dave h. you are a genius. i've considered that same argument form an automotive standpoint, but never considered it in reference to computers. (btw, i stumbled upon this thread) i'm exiting your frame of context here, but if you were to consider a "petaFLOPS/mwatt" scenario, and you were to consider the benefits of owning a more modern, "my-computer-is-faster-than-yours" style machine, wouldn't your theory of "doing more with less" become invalid? also, since battery drain has become such a 'hot button' topic nowadays , what kind of stuff are you considering to increase battery life? lowering voltage in bios? general hardware mods? how would you get more life out of a laptop? (not that any of us are interesting in trivial things like that...)