Item of the Week is a little late this week, my apologies. This week we will look at the Dell Vostro 1400 laptop that I have been using for about a year or so now. Sure, not the newest laptop, but its a business class laptop that finds a home with me, a personal user, and fits exactly what I was looking for.

The Vostro is a sturdy, mid-range laptop that boasts key performance features where other laptops fall short. Though the 1400 no longer exists with Dell, it is a statement as to the power of the Vostro line and shows how strong a laptop can be and how it can fit the niche of computer power where other laptops simply can’t keep up.

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I originally had planned to do a review of Adobe Photoshop from Adobe CS4 this week, but with the impending election, I decided to change it up at the last minute. Photoshop will have to wait until next week. This week I have a combination review and request: buy or download the HBO Films movie ‘Recount’. Yes, it might be an older film, but at this point in the election season, its important to remember a bit of the past.

This film, starring Kevin Spacey, Dennis Leary, and Tom Wilkinson, tells the true story of the 2000 Florida election debacle, and attempts to show how both sides (democrats and republicans) used devious and aggressive tactics to try and push the other out of the fight for Florida (which, if you remember, was the deciding state for the 2000 presidential election).

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Ice cream may be one of the greatest treats that man ever invented (that and pizza, I say). I tend to indulge on a lot of ice cream when I can. I enjoy most any kind: vanilla, cookie dough, cookies and cream, strawberry… the list goes on.

So, when perusing the grocery store this week, I was looking for some delicious ice cream that comes on a budget, that I had also never tried before. Enter: Wegman’s Tin Roof Ice Cream. Stupid name, great food.

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For our first installment of “Item of the Week” we have a PC Power & Cooling (henceforth, PCPC) Silencer 750 watt power supply. I bought this sucker to replace my Silverstone Zues, mainly because I wanted to have a single-rail system with enough power to drive single-GPU rigs for some time coming.

The PCPC Silencer fit the bill and for a mere $91 (after MIR and promo code) at Newegg, who could beat the deal?

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So I’ve wanted a laptop for some time now. Like most things I want, I didn’t want to actually buy it so I have been putting it off for about a year now. This year at school I am taking some security classes that are in an airgapped room. The catch is that you can get the school’s wifi in the room if you bring your own equipment (and promise not to plug it in to the room’s network on pain of failure of all classes that use the security lab).

A few weeks ago I picked up a $1200 HP. I was planning on using it as my full time computer as it was more powerful (I thought) than my existing machine (c2d, 4gb, 9600m gt). Well apparently I failed at reading reviews/benchmarks or they lied to me, as the 9600m gt barely outperformed my 7900gs (17 points on 3dmark06). On top of that I was having some strange issues with the sound and the “media buttons” (which are really like a touchpad of some sort) acting oddly. Since HP offers full money back guarantees (and pays return shipping, and shipping to me was free) back to HP it went, quite painlessly. Even though I wasn’t sold on their product, their return policy is pretty damn nice.

About a week ago, a buddy linked me to a slickdeals post about the Acer Extensa 4420-5963. $399 at Best Buy.

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