Today's Show:
What to do when your computer dies
Most of us have had a computer just give up on us at one point or another. For whatever reason it just decides to give up and die. It can happen to a PC, a Mac, a Linux box, you name it. Nowadays there are so many options on replacements, it's tough to decide what to do. What are the options?
- Buy two lesser capable computers and use one as a desktop and one as a media center
- Maybe run linux on one or both of them to save a little money
- Buy a really nice media center desktop and at some point pick up an extender for the media center
- Switch to Mac Minis and get two, again one for the desktop and one for the media center
- Just get a really good smart phone and use google apps exclusively, spend the rest of the money on home theater gear
So if you opt for a PC or linux box in the home theater, what should you look for:
- Very quiet components
- Fans
- Disk drives
- Optical drives
- Performance
- Beefy processor(s)
- A lot of memory
- Big and fast hard drives
- Expandability
- Especially if you don't start with a next generation optical drive
- Form factor
- A nice looking case that fits in with the rest of the gear
