[tlug] hardware

[Peter Evans <peter@example.com>]

Righty-ho, I'm all ready to go to Akihabara and buy a motherboard, CPU,
memory card, hard drive, video card and other odds and sods to put them
in a computer on which I shall attempt to install Linux. 

(No I'm not going to buy a ready-made computer. Yes, that would cost
less; but I would have to pay for it, whereas my employer will reimburse
me for components, within reason.)

Any names to look out for when selecting components for Joe Schmoe's
little workstation? (My requirements are humble.) I'm intending to use
SuSE, but nevertheless am alarmed to read an apparently able and
knowledgable person writing (on
http://www.linuxworld.com/site-stories/2003/0516.petreley_p.html ) about
hardware issues in installing Gentoo:

> I encountered a number of problems that were the fault of my 
> hardware and motherboard BIOS. . . . I had enough problems with 
> the Biostar motherboard that I finally swapped it out for an 
> older but more workable Asus. . . .  I had a problem with the 
> custom Nvidia kernel module for XFree86, as it would frequently 
> hang. I have the same problem with Debian, so the issue is
> probably related to the card itself or to the kernel module. 
> The nasty thing about the custom Nvidia driver is that it 
> replaces all your OpenGL libraries with custom Nvidia versions

I just don't have time for this kind of pissing around.

I can easily imagine that I don't need to bug anybody here, and that I'd
be better off talking to somebody in a shop. OK, which shop (and perhaps
also which person in that shop)? Or of course, an URL or three would be
welcome.

-- 
Peter Evans <peter@example.com>