April and finishing it in May I upped the spec on several components and reduced the price a few coppers.

Please note, I have no relationship with any of the above companies. If I am sending orders their way it's because they have earned my respect for price and service or (less likely) they are the only folk I could find selling the parts retail!

Out of interest, the build price is virtually the same as last year, but several orders of magnitude faster.

¹ I'd love an array of Seagate's 146Gb Cheetah Ultra160 SCSI churning 10K rpm and 6th generation tweaking. A spare grand anyone ?

²I was going with NEC's ND1300A (Microdirect £169 ex vat) which fully supports DVD+R and DVD-R to 4x speed but at the last minute (subject to stock) I've gone with the replacement for Sony's well respected DRU500 DRU510 DVD+/-R writer which has a very healthy 8Mb cache, as opposed NEC's 2Mb. (In the end though I went with the ND1300A purely on account is was over a £100 cheaper for the same functionality.

Out of interest, I fully expect DVD writers to half in price by Christmas.
As an addenda (July 2003) Plextor now have a 8x DVD +/- writer in the form of the PX708A (Only a 2Mb buffer though, but still enough).

³Forget the GeForce FX, it's far too noisy! This Sapphire card has a patented fanless-noiseless heatpump. Look out for a Radeon 9800 version of the Ultimate shortly, I'm told. It would be nice it they did an All in Wonder with one too. (Aug 2003 - It is available now)

⁴Useful for emergency and for faxing. Otherwise for Internet, see your ISP for broadband

⁵All upcoming chips will support hyper-threading and the 800Mhz FSB. If you want to save a few bob, the 2.8Ghz is over £100 cheaper

⁶If you are trade Morex sell the both the Abit IC7-G and Gigabyte 8KNXP boards, while Overclockers have the Asus's P4C800 Deluxe board. After tossing up between these and other from Tyan, MSI etc I've settled on the Abit IC7G. The Asus has the advantage of using a heatsink instead of a fan, reducing noise and vibration but, for me, they have cut too many corners getting it to market.
Depending on the noise, I might up fitting one of Zalman's ZM-NB32J Northbridge heatsinks ([ http://www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk ]The Overclocking Store £10.99 ex vat)

⁷Remember memory prices are given to massive price fluctuations!
MD also sell comparable GeIL twinned memory too in the form of "1.0GB PC3500 Dual Channel DDR Kit [2x512MB] 433MHz [4.5ns Cas 2 6-3-3 1T] +copper heat spreader for £159.00 (£186.83)

⁸ I read some awesome reviews of Creative Vision Technologies (CVT's) Avant Prime keyboard At $149 a pop to know it's something well built. If I can't UK source them I might import one or two. I like chunky keyboards - I currently type on a fifteen year old IBM model!

⁹You are spending over £2,500 on a Ninja computer and maybe trusting a poxy surge protecting plug? Believe me when I say I've seen spikes so extreme as to fry half the computers in a town. Damned thing went though my APC gang 6 surge, carried on through my 700va UPS and still had enough kick to take out my monitor!

¹⁰Please remember prices do not take carriage costs into account. That said, these are retail prices. If you have a friend in the trade though you can save over £200 on the above.

CD-ROM:

Personally, I wouldn't bother any more, get a DVD and have done!

One thing to bear in mind with CD-ROMS is that the faster they spin, the more likely a badly pressed CD-ROM is going to be unreadable or unbearably noise. I have a copy of the game Baldurs Gate on 5 disks - on a 32x Plextor it sounds like I'll trying to vacuum clean the room, the same disks on a DVD are fine.

CD-WRITER:

PlexWriter 48/24/48A

An alternative? Nah! Plextors, with their BURN-Proof™ Technology are as good as it gets.

DVD-ROM:

Virtually all DVD's are 16x now with little to greatly differentiate them. For my money, I tend to favour Panasonic myself. Purely on looks as it's a silver case I've gone this the Artec DVD as they are reasonable enough and have a silver front (option) as standard. You can buy separate from if you want.

