asterisk users - Jan 2005 - spandsp & tdm400p - recommended hardware

I've gone through about 5 computers and two linux distros (wbel and fc3)
trying to get a system that doesn't show symptoms of frame slips, can
receive faxes, and doesn't show CPU spikes with the tdm400p active.
Unfortunately I haven't had much luck.

I asked Digium whether there was a recommended hardware platform, and the
best they could come up with was a Dell 600SC - but they also mentioned that
the CPU spikes were a normal occurrence.  That doesn't seem right.

Can anyone using the TDM400P and spandsp successfully share their hardware
and OS platform?  I'm not against ordering hardware, just tired of randomly
trying systems that are lying about.

I also have one of the motherboards on order recommended from the wiki - an
ASUS P4P800 Deluxe - but I'm not sure those recommended were fully tested
against the combination above.

Thanks in advance - and I'll share the results of the ASUS board as well..

joe