If I was the type of computer user who can only have the absolute best and nothing else will do, I probably couldn't afford one. I can understand a gamer wanting the best because every 1/000th of a second counts (apparently). I can understand a video/movie/graphics fanatic wanting the best because graphics require power to push them around.

I do not understand why somebody who surfs and sends e-mail needs that absolute best other than for bragging rights (a la Top Trumps cards) 'my computer is faster than yours'..  

If my main concern re my computer centred on how fast it boots, I probably wouldn't own one. I don't suffer with limited attention span so, if it takes my computer maybe three or four minutes to reach its usable state, that works for me.

I have the usual stuff installed on my reasonably good three year old AMD single core 'puter, and the following items which start up with Windows.

• Firewall
• Anti-virus (NOD32)
• Hostsman
• Vista sidebar running the default calendar, Weather Networks 'Weather Eye', Addgadget.com's Network Meter v 2,21 and their Control System v 1.0
• WinPatrol
• NetMeter 1.13 because it can log network totals
• Ultramon because I use dual displays
• Speedfan 4.33

I can justify all of the above.

• Five of the items relate to security
• The sidebar items make life easier, especially the 'weather eye'. In Canada, we can get to see all seasons in the space of an hour, and it is good to know what is coming next
• Ultramon maintains a task bar on the 'other' monitor
• Speedfan tells me when I should stop playing games which are GPU intensive (the temperature of the video card climbs steadily)

But I have limits..

   .. and they are reached and passed when I have to work on a client computer where Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AOL Buddy, ICQ, Trillian etc start up, because they can take forever and they use up all resources while doing so. Some computers users have them ALL installed.

And to make things worse..

.. they are often set to sign in automatically. As soon as the computer is connected to my router such that I can update the thing quickly because the owner was 'too busy', too tired, didn't know what the icon meant', I get deluged with messages as friends of the client see the name pop up on their computers.

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It's OK. You can come out now. I have gotten over it.. :-)