I am specifically concerned with non-standard power supplies such as those which supply 3.3, 5 and 12 volts (3.3 is non-standard) or have
non-standard form factors. That cute little combination PCI card mentioned earlier for which there are no drivers except Win98. There are a
whole raft of these little gems out there, the only solution is to replace one card with two. Card cage/case designs that accept one and only
one motherboard or one and only one model of powersupply, Motherboards that accept only proprietary memory. Cases with specialty
covers and openings; move the components to a standard case and you find the bezels don't fit.

In my best of all possible worlds I would like to see cases that accept readily available standard form factor ATX power supplies. PCI cards
for which drivers are readily available (the GeForce series of video cards is a wonderful example). Motherboards that can be replaced with
something other than an exact replacement from the original manufacturer (at exhorbitant cost). Motherboards that accept standard memory.
No speciality bezels on cases, a component pulled from one machine and put in another should not look butt ugly because the bezel
doesn't fit.

In other words, I want to see PC's like Winchester rifles out of the old west, a straight commodity item. Pull one part from a Winchester rifle and
put it into any other Winchester rifle of the same make and it will work. I think you should be able to pull a part from any PC and have it work in
any other PC.

This education is coming to me free of charge at the local computer shop where I volunteer my time. I get to see everything from the latest top
of the line boxes to creaky old AT boxes running Win95.

Paul

P.S. And no, I disapprove of the practice of copyrighting Socket designs so an Intel processor won't fit into an AMD motherboard and vice
versa.


On Wed, 3 Apr 2002 14:05:51 -0500, Phil Yantis wrote:

>>I will never, ever, buy a PC that uses nonstandard components. This means
>HP, DELL, Gateway and others
>
>Since your list of companies using "nonstandard components" is somewhat
>open-ended, whom would you classify as using "standard components"?
>
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