From: "Geo." 

"Adam Flinton"  wrote in message
news:3df85cb0$1{at}w3.nls.net...

> Yup but (a) how many are replacements not new buys?

If I'm buying a new computer isn't that a new buy? I mean by your reasoning
nobody buys new cars but new drivers?


> & (b) the nice thing wrt
> to a std PC bought now (e.g. a 2ghz cpu + 256-1024 mb RAM + 80+ gb of hdd
> space) is that it can be used for multiple tasks so one can do all that.

Right, except we don't watch video on the server, the kids watch one thing
in their room, my wife and I watch another thing in the living room, the
other kid is in his room listening to music... It's one more computer than
TVs.

> I think digital film will boost hdd sales but once most people have 512+
mb
> of RAm that will do em for quite some time (as will a 2Ghz+ CPU).

No way. It takes 3 hours to reduce 2 hours of video to divx5 avi file.
(45minutes of video is roughly 300mb in divx5 format at a resolution that
is crystal clear in full screen mode on a computer) then when you play it
you suck up more cpu so it's one machine to handle server services, and one
to play each thing being watched and one more if you are recording off the
TV. Oh and you better have 100Mb network because 11mb wireless is barely
enough for 1 stream and email.

> Upgrade -yes buy new? E.g. what is the cost of a Mobo + chip + fitting?

Upgrade as in buy new yes. If you have a 2 year old computer you need new
motherboard (for the bios to handle large drives), new cpu, new memory, new
power supply, new fans, hell the only thing you don't need is a case and
keyboard..

Geo.

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