The answer, it turns out, is not as simple as that. But then, it never is for people like me who tinker with their hardware too much.

My ZDNet.com.au workstation is a Dell Optiplex 755, which in general terms I'm happy with, as it has a nippy Core 2 Duo CPU and 2GB of RAM. Those of you who have worked in publishing houses will know this is a bounty of processing power not normally found on journalists' desks.

However, the one problem with my slimline Dell is that its graphics card doesn't come with two monitor outputs ... in fact it doesn't even come with a DVI output. Instead, it has but a solitary VGA plug to make do with.

Consequently, the only ways I can get a second monitor working is to buy a half-height video card and do some delicate surgery on my Optiplex, or to simply buy one of these new-fangled external USB video cards people have told me about.

An external USB video card (Credit: Winstar)

You can pick one up from Aus PC-Market for slightly over $110, or more if you want a really fancy one. A cursory look at the specifications shows that most of the units can provide resolutions of up to 1600x1200 or even more, and work on a variety of operating systems.

I'm still slightly suspicious of such a solution though, as I'm not sure of the extent to which the USB 2.0 specification is geared to support extra displays (especially when it comes to 3D acceleration), and whether there would be an impact on my CPU from the extra gear.

What has your experience been with external USB cards? Good, bad or ugly?

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(Credit: Intel)

The answer, after several days of playing with a 160GB review model of Intel's new and relatively inexpensive 34nm X25-M SSD drive, is a foggy "probably".

We'll post a more formal review with some proper benchmarks later, but in the short term I wanted to give readers a flavour for what kind of difference you can expect from Intel's new line of SSD drives, with specific reference to using them as a main system disk replacement for your desktop PC.

There is one reason we're paying so much attention to this particular line-up of SSD drives. Of course, several reviewers have noted that Intel is currently out in front of the rest of the pack when it comes to SSD performance and reliability (no big surprise here, it's Intel, after all). But more importantly, in late July Intel revealed its new batch of 80GB and 160GB X25-M SSD drives would receive a price cut of up to 60 per cent.

As we've previously pointed out, such a cut would be likely to place the 80GB model under AU$300, arguably pushing top-end SSD technology into a mainstream price range for the first time (Aus PC-Market currently has the old version of the 80GB drive for upwards of $600, a price few would be willing to pay).

This week we installed Windows 7 RTM and Ubuntu Linux 9.04 on a 160GB Intel 34nm X25-M drive, connected to a Dell Optiplex 960 desktop. This is a business machine with a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Quad CPU with 2GB of 800MHz DDR2 RAM. The machine's normal system drive is a 7200rpm, 160GB Western Digital drive (a traditional magnetic hard disk, of course). We found two things in general use with relation to the sample unit Intel lent us.

Firstly, installing any software to the SSD took quite a bit longer than it would when using a normal hard disk. Used to Ubuntu installs that only take a few minutes? Say goodbye to your afternoon. Installing Windows 7 and Ubuntu on the SSD took way more time than we're used to (although we didn't time it precisely; this blog is all about first impressions).

Strangely, installing applications such as the technical beta of Office 2010 or Photoshop CS3 wasn't too bad compared to the operating system installs. But if you are constantly installing, deleting and reinstalling software, we'd find it hard to recommend that you use an SSD for your main drive. It will slow you down.

This phenomenon also extended itself to copying files. Again, without formal tests, writing of any kind to the SSD just felt a lot more sluggish than with our normal hard disk. It was slow enough that we'd recommend you don't copy large files to your desktop if you do decide to use an SSD as your main system disk. Keep those bulky files on a separate magnetic disk (they're cheap and massive these days).

However, where the SSD caught up was in launching any form of application.

Launching Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.04 took just a couple of seconds after the BIOS had finished its usual slow plodding work, and the same for shutting them down. Normally "heavy" applications such as Photoshop, Outlook and on the Linux side, GIMP and OpenOffice.org, opened almost instantly from the SSD; almost like opening a normal desktop file window.

And the time to read any document in general from the SSD disk was almost negligible. We ran the Linux command "du -sh *" from the root or / directory in Ubuntu. Unbelievably, this command, which checks the size of every file on the PC, returned a complete result almost instantly. Normally, depending on how many files you have and the speed of your hard disk, it can take tens of seconds.

There are other advantages to running an SSD drive as your main system disk. We didn't detect any heat or noise at all from Intel's offering, and it's probably less than a quarter of the size and probably less than that of the weight of a normal 3.5-inch magnetic optical SATA drive.

Overall, our unscientific experience of using one of Intel's inexpensive new SSD drives in a real-world environment is that they do have the potential to significantly speed up your PC; as long as you are prepared to use a traditional hard drive as a secondary file storage drive (which many people already do) and understand the speed limitations of writing to the drive and installing applications.

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Previously in Null Pointer, I mentioned that I had moved from Nvidia to ATI and would report on my progress. It's been a little over three months since the new hardware arrived, but it has only been the past week that the ATI drivers have reached a state that I would describe as satisfactory.

A number of issues stood between ATI and X-based nirvana. Firstly, the ATI drivers were horribly out of sync with what was distributed in my distribution's repository, even the bleeding edge option. Secondly, the ATI drivers wanted an older version of the X server than I had running, it worked fine with Nvidia and there was no way I was going backwards. And finally, the hardware was too new to be properly supported by the open-source driver alternatives (sorry radeon and radeonhd).

So I lived in a place where stability and the ability to play full-screen movies without dropping frames was an optional extra. It wasn't fun. I rued the decision to return to ATI after the trauma of suffering the lack of driver support from 2003 to 2005, and continually wished I could come up with an Nvidia for Linux and ATI for Windows PCIe adapter for the motherboard.

