This may seem like an out-of-place question here, but I’m after some buying advice for a PC.

My grandfather wants a new computer, and before you suggest it - it seems a Mac is out of the question.

He’s just seen some of those Shuttle XPCs and now he wants one, and he’s made it my “mission” to get him one.

This here is the one I’ve suggested, as it’ll run one of the more faster AMD Athlon XP processors.

If you have a look at the case itself, you’ll notice that it is silver. Those who remember the subject of this post will probably know what my next question will be about: colour co-ordination.

What he’s after is a case that is all silver - which rules out biege drives. Where would I go about getting a silver drive? I live in Australia, so a local retailer / distributor would be preferable - but I wouldn’t mind ordering one from the United States via the Internet.

I’ve noticed that a lot of people sell these “Silver Bezels” and I’m not 100% sure as to what they are. From what I gather, they are simple silver plates that attach to the biege drive simply to hide the beige parts. From what I’ve read, they aren’t entirely all that good. With a lot of drives, you’re actually able to remove the face plates from the drive… Are you able to get silver replacements.

I noticed that there are a few people that will go to all the trouble to paint the beige drives silver - which might have to be a last option.

My next question: I’m a huge fan of slot-loading drives. Don’t ask me why, I just think they’re cool. I know Pioneer has a slot-loading DVD-ROM, but I was also wondering if anyone knew where to get slot-loading CD-RWs (preferably a slot-loading Combo drive) for PCs? Silver ones would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your help.

The only silver one I can think of offhand is the TDK VeloCD series. The tray is actually a transparent blue, but I’m pretty sure the front bezel is silver.

Slot-loading drives seem to be more popular as laptop drives, rather than for desktop systems. All the ones I’ve seen are either slot-loading replacements for existing macs, or laptop upgrades.

I’ll seep my eyes open though.

Damn, that’s an ugly case.  Looks relatively compact, though.

The only complaint I have about slot-loading drives is that mine in my nearly 4 year old iMac DV is starting to wear out, and I usually need multiple tries to eject something right now, especially if the CD isn’t plain looking.  Takes nearly a minute to mount a disc, too, though sometimes it’s starting to spit them back out instead, including some audio CD’s.

The first question that pops into my mind is why is a Mac out of the question?

But perhaps I shouldn’t ask…

The only reason why a Mac is out of the question, despite me loving Macs, is that he has some business software that’s only availble for Windows… next you’ll be asking why I just don’t get him Virtual PC. He’s also goest to the local PC User Group for retirees, and every week he learns something new and brings home CDs / tries something new.

If you could seep your eyes open for that, I’d be very appreciative.