DVD WRITERS:

I'm skating on ice a tad here as the industry has stupidly, and irresponsibly saddled us with two competing and incompatible formats: DVD+R and DVD-R. (plus the DVD-RAM and RW's) Added to this there are numerous problems over which brand of media actually work with which drive. Oh aye, add to this, once it is recorded it might not even play on another drive...

For these reasons I've hung back from getting a DVD Writer. I am old enough and cynical enough to remember the debacle in the 70's over VHS, the technically superior Betamax and other video tape formats. At the moment, you have the DVD Forum shouting "Ya Boo Sucks to DVD+R" and the most of the computer industry saying beggar off... For the most part, DVD+R seems to be winning hands down

Righto, choices. If it wasn't for this mess, I'd say the Plextor PX-504A (currently £205 ex vat), but it has no DVD-R Support. This leaves us with either: Sony's DRU500A (Microdirect £260 inc) or the newer Sony DWV10A

Or better yet, wait until may for the superior ND-1300A.   Given the the 800Mhz P4 won't be available until May anyway, let's wait, eh!

Note that the NEC's ND-1100A (Dabs £186 inc) was originally to support DVD +R &-R but this doesn't appear to be the case

Addenda August 2003
The Sony dru510a replace the 500a unit and the NEC1300a is fast approaching the magic "under £99" mark, with a few lesser brand long since passed. Plextor even have a 8x writer!

SPEAKERS:

Creative Labs MegaWorks 550

I know there are 7.1 soundcards and 6.1 speakers, but if you want the best without spending the wrong side of £1,000, these are about the best you can save for.

I happen to like the old Labtec LCS-3210 myself. They are crystal clear even at the lowest settings and remain distortion free well into the high volume range. Anyway, speakers are a really tricky thing to recommend as it depends of the positioning, the size of the room, the materials the rooms is make of, objects within the room, the listeners hearing...
All I can say is that cheap speakers are just that, cheap!

Looking elsewhere then ?


  Synonymous with music and a long time favourite company of mine, their TSS1W is a true 5.1 Surround Sound System with built-in Dolby Digital and DTS Decoder. Look for a stockist to test a set.


  have a massive range of high quality speakers. Look over the specs and go find a stockist to listen.

  Labtec make some fantastic speakers

For a stereo headset and boom microphone look no further than the Labtec LVA8550.

TOWER CASE:

The Lian-Li PC 70 as sold by companies like Bosse Computers certainly get a vote from me. It's chassis includes 6 external 5.25" and 3 external 3.5" bays and a further 6 internal 3.5" and 4 ball bearing fans   -   Get picture However, Supermicro's SC750 tower case is also one of the finest - and heaviest - cases I've ever had. Pity is isn't aluminium, from a cooling point of view. The SC760 is even nicer. As for as I am aware, the only place in the UK to buy them is Boston Though strictly a midi tower, Antec's Sonata is so beautiful you could cry. OK, I'm not waxing lyrical over the looks, but it's quiet. I hate noise, no I REALLY hate noise. This little beauty was running Nvidia's vacuum cleaner, sorry, GeForce FX Ultra - and I couldn't hear it! Not a whisper. Sigh! 380Watt PSU too. I'm going to take to them shortly and see if I can source the Sonata's. I'm surprised Overclockers.co.uk don't sell them to be honest. I'm going to get a couple of these for the kids I think! The final kudos, and ultimate choice so far goes to Thermaltake's Xaser III V2000+ Super Tower, shown left. There's no fan supplied (unless you get the V2420 model), but it's seven cooling fans are whisper quiet, rated at a mere 21dB. For the PSU, though Thermaltake's own are nice, and I swear by Enermax, by money says - and goes on for Antec True480 "TruePower" PSU which is stuffed with sensor monitors and under 20dB - unless it has to be. Incidentally, Antec also make a 550 watt PSU for juiced up systems (Overclockers £104.11 inc vat) and even a 480 watt TrueBlue with blue illumination for the modders out there (Overclocker £87.66 inc vat) I have a separate page detailing cases and power supply need

VIDEO CARD:

OOoooh, oooh, the GeForce FX line. I can use the cooling fan to drown out the sound of our vacuum cleaner when I'd doing the household duties! If it's even half as noisy as every single review I've review, there's no way it's going in any of my systems - the Ti4600 is bad enough!

