Hi all.

FOREWORD: My Old One is takin' her last breaths. Had a big problem with the cooling vent and those at Dell asked me 250Euros to fix it (the vent alone!!!). No one that I know would risk to put his hands into a notebook. I opened it, but the CPU and the vent are boxed and there's no screws in sight to free them. Now I'm working with a medical-sportbruise-coolpack (those you keep in the fridge) pressed under the CPU to gain a couple of hours' work before shutting the bastard off.

SOFTWARE QUESTION: Does anyone know a freeware diagnostic utility that can check the CPU temperature and signal me when I'm risking a meltdown?

HARDWARE INQUIRY: I'm trying to save money to buy a new PC (desktop! desktop!) and this is the best offer I've seen so far [Apart from the mandatory things and with WindowsXP in bundle]:

• NEC 5800 DVD-ROM 16X 48X EIDE
• HD MAXTOR D740X/DMaxPlus8 40GB U-ATA133 7.2RPM 2MB
• CPU AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (Socket A)
• VideoCard SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9000 64MB DDR TvOUT AGP
• Motherboard ABIT KD7R Raid VIAKT400 DDR400 AGP ATA133
• 2 RAM modules DIMM 512 MB DDR 400Mhz (PC3200)
• CDBurner LG 8520 52X 24X 52X EIDE S.Link + software
• Monitor CRT NEC MultiSync V921 19" 0,26mm 1600x1200NI

All this for 1.218,34 Euros (roughly 1200 USD).

May I ask you what do you think of it? My OldOne is a PII300 and I'm really thinking to upgrade. But I'm a total dork in hardware matters and I really have to count off every cent... so, any opinions from you guys?

Thanx a lot. Any help, suggestion or opinions on the my would-be future machine will be strongly appreciated.

Stefano