Anybody bored ?? Wanna teach me/tell me about hardware

[SuperRobotic]

Well I bought my comp from Dell just about 3 years ago, and i feet it is time for me to upgrade.

I hear that some Dells are easy to upgrade and others arent, i dont know if mine is or isnt. I dont even know how to tell. I have only opened up my case once and that was to see if I had a Promise Ultra 66 ide controller, cause the older version Debian, i needed special bootdisks for it to detect my hardrive.

I would like everything to be compatible with linux, if i have to do some tinkering to get it to work, thats ok

I know I definatley want to upgrade my processor, and ram, and soundcard. I hear stories of people having a gig of ram. I would like that. I dont know about if linux is compatible with all types of ram, or if there is certain types it cant detect for some reason. Also is there an advantage to having SDR -ram over DDr- ram ( i think those are the types i may be mistaken, please correct me if i am) ??

Processor. I was thinking of going with a pentium 4 2ghz. Unless somebody should have another suggestion. Also should i go with something that has L1 and L2 cache ?? Also I notice looking at sites some say 512k socket, what is that for ?? Of course I guess it depends on what my motherboard supports?? Which maybe while i am at it, I should just replace my motherboard ? Do motherboards get old and outdated, after a while?? Then there is like different kind of motherboards to, RAID and something else right ??

Now Hardrive. I have a 40 GB Ultra Ata HD (7200rpm). I am guessing after a while a hard drive becomes old, and "useless" i guess?? Anyways my hardrive makes funny sounds on boot ups sometimes i dont think thats a good thing, and i am running out of space. Anyways I was thinking of going with two 60 gig hardrives (maybe even two 80 if my budget would allow it). I want to put Windows on one, and then put Mandrake and Debian on the other, and leave maybe a little room to try out the various other distros. Any Harddrives have problems with linux compatibility?? The two companies I hear about the most are Maxtor and Western Didgital. Are either one of them a good choice?? Any other suggestions??

Now my Soundcard. Well i have a Turtle Beach Montego, which has Aureal Vortex drivers, which arent that well supported. Although I did get help getting it to work, with the help of people here. (http://www.linuxjunior.org/yabbse/in...;threadid=6309) Besides i dont think its that great of soundcard anyways. Any suggestions on a soundcard that the makers have linux support?? And one that is good, it doesnt havent to be top of the line..

Actually my speakers really suck to, they are horrible. SO anybody have any suggestions on a set of decent speakers??

While I am upgrading everything else i mine as well go with an upgrade to my video card. Right now i have an 32mb Nvidia TNT 2 M64 Agp. If i am not mistaken Nvidia seems to have good linux support. SO i was thinking of another Nvidia card, but i dont now what they put out now that is decent.

I was also thinking of getting a DVD RW, to replace my cd rw.

Do ethernet cards get old ?? mIne seems to be working fine, so i cant think of any reason to replace it..

One more thing i want to take out my zip drive since i never use it, does anybody know if they make little plastic pieces i can throw over where the hole is going to be ??

sorry this post is so long, I didnt think it was going to be this long. I probably should do a search...but like i said if you are bored and want to help me out

there is probably also people out there who like to give their input on their favorite hardware all the time

anyways yeah i suck with hardware, suck bad


thanks for any help, info anything

[trickster]

