If not too much trouble, you could find out what he wants for the cd recorder and condition, like garaunteed to work well? If I can afford it Then I'll bother you for more info on it. No since going to too much trouble if I can't buy it anyway.
One thing I am looking for, a working power backup, LARGE.
I nearly bought a matrix 3000 or 5000 for $600 awhile back, didn't know enough about it and let it slide then. Might want one now though.
I need a back up system that will keep 2 maybe 3 systems online for long periods. Prefferably something I can connect to line power to keep the batteries charged and use 12v deep cycles for so I can expand the battery bank as needed for longer run time!
Wiith the matrix, it looked to have enough power to run my whole house, which is Ideally what I would like to do! The one I looked at before was 240v input line power, and had 240v output. Forgot the amps, but was enough to run my deepwell pump plus lots of 110v stuff
Eventually if I can set up the power unit and bartteries now I plan to add solar and wind to keep them charged and dump the grid altogether.
Might consider a couple smaller units, and set up two battery banks, one for the house and the other computers only if he has anything with enough kick.