It really depends on whic CAD package you intend to use. I use solidworks on a desktop, if you are looking at one of the power hungry 3d systems operating to its limit it will cost you a lot more than £600 for a laptop. For all CAD systems the graphics card is key as is the general pc memory, obviously the more the better. With solidworks their is a list of approved and supported graphics cards which always seem to be much more expensive than the games orientated cards.

It also depends on the complexity of the stuff you are modeling. It is really large assemblies that kill my PC.

If you are just starting out, I would suggest obviously you get the best you can with a dedicated graphics card with 756mb or 1GB of memeory and at least 4GB of system memory. I really wouldn’t go smaller than 17″.

Hope this helps. If you are doing this as part of university or some sort of course, I would hold fire until it becomes clear what exactly is needed.

Just get out their and buy one, it really is worth finding a local specialist or club member that is happy to look over a potential purchase. Don’t worry about not being mechanically minded you will soon learn. I am currently trying to free up enough space in the garage to takle and early mk1 / mk2 mini project.

I don’t think it has particularly been overcharged as it was still performing well giving at least 2 hours of use on the battery it sounds as if somethng has actually blown. It never really gave more than 2 hours of battery life.

If you have a thermostat somewhere in the house check that is hasn’t got turned down really low and this is stopping the heating coming on.

You should be able to move the little arm over on the three way valve and then fire the boiler by turning the programmer to the hot water setting.

Have had a look in Which but it is only really any use if you want to spend £500 on one.

Sorry wrong forum.

Think you have missed the Master

Got a stanley one from go outdoors was about £12 top seals so you don’t have 2 keep it upright. Quarter turn to drink. Wife uses it when out with the buggy. Was by far the best we could find.

It really makes me sick how many perfectly usable cars are destined to be scrapped under the scrappage scheme. Should have been stripped of all usefull parts to help keep more cars going with no extra enviromental impact.

U31, the point of this thread is that the Defender is second hand so doens’t have any enviromental impact being created. It takes a huge amount of enrgy to produce a new car, It is much greener to run cars to a high mileage and vehicles such as landrovers are made out of simple easy to split parts that are perfect for reuse and recyling when they finally die.

mcmoonter bet you are a dab hand at Jenga.

Fate / karma its a marvelous thing. Got made redundant Sept 09 and everything in my life has got better ever since, got a new job, earn more money, get to work from home, moved from Manchester to Devon.

Keep a positive attitude and if you are good at your job and pleasent to employ work will always find you.

Oz sounds like a fantastic opertunity, best of luck.

Used ZEN in the past they are brilliant you get to speak to real people and the only problem I had was sorted in 20 mins. But you pay for the service, I can’t currently justify it. I am currently with Plusnet and have been happy, no problems so far.

I think you can only really rate a provider once you get a problem though.

Saunton was really hard work today. Putts looked better but pretty busy. Got high hopes for tomorrow will have time for a good scope to find the best spot.

Getting very excited know, weather looked better on the north coast today than in East Devon, lets hope the wind stays lightish.

sorry phone keeps posting twice

Me and Mrs big surfer will be at saunton or putts tomorrow and sunday. Really out of shape only been once in the last year and that was last sunday. Suspect we will struggle to get out of the breakers if it is as big as predicted on sat. Will b happy just to get a few good washing machines. Don’t you just love autumn.

I don’t know anyone that has had one fail, They have changed the servicing intervals dependent on engine age of car etc. My 51 plate passat is on 60K miles or 4 years so I would be inclined to go with the service book for each of the cars. I know that the newer passats have changed to 80K miles but I don’t know if the age limit has been removed.

If it is any use, when I changed mine at 120K miles the belt showed no signs of wear.

I agree it is a lot of money just in case. I do my own so it brings it down to about £100 in parts. As a piece of advice always get the water pump changed at the same time as they tend to last slightly longer than the timing belt and are cheap to replace at the same time as the belt.

Feel free to label me as a bearded weirdy but Arnica the homeopathic remedy is amazing for bruising. Most big chemists (boots etc) sell it either in tablet form or better still as a cream.

I take a pretty scientific approach to most things but I was prescribed Arnica buy my doctor, taking the approach that their is nothing regular medicine can offer for bruising and it can’t do any harm. Have been using it for years now. Being a clumsy f*ck I have a wealth of experience.

Sits back and waits for crusifying to take place.

I am 6’4″ and have always fitted well in the Ajungilak sleeping bags, they also do a zip in panel to give a bit more width for the larger lad (not that I have ever needed one).

If you are going down the Howdens route try and get a carpenter with a decent discount their (might even be worth asking in Howdens for them to recomend a local carpenter) it can make quite a big difference. Never had an exterior door from them but have had kitchen / interior doors and other bits and pieces, always been pretty impressed by the quality for the price. Much better than any of the DIY outlets.

We are approaching 50% but we get to live in a really nice part of Devon in a nice house and this affords us the luxuary of having loads of free activities on our doorstop so need very little disposible cash, have a 3 years to go on our fixed and by then hopefully our income should have risen a little.

I am happy riding a 11 year old hard tail and driving a couple of pretty battered old cars. Should be growing lots of veg by next summer so even more money saved.

