One of our members has turned his hobby of collecting older electronic equipment and is finding about 10% of the motherboards that he tested before sending them off arrive dead.  Do you have any ideas as to what might be killing the motherboards, or maybe you feel it’s more likely user error?  Let them know.  Other users are trying to figure out the best way to build a firewall; any favourites out thereThose hanging out in the Processor Forum are having a field day right now.  New processors from Intel are popular as is AMD’s introduction of the new Socket AM3 Phenom IIs.  That means that overclocking is a new game again, with the new chips offering a lot of new BIOS features that can be tweaked.  You might not have the ability to cool a processor to -40 degrees so that you can hit 6.5GHz with a Phenom II, but there is a lot of underutilized power that you should be able to get.

If you decide to try out the new 9.2 driver from AMD for your Radeon, drop by this thread in the graphics forum to let people know how well it works and if you notice any new issues. You may want to try the driver out on your HTPC, especially if it is Linux based as some of the fixes may help any problems you have.  While you are at it, let others know what you feel is the best OS to install on an HTPC machine.  Your last stop before you leave, or even your first stop before you cruise the forums should be the Trading Post.  The economic downturn doesn’t mean you have to stop upgrading, just that you need to be open to other sources of components.