I was going to stay out of this one . . . but . . . well . . . it's me! (out of context snippet) But at what cost? (end snippet) I have WAY too many pc's mac's and sun's cluttering my desk and home. I have laptops and desktops (except for the sun's, they don't do laptops). I am currently radiating in the glow of 7 different monitors . . . all of them very big . . . that's how I keep my sun-tan. Anyway, all the debates so far have not factored in cost as an issue. Am I the only one that is concerned about costs of boating? I have about $20,000 worth of laptops at my disposal (for work, don't drool). On the desktop side, I duplicated the same thing for about $4000. You can buy 1.2 Ghz pc's for $499, with 80gbyte drive, cd burner, printer and a small monitor. It would heavily depend on your application as to which to choose . . . I will be putting a desktop or two in a protected cabinet inside the boat . . . with large LCD or plasma monitors scattered around wherever they are needed. Video entertainment, navigation, music storage, whatever. Probably will have an old laptop around too . . . I am a gadget freak after all . . . Anyway, if everybody but me falls into the "money is irrelevant" crowd . . . well . . . you are all invited to dinner! CUAgain, Daniel Meyer http://cuagain.manilasites.com

>>I am currently radiating in the glow of 7 different monitors . . . all of them very big . . . that's how I keep my sun-tan. An 8 port Apex/Outlook KVM switch would solve that particular problem nicely. Since I have to buy all my own stuff <g>, I use two of the 4 port versions I got off of EBay for under $100 each. >>You can buy 1.2 Ghz pc's for $499, with 80gbyte drive, cd burner, printer and a small monitor. With an OS? Sounds like a pretty good price indeed. (Everyone else on the list should realize that we're not exactly talking name-brand equipment here!) OK, but add the flat panel and UPS and you're well up into laptop territory. And the MTBF of these 2nd generation flat panels is nothing to be proud of. Better carry a spare... >>...in a protected cabinet inside the boat Ooh, physical security. Now, I _know_ people on this list are concerned about this issue too (guns anyone?), and which (desktop / laptop) do you think is easier to secure? Laptops have the little cablelock mounting point. OK, not good enough. So they can go in a (lockable) drawer. Or they can leave the boat with you. Desktops? Bring your welding torch... >>with large LCD or plasma monitors scattered around wherever they are needed. Or just get a Linksys WEP11, a PC-Card 802.11 card (with, of course, built-in support under XP) and go wireless for less than $300. And support up to 255 devices. I'm trying to get my local yacht club to provide DSL wireless support to the docks <fingers crossed> but it's a tough sell so far. Keith Pleas Custom FC 44 Seattle, WA