Could people make some hardware recommendations
for an athlon / abit-ka7-based w2k system?  The system
has an adaptec 19160 scsi card, so it supports ultra 160,
plus slower scsi devices on a second scsi bus.  Is has
the two unused ide controllers on the mobo, and has
two usb ports.  So all of these are options.

        1)      Flatbed scanner
                (decent quality, price / performance matters)

        2)      cdrom drive (scsi acceptable / preferable?)

        3)      cdrw (one that won't burn coasters)

        4)      sound card (to replace a legacy pro audio spectrum)
                What kinds of sound cards are out there now?
                Does it make sense to get something fancy?
                The sound from the current card is not very good.
                It pops an crackles --- although I've heard complaints
                that this is a w2k issue.  (Is it worth  bothering to
                upgrade?)

        5)      speakers --- again, is there any point in buying
                something more than the plain-vanilla offerings?
                I sometimes have the suspicion that fancier-looking
                computer speakers are just fancier-looking cases
                with the same cheap speakers inside.

Thanks for your suggestions.

     Frank R.Brown
     Frank.R.Brown@MailAndNews

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