[LAU] Advice needed: hardware vendors

In the past, I've sorta DIY'd my home machines -- sorta because it's
been more integration than building. Most of the parts would come from
some vendor like Newegg; but the processor+cooling/motherboard/memory
would come from the now long-departed Monarch Computer. The part of
building that scared me was doing a good job coupling the heatsink to
the processor; Monarch sold processor/motherboard combos where they'd
taken care of that, and tested the combo to make sure it was happy
before sending it to you. And their prices were good and they were
reliable. So, I'd do a little research on motherboards, pick a couple
of candidates, then google to see whether other folks were using those
motherboards with Linux and what experiences they were having. And if
it all looked good, I'd order it all and do the final integration, and
I've never had any problems, including with Linux/hardware
compatibility.

However, it's been quite a while since I did this the last time, mainly
because the machine I have now has done me pretty good. But I'm ready
to replace my machine, and apparently two things have happened since
the last time:

- Monarch became an unreliable company, then went bust;

- I became insanely busy all the time, and less motivated (but not
  completely unmotivated) to build.

So, I'm looking to find out about hardware vendors. Specifically, I
want to know about:

1. folks selling fully-built machines with Linux in mind, so that
there'll be no real worries about any hardware compatibility issues;

2. folks selling motherboard/processor combos that they test before
shipping to the customer, like Monarch did back when they were still
around and reliable.

In case it matters, I tend to go for as souped-up a home machine as I
can, and then ride it for a long time. The machine I end up with will
be used for Linux audio, with an Audiofire 8 interface that'll connect
to the machine by Firewire. So obviously it's going to need to have low
latencies in mind. It'll also get used for gaming, and for code
development for scientific computing. I dunno whether it's even an
option anymore, but having one legacy PCI slot around would be nice,
but isn't a dealbreaker if that's just too obsolete.

Any suggestions on vendors to look at, or sources of information on
build options (I used to start at Tom's Hardware and Anandtech years
ago; dunno if they're still the best choices), would all be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks much!

-c

-- 
Chris Metzler			cmetzler@email-addr-hidden-me.net
		(remove "snip-me." to email)
"As a child I understood how to give; I have forgotten this grace since
I have become civilized." - Chief Luther Standing Bear

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