I’m still conflicted as to what I want for a machine; I sort of want a desktop, sort of a laptop, sort of a Mac, sort of not… But as I was checking out FatWallet and Slick Deals, I wanted to point out some highlights:

• ZipZoomFly has a 320GB, 7200 RPM SATA laptop drive, $75; $55 after rebate.
• Sam’s Club has the Dell Mini (9″), 1 GB RAM, 8 GB SSD, for $245 shipped. Non-members pay 10% extra. This isn’t in stores; I checked. Word on the street is that this model does an excellent job of running OSx86.
• Buy.com has a de-badged, recertified 24″ (1920×1200) LCD, for $210 shipped. I’m very tempted.
• NewEgg has an 800×600 projector for $420, or $370 after rebate.
• Amazon has a 5-port Gigabit switch for $15. Description mentioned jumbo frame support. NewEgg matches.
• No link, but 550VA UPS (APC) at Staples for $40, before $10 rebate.
• 21.5″ Asus LCD (1920×1080) at NewEgg, $170 shipped. This thing has excellent reviews, too. I think this might be more tempting than the 24″ ‘recertified’ one.
• $50 each buys a Visiontek ATI Radeon HD3650 or Sparkle GeForce 9400GT. Both are 1GB graphics cards, which is twice what one of my laptops has…

I’m having a hard time not buying that Asus LCD. DVI, HDMI, and VGA inputs. And it’s got nothing but good reviews. But it’s also tempting to upgrade my laptop to a 320 GB hard drive.

Oh, fellow T60 owners: in addition to the spiffy 320GB SATA disk for notebooks, I’ve been thinking of upgrading to 3GB RAM. The Bentley-issued T60s have two slots but a single 1GB stick. Looks like we want 200-pin, PC2-5300 memory. Most reviews say that a limitation in some low-level hardware (descriptions vary?), the Thinkpad is incapable of seeing more than 3GB RAM, so a single 2GB DIMM is in order. We can Upgrade to 3GB RAM and a 320GB disk for under $100? Still thinking I might sink my money into a desktop instead.