Getting that new hardware itch...

[Kurt Wall]

On Thu, Dec 22, 2005 at 08:14:37PM -0600, Alan Jackson took 49 lines to write:
> 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
> Disk : 2x250 Gb Western SATA

I'd go for Seagate drives. They're the ones we use at work in our
storage blades. I'd go with Maxtor before Western Digital.

> Memory : 2 Gb (4 Kingston 512k DDK 400)

More is better.

> DVD/CD/RW : Sony DRU 700A??
> Video : eVGA GeForce 6200 128 Mb??
> 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?

What about a serial console device attached to the serial port?

> 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...

Niggling chipset issues would be about it. I'd stay away from ATI IXP
and nForce chipsets because they have to be reverse-engineered.

> 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.

On that front, I'd go for DVI output rather than vanilla VGA.

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

Newegg is good for components if you build your own.

Kurt
-- 
Bore, n.:
	A person who talks when you wish him to listen.
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