Getting that new hardware itch...

[Net Llama!]

On 12/22/2005 06:14 PM, Alan Jackson wrote:
> Well, my system is 4 1/2 years old, and beginning to show it's age so
> early next year I plan to replace it. It will force me to move to Linux
> 2.6 too!
> I have an old AMD 500 Mhz system with 500 Mb of RAM. 
> 
> Here's what I'm thinking - any recommendations or suggestions
> are welcomed. I'm not a gamer or a multi-media guy - I do science
> and noodling around so I don't need really high performance graphics, 
> but I like to have oodles of memory and plenty of cycles. I run gentoo.
> 
> cpu : 2 Ghz Athlon 64 939
> Motherboard : ASUS A8N-SLI - not sure which one, regular, premium, or deluxe

Unless you need two PCI-Express videocards, I doubt that you need that 
motherboard at all.  But it is a decent board none-the-less.

If you're looking for a much less expensive motherboard with an nvidia 
chipset, you could try out the C51 based boards which have onboard 
video, plus a PCI-Express slot if you wanted to add a more powerful GPU.

Basically anything with GeForce 61xx chipsets are C51 based, and will 
cost you alot less than the A8N.  I'm currently using the Biostar TForce 
6100 at work, and haven't had any problems.

> Disk : 2x250 Gb Western SATA

Personally, i'd avoid Western Digital drives in favor of Seagate, but 
that's just me.

> Memory : 2 Gb (4 Kingston 512k DDK 400)
> DVD/CD/RW : Sony DRU 700A??
> Video : eVGA GeForce 6200 128 Mb??

Good choice, although i'd suggest the 256MB version for better long term 
usage.

> Audio : soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS
> 
> issues : I'd like to have about 4 serial ports for my PDA, weather station, 
> X10 controller, etc. Not sure how to accomplish that. Newer motherboards
> don't have serial ports (the board above has one). Suggestions for an add-in
> card?

There are serial port PCI cards out there.

> 
> Are there any issues remaining with going to 64 bit? Especially with Gentoo
> I'd think I'd be insulated against a lot of potential issues...


64bit linux is still a rough & tumble world where there are alot of 
bugs.  Unless you are running apps that really need or could benefit 
from a 64bit environment, save yourself alot of pain, and install a 
32bit distro.

> 
> Not sure on the video card - I'd kinda like to get one that has the option 
> for dual heads. I might want to do that in the future.

Just about any NVIDIA card can do that.  If you get the A8N mobo, you 
could theoretically get a 2nd card down the road and do 4 heads, or do 
SLI.

> 
> I'm shooting for around $1600-$1800 for the system - not cheap, but not
> expensive either. About what I have *always* paid, actually.

I think you could do alot cheaper than that with the parts you've listed 
above, if you shop around.

> 
> If there are good Linux-ready suppliers you love, I'll look there too. I'm
> not committed to doing myself, I'm just exploring the options and prices.
> At least if I buy it prebuilt for Linux, I don't have to sweat the
> compatibility issues.

I've always had very good experiences with newegg.com.  tigerdirect is 
ok, but sometimes they take forever to ship stuff that their website 
claims is in stock.  beyond them, go to resellerratings.com and see what 
others have posted.



-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
L. Friedman                       	       netllama at linux-sxs.org
LlamaLand		 		http://netllama.linux-sxs.org

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