A client brought in a system that's been very unstable and troublesome since she had it built by a local shop a year ago. It was built with a strong eye toward the budget, but now she wants to trade cost for improved stability. The current system includes a PC-Chips M571 Motherboard with the TX Pro II chipset, AMD 233 CPU, 64 MB SDRAM, and embedded sound and video. The case is a generic mid-tower AT case with a 250 Watt power supply. I'd like to replace the current motherboard with a FIC VA-503+. I've heard good things about that board from users of this list, and I think it would fit in her AT case and allow her to continue to use her existing RAM. I also plan to add a Creative Ensoniq AudioPCI sound card and a low-cost video card that still offers some measure of 3D gaming ability. She's strictly a 2D (text and productivity) person, but when her kids come to visit they'd like to be able to play a game or two. I'm thinking an ATI Rage 16 MB card would fit the bill. She wants to keep the AMD 233, the two hard drives, and the CD-ROM drive. Does anyone have any comments about the components I've picked? Am I overlooking anything? Jeff Delzer The PCBUILD web site always needs good submissions. If you would like to contribute to the website, send any hardware tech tips or hardware reviews to: [log in to unmask]