My philosophy on life is to earn as little as absolutely nescessary and spend as much free time doing the things you really love doing.

How much time is sat in traffic, it will always kill the most efficient car.

Diesel’s arn’t nesecerily better for short town trips as they take quite a while to warm up and get into their highly efficient mode.

If your car deliveres reasnoble economy on a good run then i suspect its the traffic and type of journey you are using it for.

What age is your passat, I have a 2002 plate passat estate and the back sits really low with any load in it, would be interested if self leveling shocks could be retro fitted.

Just watched it pass through Honiton, drizzling here. Watched one of the police outriders nearly loose it on a wet drain cover at the bottom of town, Bet his heart was racing.

I agree with surf-mat completely that growing up in the country is the best childhood you can get. I have just moved back to Devon at the age of 30 after a stint in Manchester expereiencing life where their are shops and buses more than once per day. It was great for a year, then I just sat inside watching telly and getting fatter for a few years, it then took another 3 years to sort out houses and job's to enable the move.

Kids only really know about what they have expereinced if they have grown up in the country then in the main they love it, their is a great party seen in the country its much cheaper than pubs and clubs and I think much safer for the 14 – 18 year age.

Can you get a small multi tooth socket on the outside of the bolt you will need to tap it on with a hammer, has worked for me many times.

9,

Their is a chance (all be it very small) that you could pick the 4 vanilla & the 4 butter popcorn before you pick one watermellon. Hence 9 jellybeans.

Off to the shop now to buy jellybeans.

Ok so I was wrong!!!

Like the idea "scienceofficer" that would keep the cost of the wood down. Its amazing how the simple things pass us by at times.

Thats a fantastically open ended question, (the likes of how much for a new car). It really depends on the quality of boiler you want, as a rough guide they vary from around £750 to £1500. Then you have the fitting, if it is replacing a combi boiler in the same position it could be as little as half a days labour, we have paid around £250 for the labour for a simple replacment.

Would recomend Vailant and Worcester bosh.

So your price could be of £1500 could be good presuming your not getting the very chapest boiler and the instalation is realtively simple.

Their is masses of information on them on this forum, the website also sells several different sizes etc.

http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/

Cheers Ben

I have a nice light scot pro flight ht its about 11 years old and currently weighs in around 25lbs but most of the time i end up with a trailer and 18 month chunky daughter in a trailer which is about another 45lbs. So a 70lb rig definately makes the hills a challenge.

Advice to take a break is a good one allow yourself a week or so to recharge get out on the bike, do what ever feeds your soul. It will put you in a much better position for interviews etc.

Make sure you get to the dole office and citizens advice bureau to make sure you are getting all you are entitled to in terms of benefits, tax credits etc. It supporsed me how much I could claim, makes you wonder why I bothered working really.

And then get out their looking for a new job, the more random your job hunting the better, talk to everyone you know, look for any business that is expanding doing well in these times.

I was made redundant this time last year was out of work for about 2 months before I found a new much better job than the last one, everything since I ws made redundant has been good.

Keep your chin up and keep positive.

Bigsurfer.

Get yourself down to a decent sized Halfords, not something I say often. Their proffesional tools are brilliant great quality, nice cases etc and they come with a lifetime guarentee that they actually honour.

You just have to try as many on as you can with some weight in the back, I tried pretty much all of them, it is even harder if it has to fit 2 different adults.

We went with a Macpac vamoose pretty old of Ebay (about £35) but couldn't afford the new macpac which are a delight to wear. Our daughter will happily sit / sleep in it for a couple of hours but thats about her limit, more boredom than uncomfortable.

They are great and free up the world again rather than sticking to buggy friendly places.

jacksta : We were advised by our mortgage broker that certain banks / building societies can take in excess of 6 weeks to approve a mortgage. Nationwide did it for us in 4 days.

It takes as long as you or the other party let it.

We just bought our house in under 4 weeks from start to finnish, absolutely every one laughed at us (solicitors, estate agents, mortgage brokers etc) saying their is no way you can achive it in that time scale. Both parties wanted a quick sale and it took a fair bit of harrasing.

Really you just need to make a general nuisance of yourself untill things start to happen.

Hope it goes well.

Lots more reading tonight then.

Lots of insulation, draft proofing, better (thicker) double glazing all in hand.

I take wonny J's point about the payback period being much longer once a new efficient boiler is installed. Not to bothered about the payback period all good things are worth waiting for.

Will have to do some more research into costs and possible PV cells. I had discounted PV as I thought it wasn't worth the effort to generate such a small amount of energy.

We did it from 3 months old with "aquababies" and it was truelly brilliant.

Emily our daughter loved it and it really is so much easier in really warm water to start with, much warmer than any childrens pool at a regular swimming pool. The pool we used was at a special needs school.

We do not have much money to spare but managed to afford a 10 week block of lessons. After which she was happy to be dunked under and swim underwater from one person to another. Most people continued with the course after the first term, we just went our own way and at the age of about 7 months she was quite happy in the kids pool at our regular city swimming pool.

No chance she will ever be scared of the water know. We have to bath her at least an hour before bed time as she gets so excited in the bath you can't get her to sleep afterwards.