Routing for alternatives we have this beauty: Sapphire's ATI Radeon 9700 Ultimate. Not only has it got all the power of the ATI 9700 but it employs a unique fanless heatpump design. I've no firm details yet but I expect there will be a 9800 version by May. (Turned out to be August, but still)

Outfitted with an industry first, fan-free heat pipe cooling solution, the ULTIMATE remains silent as it maintains a lower operating temperature then conventional active cooling solutions. Run cool. Run silent. Run a RADEON 9700 ATLANTIS PRO ULTIMATE!

From everything I've seen, spec wise and for sheer graphics crunching, the GeForceFX is an awesome creation and I want one. What I don't want is the associated noise problems. Running flat out it draws a stonking 75 watts and still pumps out upwards 155°f heat to mess up your system. Doesn't help that the fan is so big it takes up two slots, blocking off one of your PCI slots. I have seen pictures of one water cooled but it looks clumsy and cluttered and, so be honest, the idea of running water round a few grand worth of electronics gives me the shivers.

I'm not going to bash it any more, or praise it until I've played with a few different models, so I'll leave you to look for Nvidia's GeForce FX product brochure (article link dead already, sheesh!)

Alternatives? Forget it, at this level it's a two horse race - and Nvidia have hobbled theirs!

SOUNDCARD:

Has to be Creative Labs, but which one ?



I won't kid you, I don't understand half the specifications of the early SB cards, let alone all the features on this card, but I know what I like. When I build this new system in May this card will replace my existing Audigy, if only for the THX support.

Good alternatives are:
None! Unless you are a serious professional musician, there is no second choice! I've been a devoted fan of Creative Labs since I bought the very first 8bit Soundblaster and the catchy tune and effects completely brought SSI's "Eye of the Beholder" to life.

There can be no other!

MONITORS:

Mitsubishi Diamondtron Pro

What most people don't realise, or think about, is that the monitor is actually the most important element of the computer.   You are staring at it for several hours a day, from a distance of around 30".   Any weakness in the monitor will, I guarantee, reflect over time in your failing eyesight and more frequent headaches.

This isn't the place to go into the health and safety aspects (Eiza used to like doing scare stories on monitor concerns) but suffice to say that getting anything less than a 17" monitor is silly given the low prices of today and you truly should get the best model you can. Remember, it's about the only part of the computer that retains it's value and that a good monitor will last five, even ten years - and you only get one set of eyes! I like to replace my monitors every other year!

Iiyama are good, but to put it into perspective, I bought a 19" Iiyama Vision Master Pro452 for the childrens computer and my wife refuses to go on it because she's got used to larger and better Mitsubishi monitors.

I might be biased as I'm as authorised reseller for Mitsubishi but when it comes to computers, I only like the best...

"Best computer possible?" Well, there's a few allowances, if money is no object, then I'd think about Sony's 24" GDM-FW900 CRT which Technoworld have for £1,117.57 (£1,313.15 inc vat) or Sony's tasty 23" LCD, the SDM-P232W ProLCD which can be had direct from Sony Online for £2,231   (Technoworld £1,963.33 inc vat)

Actually, I am giving the two Sony's serious thought!

MPEG CARDS:

MPEG decoder

Basically, if are buying something like ATI's 9700, why bother, your card's well up the task!

