Re: [tlug] Building a new box

[Al Hoang <hoanga@??>]

Uva Coder wrote:
> On 2/13/07, burlingk@?? <burlingk@??> wrote:
> > I am preparing to build a new computer, and am wonder what opinions 
> > people
> > have of the different processos types?
>
> I don't recommend building your own machine unless you have a specific
> need (i.e. gaming, running your own COAMPS weather model, etc).
   Maybe he's a DIY-er.  In which case, isn't telling them to buy Foo Brand
a little non-helpful?

> > I know that a decent amount of ram will be a good thing, as well as a 
> > large
> > hard drive.  How well does Linux suport SATA drives, or is SATA vs 
> > ATA even
> > an issue with Linux?
>
> I have not had any support issues with SATA nor with ATA for a few
> years now. My main problem has been disk failures, rather than
> support.
   Ah, 'works for me'.  Just for note, I built a core 2 duo system a
few months ago using the Intel P965-based chipset (MSI MS-7235
motherboard to be exact) and I can tell you it wasn't a cakewalk
getting it setup as the JMicron controller caused a lot of headaches.
If you want to build something with recent hardware, I would suggest
googling for that piece of hardware plus Linux just to be sure you don't
find out it'll be supported in the NEXT kernel revision rather than
the current one.  And just for note, I didn't Google that one time around
and had a bit of fun post-Googling.
   From what I've seen the motherboards that support AMD processors
at this time are a little bit less of a pain to setup as they've been
out longer than the Core 2 Duo chipsets so any driver integration
issues have had more time to be smoothed out.

   As for RAM, in my opinion you can never have enough.  Especially
if you start playing with virtualization.  But I'd suggest looking at the
price charts and any of the hardware building sites (Anandtech,
ArsTechnica, Tom's Hardware, etc) and doing some price checks
for the best bang for your buck.   I bought 2GB when I built my
machine and have been satisfied with it but 4GB would be nice.

Cheers,
Alain