Thank you for the responses. I am leaning towards building my own, but
trying to hurry and also be able to dual-boot with XP as I was before.
I will definitely check out Monarch.<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 6/17/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Brian Wood</b> <<a href="mailto:beww@beww.org">beww@beww.org</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br>On Jun 17, 2006, at 11:29 AM, James Carrig wrote:<br><br>> My computer just up and died and I am suddenly forced in the market<br>> to replace it. I need a tower and I need to run Myth and I want<br>> life to be easy, and so I am actively seeking to avoid problem
<br>> hardware, e.g., the VIA chipsets. When I scan the ads, VIA<br>> chipsets don't usually make the description. Are these AGP<br>> drivers? Is there a rule of thumb I can use? For example, do any<br>> Dell's use these chips?
<br><br>VIA makes many things, including CPUs, but they are probably best<br>known for the "core logic" chip(s) on motherboards made for Intel or<br>AMD CPUs.<br><br>Not everything they make has problems. The main problem that I know
<br>about is that their implementation of DMA with some chipsets is<br>buggy. Since Myth systems tend to move a *lot* of data via DMA these<br>problems tend to manifest themselves more so than with the average<br>home system. I'm sure there are home users out there with buggy DMA
<br>chipsets who notice no problems at all.<br><br>I'm not aware of any Dell's that use VIA mobo chipsets, that's not to<br>say there none. I'd stay away from Dell because they use non-standard<br>motherboard form factors and power supplies, making future upgrades
<br>difficult or impossible. They also do not support anything they<br>didn't sell to you, and can get uppity if you have problems with a<br>system that you have enhanced.<br><br>Your best bet, as others here have said, is to put together your own
<br>system. You will get exactly what you want, and you will know what<br>you have. You can also go to an integrator who will put together a<br>system to your specs, in this way you can get a warranty on the<br>system as a whole and not just on the individual components.
<br><br>Good integrators are Monarch, IBuyPower and others. Personally I have<br>had very good luck with Monarch, their prices are good,the only<br>problem I have found is they tend to want to install CPU coolers that<br>
I consider inadequate (though they probably do meet manufacturers<br>specs).<br></blockquote></div><br>