On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 3:51 PM, Jeffrey Watts <jeffrey.w.watts@gmail.com> wrote:

I felt the same as you did about integrated peripherals, but as prices have plummeted I actually prefer them now. I'd rather have an integrated motherboard that costs $100 than a motherboard, SATA card, sound card, graphics card, networking card that are all separate and cost $300 total. If a component breaks I don't mind shelling out $100 to replace the whole thing, and the lack of all of the connectors and sockets and impaired airflow is a huge plus for me.

Given the (now) long history of integrated peripherals on mobos, we can safely say that they fail at not-unreasonable rates, and nearly all do allow individual components to be shut off. Specifically buying a non-integrated mobo is a tough task these days. Really, about the only thing I don't want integrated is video, and that's only on my main workstation so I can have fast 3D. Size and noise are things I like in small quantities and integrated products allow me to have that. I run a Mac mini as my main OS X system, and I'm planning on picking up an Eee box sometime if I want a more modern PC system. It's impossible to get a small system when you are dealing with all sorts of add-on cards to get basic functionality. Of course, in systems this small it's hard or impossible to replace a failed integrated component with an expansion card, but overall the failure rate is so low I don't really care. Jon.