Tom,

<g>

I've built a few S-100 bus machines myself. Personally I think it's a disease... *BG*

>>>Your advice included building your own computer. How can that be considered "taking the conservative route"??
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><g>
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>>Oh.. I suppose you're right on that <g> except I've been doing that for years and it falls squarely into the conservative notion of being self-reliant. <g>
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>Doug;
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>There are many degrees to which one can say they "built" a computer. I built my first computer in 1962, for a company I worked for, using thousands of 2N404 transistors - two per flip flop. It was not small! In 1975-1982 I built many S-100 Bus computers. The motherboard had 2200 pin connections for just the card sockets. Each card had hundreds of connections and I had to load each component, then solder them after running all over Silicon Valley trying to find the best part at the best price. People that saw me solder could not believe how fast I could do it. I had worked on the Apollo/LEM project and was NASA Certified for soldering. You can put a 20X loop on any of my soldered connections and they will pass NASA requirements.
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>1986 I became IBM Certified - to build, repair and train others on PC repair, maintenance and installation. For the last ten years I have gone to the same store and had the same technician build my computers for me. I just do my homework and ask for what I want. People ask me why I choose specific components. I tell them: "I like to choose vendors here in Silicon Valley, because I know where their front door is". If my computer was made in another area I would not feel comfortable.
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>Now I am sure that some will say we should build our own CPU's, etc. That is going too far!
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>Tom