Just a note of thanks to all who contributed: Travis, Miles, Chip, Martin, Erik, others. Even if I didn't follow all the advice, in those cases it helped me sort out a decision. Also to Colin Brace who suggested a good book (offlist), Building the Perfect PC, Thomspson, O'Reily, 2007. I went out and bought it, only to find Colin hadn't! Funny. It was worth it. I needed to bone up on current events and that was just the way to do it.
On refurbished equipment. There's a great place out here that does a very sweet job on printers and scanners (The Printer Works). I got a business grade HP LaserJet 2200D full duplex printer a few years ago that works very well with FreeBSD without installing a bunch of Linux stuff.
On keyboards, Erik wrote, ``There is quite a cult of them. But its really worth it...''
Yes there is a cult and yes it's worth it. At first I thought, how weird, keyboard cultists. But then I remembered I've been a cult member for several trips. Cyclists and climbers are definitive cultists in their own right. All the thousands of dollars I blew on a road racer a few years ago was sorting through one fincking little cult trip after another. I finally decided the only guys who bought Colnago's and Cinelli's and decked them out with Campagnolo Gruppo Record were like me, long past their prime when they could finally afford the bike they dreamed of as kids. I can barely get up the hills anymore, but shit do I look cool for passing.
CG