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We were actually a grand higher than that, so my math was off. My wife is still reeling from cutting the check, no matter how good a deal we got.

Yup, it was on their website (still is as a matter of fact - Stock# 5021). But it is a relatively rare car, we were looking for something with the performance goodies in blue and that was the only one in California; they are common in red or black.

Pictures (click for full-size): Front: Back:

It does have Quattro and special mounts in the back seats for kid seats. The 2.0T, DSG, and Quattro are a fantastic combo. This thing moves like you would not believe. It was pouring down rain today and I picked the toughest road in the area. Came around a bend very quickly, hit a sand...

Ended up buying an A3 with the following: 2.0 Turbo 6-speed dual-clutch automatic S-Line (better seats, wheels, some other stuff) Convenience (Bluetooth, required for Nav) Cold Weather (Heated seats, windshield washer fluid, mirrors) Navigation Open-Sky (massive sunroof) Got it for about 22%...

Thanks for the info sechs, I didn't know that.

I'm building a pair of identical systems at the office, I should be able to do some benchmarking tomorrow.

Strangely enough, the unexpensive, unpowered hub doesn't throw an error, just the massive, expensive, powered one. I'll order a variety and see what I can find out.

I have a pair of Belkin powered hubs here, connected to high-speed ports on the motherboard, that seem to not support high-speed um, speeds. If I take my Kingston 2GB thumbdrive and connect it to the hub, it throws the "this device can work faster" message. If I connect the thumbdrive directly...

I can back Mark up on that, though I do find the puking emoticon offensive ;)

It really does depend on the amount of highway driving. When I was commuting from Oregon I would burn through entire tanks of gas, only using the brakes to get more. When I was in Palo Alto I lived close to the freeway and work is right off the freeway; less than 10 stops total every 150 miles...

Nope. The stock ones ran until 150k. Of course, at that point the remains shattered and fell off ;)

Cost of repairs, possibly. But I haven't had any repairs, in any of the cars, for their combined 400k mile lifetimes. Two of them have had nothing but oil changes, with the third (mine) needing new brake pads as well, at 150k.

The pool of German cars I currently maintain is small (3), and they are all VWs, but the record is pretty impressive. The one thing I do know is not to buy an American car, that even the Koreans are doing better these days.

Yup, pretty much. I had my car looked at, and it seems that it will be easily serviceable for another couple years, especially if it stops being our long-distance trip car. Long extended warranties? Any good with cars? No major loopholes?

Looks like the other serious competitor is the Audi A3. Very similar spec for just a bit more. I'll try to get a bidding war on.

I suppose the other car that is (kind of) in this category would be the RX-8; but I find it's styling questionable.

Good idea, thanks.

Looks like we will be getting a VW GLI with the DSG 6-speed, and pretty much everything else. I've attached the build sheet from the web. It says MSRP is just under $32k. What price should I be looking for at the dealership (paying cash - don't know if that helps).

This is worth repeating.

I'll try to set up some systems today if I have time. Is there a good guide to get Steady State going?

The list is much broader than that.

I finally have an excuse to order some of these. I intend to use them for systems in unattended kiosks at mines and the like. I'm hoping they will not only keep fan speeds down (therefore reducing the amount of dust flowing through the system) but will be able to provide basic environmental...

I'm thinking of checking some beta nVidia drivers to see if that helps, but I just got all three monitors working the way I want!

Man, when gas prices were at their lowest, a $1/gal tax would have been great. It would have kept the pressure for efficiency on and brought in massive amounts of money.

No raises or bonuses here at any level. Hourly employees have had their hours cut ~10%, probably another 10% of staff have been laid off. Pay cuts will be coming this quarter. Considering we are in the construction business, it isn't that bad.

I don't use them that much. Basically all that ever happens is I get the data onto the network, then file the disk. Or I burn something tiny (PDFs, TIFFs, etc) onto a disk and give it out. Maybe once a week.

I had a USB CD drive on my desk, but it was getting a little cluttered. I now have the CF reader and the USB hub under there as well, but I didn't cut it in, it's just below the edge.