Realmagic are the grandfathers of the biz, but as most new systems are blisteringly fast even at the low end and all decent video have excellent MPEG2 support, these cards are getting long in the tooth. That said, if you like having a dedicated decoder, then your best option is Sigma Design's MPEG4 HDTV card, the REALmagic Xcard

"The REALmagic Xcard is a desktop PC add-in solution that plugs into a standard PCI slot, providing high quality DVD, MPEG-4 and DivX Video playback onto a standard TV or HDTV" You can buy it direct for only $99 too.

Not even remotely my field, but Realmagic also make some of the best MPEG encoders you can buy.

The whole range of options from Hauppauge is another matter I'm looking at. When they first come out I thought, nice, but why? Several years on and our TV remains an unbranded 14" gathering dust in the living room. Slap in TV card into this new system and I'd have a 24" digital LCD TV with uber surround sound and the "free to air" channels - and a digital VCR all into the bargain.

Hmmmm....

MOTHERBOARDS:

Gigabyte i865   -   Gigabyte i875

Above photo's filched from Tom's Hardware


This is my personally opinion, but many will no-doubt have different views. I like AMD, used to be a reseller for them too, but I far prefer Intel, if only because they run a lot cooler and therefore are inheritantly quieter. I've held off from P4's myself this past year I've watched them continually advance, but our current systems are starting to groan and the upcoming features have got me slavering!

All the brands below are high quality, with my preference being towards ABIT.   I've left Supermicro out on purpose!   After the monitor this is absolutely most important part of the system; it's what glues everything together, it determines how far you can upgrade or push your PC and how reliable it is.   Not withstanding component failure (I've known batches with up to 90% failure rates!) the quality and design of a board can make a genuine difference of as much as 15% overall speed given any one set of parts (processor, memory, video card).

Intel are only releasing the i875 on April 11^th and the i865 four weeks later with the release of the 800Mhz P4's. Every indication is that given suitably paired memory, the benefits an order of magnitude over even the just released i7502 Granite boards. Some (pre-release) figures I've seen suggest up to 25% or better faster, depending on whats running.

ABIT   I swear by Abit boards myself

ASUS are always at the forefront for Intel boards

GIGABYTE are well respected

SOLTEK Their boards are low priced, but very fast.

PROCESSORS & CHIPSETS:

Doesn't it go fast! The Pentium III 733Mhz is history and even the P4 2.2Ghz's are about to join them in obsolescence. And for this year? I'm practically slavering over the idea of my next system. 3Ghz P4 with hyper-threading technology* and running on a blistering 800Mhz FSB using the Canterwood i875 chipset.

*Hey, every little bit helps

I've not looked deeply into it, but the other big contender is with it's upcoming 64bit replacement for the Duran and Athlon, the Opteron.

That said, I just know I'll replace it all next year when the Prescott's and the Teja's roll out along with DDR-II and PCI Express supporting boards. Damn, I've dribbled on my shirt again...

MEMORY:

Corsair paired XMS DDR memory

DDR II and DDR III are still a ways off. In the meantime we have motherboards with two memory channels such as those based on Nvidia's Nforce2 chip set and Intel's E7205 "Granite Bay". Using paired memory squeezes every last ounce of speed from these. With the Corsair TWINX XMS DDR chips the matched pair of modules are then physically packaged together, guaranteeing that the customer receives an optimised product.

Dual channel boards use two independent memory channels. These boards have two independent 64-bit channels to main memory to increase available bandwidth. Since the boards have two channels, for optimum memory performance modules should be used in identically configured pairs. Enter Corsair's TWINX matched module pairs - kits of two XMS (eXtreme Memory Speed) low latency modules which have been specially tested together in a dual channel test environment.

The advantages of the XMS Low Latency Modules that have been optimised for optimum performance at a given clock frequency, and ease of use, they are tested to optimise latency settings, rather than memory bus speed, which is the case with standard XMS. Also they are configured with optimised settings, rather than with more conservative JEDEC-standard settings

Just check out the Corsair website for a comprehensive motherboard compatibility guide, white papers and product information. See also Corsair Memory

Naturally, the best comes at a premium, so if cost rears it's ugly head, go for Samsung. They come a close second and I've yet to hear of or experience problems with Samsung parts.

