None of my home machines have ever used an internal modem. I first
recommend external modems to customers before reluctantly bowing to
their desire not to spend money and quote internal.
With external it is really easy to swap out suspect equipment.
PCI slots are meant to be able to source something like 2-3 amps so if the
design uses too much power then I guess internal modems (dialup and
ADSL) could be compromised. Same goes for USB modems.
We use an uprated PS in our PC's. They are rated at 300 w the same as
the lower speccd design. When you open the PS you can see that the same
design/PCB has been followed BUT the heatsinks are twice the size, the
transistors are larger, capacitors are higher speccd etc. The failure rate is
1/10 but it costs more.
Another killer is the desire for miniature components because they tend run
hotter and the voltage ratings on components are lower.

The bottom line is that the more you pay generally the better (and longer)
the performance. If you buy on price then accept that you may well have a
higher level of frustration.

 Regards
Chris Calvert
Christchurch, New Zealand

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