After ATI released version 9.7, which I coupled with xorg-server 1.6.3, and it's back to how things should be.

It's not fantastic, but it is acceptable.

If experience with ATI has taught me anything, it's that the current state of affairs may be fleeting. But I can say that now there exists a place with a currently up-to-date version of the x.org server and the ATI driver that can use Compiz Fusion without being utterly slow or having any obvious drawbacks — even on an unsupported 2.6.30 kernel.

It's still no match for Nvidia, but at least the performance is back to within an order of magnitude.

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"If Intel brought down its prices by half," I complained, "I'd have to say I would seriously look at buying one of its top of the line SSDs, but that's unlikely to happen."

Little did I know that my wish would be granted, and in spectacular style. Just five days later, on Wednesday this week, Intel issued a press release noting it would shortly start selling what it said were the industry's first 35 nanometre SSDs, simultaneously lowering prices "by up to 60 per cent".

(Credit: Intel)

The disks have already received early praise from SSD guru (and friendly massive home cinema builder) Anand over at AnandTech, although of course the full benchmarks are yet to come out ... and it can take a while with such new technology before we really know what we're getting our hands on.

We quizzed Intel's Australian representatives on the availability of the drives in Australia, and received an answer that they should start flooding into the retail sector from mid-August.

The real question here, though, is will they come in at the right price point, given manufacturers' historical penchant for slamming a hefty premium onto retail prices for Australians compared with our fellow US geek brethren (who knows why, you'd think the shorter distance to the Asian manufacturing plants in Korea and elsewhere would allow them to sell them cheaper).

Intel hasn't yet been able to provide us with Australian prices.

However, looking a little closer at Intel's press release, it looks as if it cut the price in the US of the X25-M 80GB model (Intel has kept its model numbers for the new drives) down to US$225 for the new hardware from the original introductory price of US$595 a year ago. That's a cut of 62 per cent.

Note: this is the price for batches of 1000 bought by retailers and wholesalers, the only prices that Intel gives out. The 160GB version comes to US$440 each, down from US$945 at launch (a cut of 47 per cent).

Let's say we apply that same price cut, and then add on a generous 10 per cent retail mark-up cost so that the Aussie people actually selling this kit can take their cut. That would cut the 80GB X25-M drive down from AU$638, based on the current Aus PC-Market price, to around AU$266. The 160GB model would come down from AU$1155 to AU$597. Even cheaper prices will likely come through scouring price aggregators like staticICE; Aus PC-Market is typically a little expensive.

Still too pricey? Depends. If you're looking at the 160GB model, I'd say so. There aren't many people out there who really want to fork out almost $600 for a smallish hard disk. That price puts the 160GB model clearly in enthusiast territory ... if you have a really well-paying job, you wouldn't blink, but that isn't most of us.

However, the real advantage of SSDs comes when you're looking at system drives, especially Windows. If you, like I do, keep all of your files on a separate storage drive or two, and use your system drive only for loading your operating systems, applications and games, the 80GB X25-M starts to look very affordable.

Not as much so if you run more than one operating system, especially the space-eating Windows Vista and Windows 7 platforms, but for those that can keep their OS and application footprint within 80GB, the new 80GB X25-M is looking like a winner.

Then too, the word has already gone out that SSD rivals like OCZ are following Intel's lead and cutting prices in response. Looks like SSD drives might just be about to hit the mainstream.

I might even pick up one myself.

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Darling,

I will always remember the day we first met. It was shortly after Apple brought out its first Macintosh back in the 1980's. It was a stunning day with that special colour in the air that only the height of spring can bring, with a delightful scent of roses floating on the breeze.

Until I met you, I had no idea what beauty and elegance could be. I had previously enjoyed a string of relationships with functional PC keyboards, and even flirted after hours with early models of computer game joypads.

But when I first laid eyes on your curvaceous form, I knew I was in love. No other computer peripheral promised such smooth lines and such an ability to control what was happening on the monitor.

To hold you in my hand was a delight only surpassed by the sensation I witnessed when I saw that your undulating movements on my desk corresponded precisely with those of the pointer on my screen.

Over the years I have stayed by your side, as steady a friend and companion as one can be. Microsoft, Logitech, IBM, Apple, no matter what brand you were, I have loved you in all your incarnations. I've loved you as a gaming mouse, as a functional work mouse, and even spent time with you casually, in slummy internet cafes.

That's why I think it's best that I'm honest with you now: I've found someone else.

Yes, it's true, I no longer love you as I used to. Instead, I've been using a trackball at work, and I've been loving it.

Not only does it cure those niggling repetititve strain injuries that my time with you has caused, but it gives me a slight feeling of superiority when others are unable to use my computer due to the fact that they don't know how to move the pointer with a trackball.

Where you used to be flighty, moving all around my desk at the slightest whim, my new Logitech Trackman is peaceful, a reassuring prescence that sits stably at my keyboard's side. With the slightest flick of my thumb I can voyage across the universe; the same motion with you would require me to move my whole arm.

I don't even need a mousepad with my new trackball. It can work anywhere there is a flat surface. It's never going to be as fussy as you always were. God knows how many different times I cleaned your ball to get rid of the clogging lint. And then there were the hours I spend finding a mousepad that would work well with your new optical models.

I have to confess, I feel better about myself. I feel more confident, more stable, more able to deal with anything that life throws at me. More able to face the day, with my trackball by my side.

Mouse, we've been together for a long time. But the time has come. I'm breaking up with you.

I know you'll be able to find someone else to taunt with your playful desktop waggle. And I'll always remember you fondly. But I have to look to the future, and not back at the past.

Sorry mouse, there is another. (Credit: ZDNet.com.au)

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