STORAGE:

Back-up storage. Use a CD-R! or DVD-R
Realistic alternatives include Travan and DAT tapes.
(Aug 2003) That said, Iomega are readying a 30Gb+ Jaz cartridge for the market

UPS:

Be afraid, be very afraid.
If you haven't got a decent surge protector, get one today! Even a £12 one is better than nothing, but for peace of mind, something like a 700va APC or Exide can be classed as an investment. All those scare stories about brown-outs, surges etc..? They are real, they happen, they can fry a computer! I can't believed I forgot this section originally! It's one of those things I take for granted - like breathing - and I tend to forget. Amazingly most computer dealers and VAR's don't sell or advice about these.

I've seen data lost, motherboards fried, SDRAM chips that had actually caught fire, even Fortronics (credit card machines) with the flash bios erased, all due to power surges etc. It's not just the big stuff like outages at the power station and lightning storms - turning photocopies on and off cause massive voltage fluctuations.

This story is true. At one site, every time a laser printer or photocopier was turned on the File Server went down! When I asked about it, I was told, "Oh, we do do daily backups, just in case." (They'd been using the same 3 tapes for as many years!). Anyway, I strongly advised they consider hiring a network manager and installed a UPS - which run it's start-up diagnostics - and shut down - the input voltage was so low it refused to run. In the end, an electrician had to have the building rewired to upgrade and distribute the power supply. Basically the building's wiring was woefully inadequate and was causing all sorts of problems!

Good options include :

APC - - BackUPS Pro 650Si PNP PChute   (Typical backup time at half load 13.9 minutes ) Also consider the APC Smart-UPS 700VA

Belkin - - Regulator Pro 625VA UPS CEW 60,000   (with up to 41 minutes of backup time )

Liebert PowerSure Interactive UPS 700VA

HARDDRIVE:

I can still hardly believe that hard drive are up to 200Gb.   200,000Mb!!! Scary. 5Mb was like £1,000 way back when...

Bear this is mind first:
Parallel drives as you know them are rapidly facing obsolescence. Certainly by the end of next year it is very unlikely they will be manufactured, so think Serial ATA and specifically, for my money the 120Gb Seagate Barracuda V Serial ATA. Accept no less

Note that SATA drive will start at ATA 150 and over the next few years rise to ATA 600

I really like SCSI like the Cheetah Ultra160's myself too, but there is a serious price premium. These are more a server thing though.

SCSI CONTROLLERS:

I've never known a problem with Advansys cards and Mylex are tasty, but I prefer to stick with Adaptec if for no other reason than the level industry support they have.

There are, of course, a number of motherboards with Ultra2 on-board (and sound and Gigabit Lan...) which brings the relative cost down, but I prefer separate cards for portability.

Adaptec 2940 Ultra (Ultra2Wide) as a basic starting point, or ideally the 29160N Ultra160 (Ultra3) which is largely replacing it, especially for hard drives. Or you could wait for Ultra320 to enter the mainstream.

TechWeb on Ultra3  News release 14.9.98

Geek News on Ultra3  Newsbyte 21.9.98

Adaptec Ultra 320 Server Solutions

MODEMS:

Buying today? - Hayes, ah no, gone to the wall. Pace? ditto, which is a crying shame, so it's either - Diamond or 3Com, or any unbranded thing and wait for adsl / cable modems to be available in your area.

Can you you already get broadband internet ? If so, it's a no-brainer. Gets ADSl, or as a last resort, cable modem

The models are, to a large point, academic as these tend to be dictated to by your ISP / telephone carrier.

As a matter of course though, I keep a 56k modem plugged in for whenever the ADSL line falls over, and for sending faxes.

