I currently have two Radeon 4890's but immediately before these I had a pair of nVidia 8800GTS 340's which I had no problem with. My new 4890's however had one die inside six months.

So fracking funny I almost wet myself.

Second this-- I use my DS409 for hosting my blog, website, iTunes sharing, photos-- I get around 11 MBps on mine and have had no performance issues.

Tin foil hat on... check!

Windows Defender is still installed on my Windows 7 installation with MSE, it displays a small message that says it is "turned off" and I should use another program to check for harmful or unwanted software. That's interesting, I had thought Windows Defender was still there and running behind the new Microsoft Security Essentials.

Key words here "stupid computer user", there is just no helping some people. Explaining the types of things they shouldn't do, sites they shouldn't visit and files they shouldn't download doesn't always help either.

I use both Macintosh and PC with CS4 (Office: Mac, Home Office: PC) and I don't believe I can't be just as productive on my PC as my Mac. I may use the PC outside the norm, but I have identical workflows on each. I really see no difference at all performance-wise from one machine to the other. I don't "play" with Windows and I resent that you assert I can only be highly productive when using a Macintosh.

Sure sounds like it would eventually become a series of one-ups, like grips up the bat or the barberpole. "My unit takes yours."; "No, my unit goes back 5 minutes and takes you". Rinse and repeat.

I don't know what your temps are, but mine were (all C, all idle) 61 CPU, 36-39 on the drives (5) and the 8800 at 63. I swapped out an old slow NZXT 120mm fan for a new 65 CFM Thermaltake 120mm and replaced the stock cooler with an OCZ I had bought and lapped but never installed. Now, the temps are 38 CPU 32-36 on the drives and the 880 idles around 58 (upped the fan to 80%). It was likely a combination of dust and low RPM/CFM fans. I have another of the Thermaltakes I'm going to put in the front soon. Thanks for the reply.

Three are Maxline 250GB server drives, one is a WD2500YD server drive (in the enclosure). It's likely the older Maxlines are generating the heat. My computer drives are Western Digital WD5000YS 500GB (x4) and a Seagate ST3500630A system drive 500GB. But, they're in with a hot 8800 GTS Nvidia card and my CPU in an Antec 300 with 5 120mm fans. Likely not enough air flow :(

Agreed! Powering and cooling the five internal drives in my tower (1x system- 4x raid) was/is a struggle, let alone twelve TB drives in a conventional tower setup. I would rather opt for a couple external mini-towers with controllers. Even then the cooling on these units is typically not up to par. I'm currently reviewing a 4 bay NAS cube that has nice features, but with a full load of drives it struggles-- temps went from 75 with one drive to 120+ with all four. Just because it can be done doesn't mean it should be.

I play on an AMD 4200+ Dual-Core at 2.31 gHz (OC), with 4 GB of memory under XP and have an nVidia 8800GTS with 340 MB RAM. I can just get 800x600 in GTA IV-- how do you make GTA IV playable at 1024x768 with that system?

I've built high-performance PC's because I need the power for DTP and video rendering-- just so happens they also have the muscle for gaming when I add in a mid-level graphics card. Powerful processors and storage, storage, storage. My builds let me play all but the most intensive games at reasonable frame rates.