You are never going to find a good mechanical keyboard in the price range unless you settle for a model without the numpad. However I would recommend a Fnatic Gear Rush keyboard with whichever mechanical key switches you like.
If you don't mind not getting one of those RGB LED gaudy keyboards, then I recommend going to your local Salvation Army or Goodwill and looking for old keyboards. A lot of really old keyboards are mechanical and are a dream to type on plus the added "retro" factor. They'll work with any desktop computer since we still use PS/2 connectors. Don't expect a mint-condition IBM Model M, but I found myself a nice Keytronic mechanical keyboard circa 1997 that I use for typing and gaming and it's worlds better than any recent generic USB keyboard.
Here; http://www.ebay.de/itm/IBM-Tastatur...13dd1f2&pid=100005&rk=1&rkt=6&sd=162191176142 In all it's IBM Model M glory
Budget laptops are crap. Get a Thinkpad, you can get a T420 for £160 or a T430 for £300 (not nearly worth it, it's got a slightly faster CPU and much better graphics but is otherwise the same). I bought a T420 earlier this year and so far it's the only laptop I've ever used where every single thing works all the time.
Hot diggity damn. The last time I can remember testing the internet speed I got like 60. Upload has been the same as long as I can remember though.
That's the thing with Virgin Media. We get good download, but compared to the dl speed the upload is utter sh*te http://www.speedtest.net/result/5621014164.png
you guys do all realise that uploads on adsl and docsis (including over fiber) are asymmetric and meant to be alot slower than download
I think it is more to do with forcing people who need fast upload speeds to buy the more expensive business internet plans, since they are often symmetric. Usually on consumer web connections (assuming you get the quoted speeds) the upload speeds will be somewhere around 1/10th of the download speeds. Of course this can vary wildly. For example my parents get 50Mbps/s down and 5Mbps up. I get 100Mbps down and 10Mbps up. The fastest upload I have ever had on one of my own connections was 30Mbps on 4g (with 73Mbps down).
It's actually fairly expensive to put in the infrastructure to have symmetric upload and download speeds. Therefore, it isn't usually put it unless someone needs it.
Our internet is kinda weird, on Ethernet we get 75/5 but over wireless it maxes out at 55/5, we get the quoted speed on wireless but faster download over wired.
Might be a naff router or wireless solution. My aunty has issues in her house on an ISP provided router (think its talk talk or some crap like that), it will only let a very small amount of devices have internet access, but never reallocates which have internet access, so they have to unplug the router and plug it back in again and hope that the device they want to use is given internet by the router (repeat if it isn't). Not to mention they don't have fibre in their area, so they get around 1Mbps down.
Wow nice antique laptop there though that cue's up a bit of nostalgia for me! I had one similar, with a black-case, was a 486-33-SX cpu/4mb ram/300mb hdd/NO CDROM when I was in highschool in 99 or so. Was the only one with a pc, but it weighed 15~20lbs and was an ex-government piece bought at auction, then I got it for 30 bucks after, so it had a piece of sheet steel in it that could deflect small rounds. I think it was a GRID machine. Whacked a guy in the head with it (when it was off) when they tried to yank it out of my hands one time, too. Machine survived fine but the person didn't want to fight so much anymore Sure was great to be typing my notes in easy-peasey instead of writing as fast as the teacher's talked, and not being able to read chicken-scratch later on! Though I will give a tip, if anyone reading this is still in middle or high school, and they use a laptop to take GOOD, THOROUGH notes (if allowed), you can earn brownie points with the teachers by giving copies of the notes to students that missed class time if they allow that. I haven't been in school in over 16 years so I wouldn't know what the restrictions on mobile devices or laptops is now though. Sure was a blast to play DOOM or TANK WARS, or wolf3d even if the screen was 256-shades-of-grey (color svga card tho).