Network Card:

On the budget front I really like Pine, but for quality it has to be 3Com.

Far too many variables to go into details here - Wireless LAN, 100Base, Gigabit - number of users - server or peer to peer - NOS - protocols - etc etc. If you need to ask, you need a consultant!

Remember that many motherboard include 100Base, and more commonly on high end boards Gigabit NIC's on board as standard, which is the case with all the 875P Canterwood motherboards

KEYBOARD:

Keytronic USA have a wide selection in their range, but I like the Keytronic Europe's KT2001 myself.

Keyboards really are a personal thing. The old IBM's from the XT and early AT's were truly awesome and I've never seen there like since. Many folk swear by Cherry and Fujitsu. I used to like Chicony and I had a gorgeous keyboard once - some unbranded thing from Taiwan that gave me years of touch typing, until the wife trashed it playing the old classic Llamatron. She ripped through the levels and burned out the board. C'est la vie.

Other keyboards from Keytronic include Infra Red, trackball, lifetime guarantees on selected products (now that's confidence, eh), card readers and even biometrics like fingerprint readers.

I mentioned the IBM's, on of which I'm still typing with now, well, I found a company called CVT selling the modern equivalent in the form of Avant Prime. I am an utter snot when it comes to computers and given I sit in front of a computer for, well, longer than if decent, never mind healthy...

Avant Prime bullet points:

• Weight = 5 lb
• Solid steel base construction
• Mechanical click/tactile key switches

The have a higher end model to but that's more a whistles and bells programmable affair.

Anyway, I will source some for the UK and let you know.

MOUSE:

It's got to be a MS Intellimouse Optical for my money.

IBM, Genius and Logitech are good too, but I'll stick with MS, thanks!
Like keyboards, another touch me, feel me thing. Try 'em & see.

JOYSTICK / JOYPAD:

Joysticks. MS Force FeedBack 2

Bit of a sore point this, me being left handed!   Logitech used to sell a nice one, but that was a long time ago.

From a 'returns' point of view I personally would only recommend MS joysticks and pads but I know Logitech and CH Products are very good too. As I'm not into Flight Sims I've managed nearly 15 years without one and am frankly past caring anymore. Let's face it (are you listening MS...) joysticks are for faster reaction times which is wasted trying a moulded grip in the wrong hand.

Fellow Southpaws may like to take a look at:   The Left Hand for a Left handed joystick.

Addenda - I've since heard Microsoft are pulling out of joysticks. I'll have to look into this!

SCANNER:

If you are serious about scanning, then I recommend Epson's Perfection 3200 Photo

Features include:

• World's first 3200x6400dpi consumer flatbed scanner
• 48-bit colour depth
• Built-in 4"x9" Transparency Unit with new Prism Sheet, supports all common film formats
• U to 3 times faster than the Perfection 2450 Photo
• Real-time pre-scan image adjustment and correction
• Dust and scratch removal with new SilverFast SRD
• Adaptive Colour Restoration with new SilverFast ACR - restores old, faded photos to their former glory
• New EPSON Scan - simplifies and automates even the most advanced scanning tasks
• EPSON On-Chip Microlens for faster, more accurate scans

The HP Scanjet range

Mustek are decent enough

I used to like Black Widow a lot but sadly they have gone into liquidation...

If you are on a budget (or just need the odd scan - in which case you would be as well using a friends and saving valuable desk space!) then any flatebed scanner should be adequate.   As a point of interest I've seen (trade) prices of under £30 for A4 flatbeds and under £100 for A3 - my first scanner, a Mono only HP Scanjet cost me nearly £800!

PRINTERS:

*Throws his hands up in the air dramatically*

I can't answer this for myself, let alone you because there are simply too many variables and there are very few bad printers any more. Note that I pointedly refuse to endorse Canon printers and nothing I've seen from them in the last decade has changed my opinion!

I'll ignore the big ticket options for over £1,000 as that's a different ball game. The problem is defined by why you want a printer.

