Thanks for the consolation, LD. You make me feel better. LOL. Actually, I'm making moves to replace my entire system and should be able to do it in a few weeks. One of my problems is living up in the alps. If I buy in milan, it's a 200 kilometer journey if anything goes wrong. But I think I've found someone up here who can build me a system and service it if there's a problem. Plus, I've just had an interesting business offer which may bring in the bucks. Hooray!! Now I just need to do my research and decide what to go for. Any thoughts on that? I'm not a hardware person at all. mac