Hi Andrew. Funny, we seem to be upgrading at the same time, and have done so for a few years now. Have a look at the Zoostorm 5-7402 Edge PC at PC Next Day at: http://www.pcnextday.co.uk/ It's a bit pricey at £1300, but what a spec. I'm considering purchasing it as it has Core 2 Duo E6700, 2GB RAM, 500GB SATA, 512MB 7900GTX, X-Fi Sound and a 19" LCp. Also, it has a 500 GB hard drive, 3 year on-site warrenty, a Creative Labs x-fi sound card and a cool pair of Philips speakers. I'm not sure yet, I've asked for confirmation, but I think it's shipped with XP Home. It's wee brother, the Zoostorm 2-5402 is shipped with the Windows Media Center at £700 and the spec is very good also. Like yourself, I want to purchase as good as I can get. I am intending however to move over to WindowEyes and go for theWindows Media Center as I'm sick of being ripped off by JAWS. Also, I feel that although Dell may have some nice computers going cheep at the moment, what are we going to do in 12, 16 or 24 months time? Best wishes. Andy ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Hodgson" <andrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2007 3:19 PM Subject: [access-uk] Re: New computer recomendations > Hi All, > > I have been reading your comments with interest as I am also in the > market for a new machine. > > My current system is over 2 years old and I have a couple of issues with > bits of hardware not working now - it is an early AMD 64 bit processor > with 2gb of ram. > > As my circumstances may be changing, I think I want to buy the best I > can get now and leave it for a good while, which is why I am thinking of > an Intel Dual Core 6700 with 4gb of ram and minimum 500gb disk (probably > in RAID 1 or with two independent drives). The best place I have seen > so far is Dell, because they allow you to choose the OS of your choice, > be that XP Home, Media Centre, or Pro. > > My reasons for going with XP Pro are that I connect to a Windows Active > Directory based system, and also use the VPN client all the time. > > I am already using Jaws Pro, so this isn't an issue for me. > > I did go to look at PC World yesterday as I needed some tonar urgently > for a presentation, and they had a sale, and I noticed that nearly all > their systems now had Media Centre on them. > > I am still going to see if I can find a cheaper system, but Dell have > some good offers on currently as they need to get rid of their XP stock > before Vista comes out at the end of January. > > I wonder what Jaws will do now there are potentially 4 editions of Vista > that people can use now (5 including the Enterprise). > > Andrew. > ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- > ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] > ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: > ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > ** and in the Subject line type > ** unsubscribe > ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the > ** immediately-following link:- > ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] > ** or send a message, to > ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq > > ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq