John G. Heim <jheim at math.wisc.edu> wrote: > Right but if you buy your own motherboard, then you have to put it > together yourself. A lot of people aren't up to that. And if you > buy a machine or even have one built for you in a shop, their mobos > might not have an exposed serial port or even the header block. The > shop is probably buying the cheapest mobos they can and they might > not have a serial port header block. There are online suppliers (at least around here) that let you select all of the components from a huge catalogue and who will then assemble the machine for you and ship it out by courier. My current machine, though, is an HP workstation, an ex-demonstration machine that I bought from a distributor at a large discount. A serial port is standard even with the latest models.
