In the market

[Zachary Kline]

Hi All,
    I've been experimenting with VirtualBox, VmWare, etc. for quite a while now, and enjoy the results I've gotten.  Nevertheless, I'm interested in possibly moving at least partially over to real iron at some point and was wondering about availability of things like serial ports.  I have a DecTalk USB, though I don't know where the serial cable for that went.  (I'm pretty sure I can buy that sort of thing.)  Maybe this is just me or my first ever Linux experience talking, which was Zipspeak on an old Windows 98 machine with hardware speech, but I've never felt all that comfortable with software for Linux.
    Anyhow, I'm just curious as to whether it might be better for me to try to build a machine by hand: something I haven't done before, or look for something off a shelf somewhere.  Ideally this machine will be dedicated to Linux and have a hardware serial port.  Speed isn't really a factor for me.  As for desktops vs. laptops, I'm open to either though I've a slight preference for the latter.
Any thoughts?  Experiences?  Suggestions?
Thanks much,
Zack.