Using pc parts

[tom cloud]

talltom <talltom at teleport.com> wrote:
>   I for one would be inteested in the pc parts approach, primarily on account
>of entirely to much expierience with propietary junk. Yes, this means that
>if it costs more thats to damn bad. When my chip burns up at 7:30am on Saturday
>in Clovis New Mexico, I want to be back on the road within 30 min. after radio
>shack opens!
>   Not only the much better parts supply situation, but the computing power
>and flexibility should be much greater.
>  So you pc types, I'm all ears!(this comes from a guy that drives a
>cornbinder!)

        [ snip ]

Don't work that way.  Rat-Shack ain't gonna have *NONE* of the stuff you
need.  PC mudderboards use proprietary (read if it breaks, forget it)
ASIC chips.  Very few of the chips (like the cpu, memory, bus drivers)
are "standard" chips -- and rat-shack don' carry none of that stuff.
Rat-shack does carry the leetul battries fer yur ceemos RAM.

Now, the good side:  I've had very few mudder boards fail!  The problems
I have experienced have generally been with poor hardware / software 
design rather than component failure.

No doubt, the modified PC approach is probably the most appealing for
someone with experience in other areas (notice how diplomatically I
handled that ?? -- and they said I was insensitive!).  Only problem
I see, is that by the time you've got it working, will you be happy?
You will definitely have learned some very useful *stuff* (and I'm
not being facetious).  But, one of the things you'll learn is that
you could have spent less, and your result will be B-I-G .

That's why, in another post on a diff. thread (I think), I asked for
discussion about modifying OEM EFI controllers.  Seems like that may
be the most efficient, quickest, satisfying way to go.


Tom Cloud <cloud at peaches.ph.utexas>