My current machine is now over 4 years old. Last year it started acting up, but I was able to trace this to various mechanical problems. However, over the last couple of months it has developed an intermittent total freeze. I've tried all the usual pulling out bits and/or reshuffling them but it makes no difference. Also they fault is *really* intermittent. The machine can run for 2 days without problems, or it can freeze within 5 minutes of switch on. It also seems to make no difference whether the thing is working flat out or just idling. As I frequently save work, I've never lost more than about 15 minutes worth, but still I no longer trust the machine so need to look for a replacement. For philosophical reasons I'd prefer to stick with AMD. Other than that I pretty easy going. Most of my work is with Yoshimi (which is a hungry beast) so raw processing power is important. Also, I've started to do microphone work as well as guitar so noise level is much more of an issue. From way before I got my last machine I've been using a 2496 sound card, which has served me extremely well, however I'm inclined to think that is also overdue for replacement - I would need both MIDI and audio capability. Anyone got any suggestions? Please bear in mind that I'm in the UK so purchases from abroad might be problematical. -- Will J Godfrey http://www.musically.me.uk Say you have a poem and I have a tune. Exchange them and we can both have a poem, a tune, and a song.