Sorry to hear about those problems JP.

I've been running an Abit KT133A motherboard (VIA chipset) and an AMD Athlone 1ghz processor for a few months and have found the system to be very stable.

The only hardware problem I have had in the interim period was unrelated to that set up - I had a hdd failure but that hdd had been making "funny noises" since the lightening zapped my computer so it's final demise was not surprising - I really should have replaced it when I rebuilt.

Prior to the storm that blew me (and many other PCs in the area), I happily used a VIA system with the AMD K62 500 processor.

The biggest software problem I had concerned PGP but Mark Clark explained that one and it's interference with certain firewall programs - uninstalling the Win PGP program put things right for me.

For my money, they remain a good option.

Jon