Here are the questions we need to think about:

• What size format? 6x4 photo's? A2 posters?
• What quality? Inketjet or Laser? Anything or glossy prints to last 75+ years?
• What quantity? The one letter or reams of reports?
• Is printout speed an issue?
• What the budget and you taken into account the cost of consumables?

Pretty much, for me at least, these massively narrow the field as follow:

For high volume at low cost in has to be a HP Laserjet 4200. Awesome quality. Unbeatable.
Features include:

• 33ppm mono
• 1,200 x 1,200 resolution
• 64Mb as standard
• Parallel, USB2 and ethernet ports
• Price per mono page - under a penny a page (a fraction that of inkjets)
• Price at Dabs (March 2003): £ 799.00 (£938.82 inc vat)

Volume printouts with a reasonable quantity of colour you are looking at colour laser printers which have fallen massively in recent years. An article in the May issue of Computer Shopper has helped me narrow it down to the Minolta QMS Magicolor 2300DL
Features include:

• 16ppm mono 4ppm color
• 2,400 x 600 resolution
• 32Mb as standard
• Parallel, USB2 and ethernet ports
• Price per mono page - £0.0148 (about half that of inkjets)
• Price per colour page - £0.0726 (about twice that of inkjets)
• Price per photo - mono £0.2178 (...)
• Dabs are currently selling for a paltry £599.00 (inc VAT £703.82)

Out of interest, I estimated the more expensive (£1,285.00) HP 4600 running costs as averaging £0.03 a page colour, £0.007 mono. Less than a penny a page. Always pays to look at the long term picture, eh!

For inkjets, I want to continue researching a bit more before I make my mind up, naturally it will be HP Inkjet or an Epson though I've always favoured Epson's.

Good alternatives are:

If you need a better alternative then you already know what you have or you need to speak to a specialist.   I can offer subjective advice if you need it - drop it on an email.

DIGITAL CAMERAS:

Epson PhotoPC Digital camera - or perhaps a Nikon for Sir?

Digital cameras a moving insanely fast, doubling in quality and halving in price year on year.

Ignoring the tat at the low end, I recommend the Nikon 5700, or better yet the D100, but that's a seriously expensive road. There's even a 14mega-pixel Kodak out now. The mind boggles.

As I've more that a passing interest in photography, I've given it it's own page, here.

THE REST

These are actually from around 2000 but I'll leave them in for now. If you are spending thsi sort of money you want an up to the minute informed choice...


    Plotters - CAD and Design

HP Designjet colorpro CAD (circa $1,200 US) (8.5" x 11" to 13" x 19" )

HP Designjet 800 series (circa $5,000 US) (24" to 42")

HP Designjet 5000 series (circa $9,000-19,000 US) (42" to 60")





EPSON Stylus Pro 7000 (1440 dpi resolution, 6 colour, printing up to 24" )

Though to the awesome  

EPSON Color Proofer 9500 (1440 dpi resolution, 6 colour Fiery enhanced, printing up to 44" or B0+ )

    Plotters (Cutting, for Signwriters)

Signwriting vendors and suppliers:

Encad
Summa
Graphtec
Gerber
Roland
Spandex

Useful links:

Sign Update (Magazine)
(UK) Sign makers suppliers list
Signmaking Directory
Cadlink - Signlab

    Digitizers - professional
Cherry...     It's been 10 years since I did any serious CAD - can anyone offer up to date advice?

    Digitizers - budget range and tablets
Waicom or Genius are good value

Midi
Haven't the faintest idea, but the musicians I've talked to, not surprisingly, say Roland or Yamaha. I'll put links in for the budget end of things though...

    Digital video recorders
Haven't the faintest idea - anyone offer more expert advice?

MPEG encoders    
Another field out of my league, but from what I've read and seen the Miro DC10 and DC30 are (were?) about the best in the price ranges - can anyone offer more expert advice?