Jon, actually I did get the motherboard at Fry's but the reason it fried was
all my fault. I powered the computer up with the RAM in backwards far enough
to make some contacts. If I had got the 2-year extended warranty on the
motherboard like I did on the CD burner than I would have been able to
replace it for free.
I agree that there are problems there and that you can get some bad deals
there. I am careful, though, and make sure I never take any components that
have been returned to the store and are being resold. I have only
experienced one out of three bad motherboards from there, not that that is a
huge dataset to draw from, but they haven't lost my business yet.
Just my 2 cents back on this thread since it came up again. Have a hreat
day,    Cliff