I actually just bought my first PATA drive in some time. Of course, it is an MTRON 1.8" ZIF socket 32GB SSD, but PATA nonetheless. ;) When was the last time someone paid $500+ for a PATA drive?

I too would choose to have a single system (as I have). The RAID card would be highly advised, as will significant redundancy. I'd recommend a second "offline" system that gets powered up to perform backups. Of course, that can be noisier.

I have an 8800GTX, 9800GTX, and 280GTX. I have never been allowed to check the box next to "Enable OpenGL Drawing" in the performance tab. I'm sure it would be cool, but I don't experience any lag from not having it, so I don't worry about it. CS4 and 12GB of RAM will make a huge difference in...

I'll try to get something together, but you can probably visualize a skillsaw slit in the front edge of a Formica desktop.

Not with me. If I remember, I'll bring it to work over the weekend.

I just built one of these into my desk; just the slot showing in the front edge of the desktop. Cheap, and super-slick in a nerdy sort of way. Once I hone my router skills, I hope to stick a slimline USB hub and a card reader next to it.

Is there a metalworking school or fab shop in your area? I had a good experience building something in SolidWorks and having the local junior college actually make it. Just don't forget to specify tolerances as well.

I was about to say that with digital connections to the monitor, the image quality difference is negligible. But he is still using analog? No idea. With images that large, there is no way they will fit in the 4GB of RAM you will be able to allocate to CS3. You would get better performance...

Unless you are getting CS4, more than 4GB of ram is a complete waste. Because the app will only use a little RAM, it will be thrashing the drive. A better storage subsystem is more important.

I used to use Antec Rackmount chassis. They ship with Tri-cool fans, and they come with a nearly-normal PSU (just the cable locations change). In the older 3-U version, you could swap out the 3 5.25" bays on each side with 5-in-3 hotswap thingies from Supermicro. Edit - Link

Are you far enough east to have a basement? IIRC, you have a house? Trying to have lots of quiet storage led me to build "The Coffin" as my wife calls it. It gets out of hand quickly and is a PITA. Even if the fans aren't noisy, that many hard drives will be. I now have 14 1TB drives in the...

The Supermicro one I was recommended about a month ago is hardly quiet, but it does use sane-sized (80mm) fans. My only concern would be that I have run into issues swapping out fast/noisy fans for slow/quiet ones. If you are lucky you can just disable the piezo buzzer, but some kill power to...

The contrast is pretty amazing. The running gear (engine, transmission, suspension) are all really tough, but the body panels will break off if you sit on them too rough (front fenders in my case).

I should have been (age 18-20), but the opportunities were to good to pass up.

Not everyone, but they were plentiful. The boss got it, but he was a short guy with a bit of a Napoleon Complex. He ended up with a Land Rover, and the Ferrari was in the pool for about 15 seconds before I got the key. The company folded a few months later.

It was a company car ;) If you weren't in San Francisco from 98-00, you missed something pretty cool.

It also was not considered a daily driver. I got it with 8,000 miles and gave it back with 13,000.

The only used car I didn't have an issue with was a 355 F1. Of course, you expect people who pay that much to take care of their investments, and it wasn't a manual, anyway. I also only had it for about 4 months, so who knows what could have happened.

That is kind of the fun part. We now live off one of those windy roads, and I drive to the quarries 2-3 times a week. So the fun driving is part of my daily trips. The WRX and Evo would be dream cars, but they lack the veneer of practicality that will get my wife to OK the deal ;)

The more recent images I saw in a car magazine brought the grill under control. Though a cold air intake and intercooler sound like great ideas ;) I suppose the roads in your area determine the fun factor. Around here the CHP has the freeways locked down, and the cities are swarming with cops...

I actually got tired of the mini styling fairly early on, especially the interior. Too stylized and not practical enough. I do like the notion of AWD and 170hp with a 7-speed DSG in a package that small. Sounds like loads of fun.

I'm afraid none of them pass my (very basic) style test at all. Perhaps I can hold out until the Audi A1 shows up...