It's funny, just as the USA is getting Oz style broadband caps our government is rolling out fiber to the curb.

True your download limits are still much better than ours, $1 per MB over is common here (compared to $1 per GB your talking about), $20,000 bills for surprised parents are not unheard off.

Also I'm looking forward to a integrated GPGPU system for OSX. If they can modify a lot of the base system functions to use the GPU. It would give Apple a real stand out point compared to MS.

Hey thanks jordan for the shout-out. It sounds like I should consider a decent mesh-chair as a "preventative care" expense. Although I must confess that tilting the chair forward seems awkward as hell--if that's what Scott was trying to get across.

Also, I'm torn between the panel's take on the MS Lauren Ad, and derFunk's take. Both make good points. I guess, if anything, that's a sign that MS has truly made an effective ad this time around (instead of those literal or figurative jokes passed off as commercials before).

I think the MS ad is clever and really gets down to the core issue. You will pay through the nose and have little choice if you buy a Mac. You will take what SJ decides is right for you and like it.

They really do have a massive hole for a less expensive 17" laptop, something you will never have trouble finding on the PC side, but that is just one of the more glaring specifics. I just could never see myself justifying a $2700 laptop anyway, but that means I won't ever be able to get a Mac with a 17" screen.

I thought the "not cool enough" thing was blown out of proportion. I suppose in an ad like that it is fair game for nit picking. Good for Microsoft, I think they've figured out how to fight Apple's rather rhetorical and shallow hit ads.

It really doesn't matter to me--I can't see myself ever buying one. I'm already married to the idea of the PC. But Microsoft seems to have an idea of how to stop bleeding casual use customers. Good for them.

On the Zotac and mini-ITX discussion;

The Silverstone case is priced very reasonably. Consider that it is a very high quality case as expected from Silverstone. Further it includes 120mm and 80mm fans. Also bundled is the 80 Plus 300W PSU that Silverstone's own testing shows is up to the task of handling a Core 2 Quad and HD4850 paired inside the case.

Placing it in the talk of an Atom option is missing the point. The case simply doesn't seemed design for the Atom market in any form. Cost, size (it's full height, long enough to handle 9" cards), cooling, and the PSU that's far more than needed for a Atom system. $50 options are out there for the Atom.

Lian Li, Antec, Cooler Master, etc are welcome to join the mini-ITX market but I certainly don't see a cheap solution from Lian Li (who are easily as expensive as Silverstone) or Antec. Cooler Master makes numerous cheap cases but they're that... cheap.

I like the podcasts, but with the current player, its very hard to find the exact bits I want to listen to! Especially when I only have x amount of time. You guys need a player that shows the time as you pull the seeker thingy (whatever you call it) left and right.

Where is the Geforce GTX 275 and Radeon 4890 reviews? I love the podcasts but I want to read about these new cards TR style.

The part about the Zotac ITX having a better BIOS than their X58 motherboard was both hilarious and very, very shameful. 'Twas funny to hear Scott burst with a little laugh there.

Listened to the GPGPU discussion. That was pretty interesting. Scott made some good points and they're points that don't often come into the discussion when it is a regular video card review that usually tends to focus on the question of "what gives the best performance" or "what gives the best performance for the dollar".

I tend to prefer video cards that don't vary from the reference design components, especially now that Nvidia and ATI are delivering much better reference design coolers than they used to.

None the less, I am unhappy with how hot my 4850 gets, even during idle - yeah the fan is silent but the whole back of my case - my case, not just the card - gets pretty warm, and the card itself is too hot to touch. In retrospect, I'd be happier with a 9800 GTX that offers similar performance but that runs cooler, and if I was buying now I'd almost certainly go with the Geforce GTX 250 given it's lower power draw and its excellent reference cooler. The 4850 should have gotten the same cooler as the 4870, even if it drove the cost up another 10-20 dollars.

As for an "early" death, that would be crappy, but at least I'd have a solid reason that the wife could not complain about for getting a new card. Hmm, maybe some of my components should mysteriously die more often!!!

Sorry, already posted.

She's cute.

Another great show guys.

I try to make sure the max temp of my GPU 4870x2 never gets above 75 degrees. That said I've burned out SLI 7900 nVidia though over use. So far no CPUs and but 3 motherboards.

Bandwidth caps: I know some ISPs in Ireland are happy to loose those people that use too much bandwidth. As for the 3 strikes its only 1 of the Irish ISP, none of the others have agreed and said they won't agree. No one likes change, and when changes happens the players change the so people making the profit change, the old boys know that. "From their cold death hands!"

IMO Netbook is a form factor, anything over 9" is mini-laptop, 12" - 17" Laptop, 17" > Desktop Replacement or anything with less then 120 minutes of battery life.

Cool Laptop accessories!
* Bluetooth mouse
* 320GB USB power external HD
* 3G USB Access Point
* Mouse Mat O_o

Cussing in the podcast! Yea! Today was so great I got to play tf2 all day ('looking btw) and get to finish it off with $#!7 !!!! (Which is good) I like cussing. It's like, that movie fifty pills... any way. Good (however long) podcast.