[ale] System advice for a newbie

[Greg]

2 months or so ago I priced out the cheapest box you could possibly get
brand new (Newegg came up with a lot of stuff) and the total price including
shipping was around $180. I used bargain bin stuff and still came up with a
processor somewhere around 1.4 GHz, either a quarter or half gig of RAM, a
40 GB HD, a NIC, a low end video card (still pretty fast compared to what I
am using on this box), a case w/ a power supply and a mobo.  Fry's has/had
some stuff that wasn't much more expensive as well & now and then
Microcenter has some good bargains.  I used a Microcenter box for my wife's
dual boot and I have used Monarch for other "bargain bin" boxen.  Take about
an hour of time to put together and you are done.  I haven't really had any
problems with any linux distros (in the past few years) and hardware.  These
days Linux seems to support about everything so I don't think you really
have much to worry about - but if you do have concerns then I second
Monarch.  You might want to call before going up there, as it can be a hike
if you live far away.

Dell has some astounding bargains now and then but I would only buy one if
you practically never would want to modify it in the future and it was a
business management ordered decision.  My last big name box was a Gateway
(233 MHz) and it had to have the mobo replaced, a ROM chip upgrade (had to
call the manufacturer - Gateway was of no use) and was overall a crappy box.
Needless to say, that was my ***last and never more *** big name new boxen
purchase.  I am pretty sure the quality has not improved through the many
years since.  Dell's customer non-support is in India so .....

I suggest you buy a big tower with a good power supply that you can modify
as your needs grow (mine always do).  You can always find help to put it
together (Monarch, ALE meetings, ALE list group, google the internet).
Isn't hard (just make sure the mobo doesn't contact the case in the back !!)
to put a pc together - really.

Good luck,

Greg

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org]On Behalf Of James
> P. Kinney III
> Sent: Friday, October 29, 2004 4:43 PM
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [ale] System advice for a newbie
>
>
> On Fri, 2004-10-29 at 10:05, Tim Watts wrote:
> > Good Morning,
> >
> > I want to get a new system and put Linux on it. I'm basically looking
> > for general advice on purchasing a new system targeted for linux. The
> > goal is general use and fun.
> >
> > Some of the systems I'm looking at have integrated network and video on
> > the mother board (e.g HP Pavilion a700n). I've had problems in the past
> > with finding drivers for proprietary or off the wall adapters. Short of
> > doing a BYOS I'd like to avoid these kind of problems.
> >
> > Any experience on how to avoid these and other problems before buying?
> > Anyone hit a wall with integrated adapters? What's been your experience?
> >
> My $0.02:
>
> Avoid the big names that advertise on tv like the plague. To pay for
> that ad, they have to cut corner elsewhere. HP makes disposable boxes.
> If the floppy disk fails, throw out the box as it self destructs in
> about a month. Ditto for Dell, Gateway and Compaq personal desktop PC's.
> They are all mostly crap. The motherboards are usually not industry
> standard screw spacing so you can't drop in a new Tyan or Soyo when the
> original one dies. They are engineered for an anticipated lifetime of 2
> years.
>
> Visit Tom's Hardware and read the reviews on motherboards. Most of new
> intergrated boards can use a seperate video card, Nic, and sound. Most
> have bios settings to turn them off.
>
> I spec machines for build from places like Monarch Computer. It's is
> very nice to be able to go stand face to face with the seller if there
> is a problem. In the $65k of machines I have built from Monarch over the
> past 2 years or so, I have only had one problem with a bad RAM module
> and they went "Hmm. Bad RAM. That can be a pain. Here's another. Sorry
> 'bout that." At some other local build shops, I have had issues with
> warranties not be honored as a part gets near the end of the warranty.
>
> Monarch also has a great listing of desktop machines they _know_ run
> Linux since they will install it for you (Nah! Do it yourself. All they
> do is an NFS mount netload of Fedora.) Their cheapest Linux desktop is a
> pretty decent lowend machine.
>
> --
> James P. Kinney III          \Changing the mobile computing world/
> CEO & Director of Engineering \          one Linux user         /
> Local Net Solutions,LLC        \           at a time.          /
> 770-493-8244                    \.___________________________./
> http://www.localnetsolutions.com
>
> GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
> <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
> Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7
>