Re: [tlug] Who do you recommend for Business Desktop?

[Godwin Stewart <gstewart@example.com>]

On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 02:57:16 -0800, Jonathan Byrne <jq@example.com>
wrote:

> WRT performance you will:
> 
> 1) Find no significant variation between any of those, between a white box
> machine from a local shop, or from a white box business workstation you
> build yourself;

If you research the components you're going to want working together and pay
attention to detail, you can probably get better performance out of
something you build yourself - although, as Jonathan points out, the
difference won't be something to write home about.

> 2) Have more than you could possibly need.

True. A Celery-433 running KDE on Slackware 9.0 is what I use here, and what
I've been using for quite a while. Okay, it's a bit slow at times, like when
compiling Mozilla, and I wouldn't mind if it got through those Folding@example.com
work units a little faster (team 'tlug' has slipped down to 219th position
BTW), but on the whole I find it perfectly adequate. The only potential
reason for me to upgrade would be because I won't be able to find a
replacement CPU if that goes, nor will I be able to find RAM which works on
a 66MHz bus (PC133 sticks usually only show up as half their capacity) and
finding a graphics adapter which will sit in an AGP 2x slot isn't easy
either.

> A PIII-1000 is more than adequate to power a business workstation, yet the
> Dell they issued me at work has a PIV-2400 in it.  Absolute overkill.

I'll swap it for my Celery-433 if you're interested :o)

> As someone else mentioned, building your own is an option if you have the
> time.  You aren't likely to save money this way and might even spend more,
> but as noted, you'll have complete creative control over what goes into
> every machine and they will have maximum upgradeability down the line.

Yes, the initial outlay might be more expensive but you'll save wads of cash
further down the line in maintenance. You won't have to pay through the nose
for a new $brand-specific floppy drive with the plastic molding in the right
place, or for that wierdo PSU which is the only one to fit in a $brand case.

Maintenance is one of those insignificant details that too many people tend
to overlook.

> Finally, if these will be Linux boxes, one last option is to build
> diskless workstations and netboot them.  All you need then is a
> motherboard, cheap video card, and network card that you can put a boot
> ROM into for the netboot.  You might be able to get an all-in-one
> motherboard that covers all of those bases.

Yabbut, many of the "all-in-one" mobos use chipsets which aren't directly
supported by the Linux kernel. Furthermore, suppose the graphics chip goes
south... You have to change the whole mobo because you can be pretty certain
that there's no option to deactivate the on-board stuff and plug an AGP card
in.

-- 
G. Stewart   --   gstewart@example.com -- gstewart@example.com
Registered Linux user #284683 (Slackware 9.0, Linux 2.4.25)
--------------------------------------------------------------
You can't block a port with software that runs on the same machine where the
attacks are aimed. That's like trying to stop bullets by shoving Kevlar up
your backside. By the time the bullet hits the Kevlar, the damage has been
done.
        -- Morely 'Spam is theft' Dotes in NANAE, 13-AUG-2003

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