AFAIK Linux supports everything you mentioned in your post. You shouldn't have any problems with memory, processor, etc.
Dell can actually sell you a computer loaded with Red Hat instead of Windows. Doing this would gurantee that the hardware on the PC would be supported by Linux. However,y ou can't order it right out of the wbsite. You have to call them and ask for a PC loaded with Linux.
I have succesfully loaded Linux on multiple Dell computers, without any trouble whatsoever. They are very stable machines. The motherboards are based on Intel motherboards, so you won't find any AMD stuff there. Most of their machines have integrated 3C920 network cards, which have pretty good support on linux. Some have integrated audio, which uses the i810 modules.
My computer at home is a Dimension 8100 and runs Windows XP/Slackware great. Everything on it is supported. It can go up to 2gb of ram (RDRAM, currently using 512mb. I think they changed to DDR on their newer models.) It supports a P4 processor up to 1.8ghz, up to 2.4 ghz with a special non-Dell kit.
My work laptop is a Dell Latitude C840, and again, everything is supported by Linux.
They have excellent support, too.
Now the bad part is that you can probably build a computer with the same specs for about 60% of the price, but you have to provide your own support and pursue warranties with stores and manufacturers.
For hard drives, I'd suggest them in this order : Seagate, Maxtor and Western Digital. Hard drive's life expectancy depends on use and the conditions you submit it to (heat, dust, etc.) You can probably get at least 3-5 year's life expectancy for a hard drive undder regular conditions.
For quality memory, buy from Crucial. RD-RAM is the faster, but most expensive (Crucial does not carry it.) DDR ram is similar to RDRAM but less expensive. SDRAM PC-133, then PC100, then PC66 in that order of speed. Depends on your motherboard what ram you should buy, though.
Altec Lansing speakers have a good price/performance ratio.
Soundblaster Live is well supported on Linux.
Nvidia cards are easy to set up and well supported (though non-GPL drivers.)
Ethernet cards tend to outlive a computer, as far as I know.
If you post in the Flea Market topic, I am sure someone can cheaply mail you some bay covers.

[stryder144]

You might try going over to Carbon Linux, Pogo Linux, and Walmart for different hardware configurations. That way, you see what works with Linux (for the most part). That should make the decisions regarding hardware a lot easier. Just a thought.

Cheers

[Schotty]

Intel, AMD, 3Com, Microsoft, Logitech, and IBM set standards. Go with them.

Pick a CPU, any will do. P4's are slightly snappier than AthlonXP's for floating point and when configured with RDRAM, fastest desktop available. BNut you will pay. If money is irrelavent, go P4 with an assload of RDRAM.

Mobos, well I like alot of them these days. FIC, Soyo, Asus, Tyan, MSI are all good in my book. Gigabyte burned myself and a couple other friends, but overall they arent a rip off.

CD drives, try major brands like Panasonic and such, but cheapos will work and will give you a value for your money. Just wotn last as long. USB and most IDE and ALL SCSI burners work well. USB is assigned a SCSI id in Linux since all cdr units need to be treated as SCSI to work right. IDE 99% work just fine.

Sound boards -- go Creative. Dont fuck around. Sound cards SO rarely die just grab the best you can afford. Jsut like your monitor. Dont fuck with your senses. Your eyes, hands, and ears will be spending alot of time with your new toy, respect them.

Mice. Keyboards. Monitors. Speakers. All of em work fine. Go optical if possible for your mice. You will enjoy them if you havent made the leap yet. Pick what you like here.

VGA. Well. GeForce cards are about the easiest to get working out of ATI and nVIDIA. But since I dont own an ATI, just set a few up for friends, I can attest for current driver quality. nVIDIA has some of the best drivers on the planet, so naturally I am going to speculate on nVIDIA being the champ here. Correct me if I am wrong.

NICs. Well Linksys, DLink, 3Com, Intel, and Netgear are very well supported (out of the good cards that are worth the price). I say get a 3Com if you got the cash, but if you got a server you MUST get a 3Com. Intel is a close #2 for god NIC. Netgear seems to outperform the Linksys and DLinks I have tried. But all in all , pick one of those and you will be happy.

[SuperRobotic]

thanks for the help guys

very informative, it will help me alot

thank you

I can't praise SMP systems enough. Because 2 is better than 1.

I really want a nice dual Athlon setup.

2 x AthlonXP CPU (2400+) all you need is to pencil over one gate on the CPU and you have a cpu that's almost the same as the twice as expensive AthlonMP which is SMP capable.

Get good silent CPU coolers, or you will go completely bonkers, I like the Silent Viking cooler I have, also Zalman makes exellent coolers, that makes very little noise.

Mobo needs to be SMP capable - for dual setups with AMD, Tyan makes good boards:

Then good ram, we want at least 512Megs of DDR (get the highest speed your mobo supports) - Crucial, Corair and Munchin makes good ram. You will regret it if you try to save cash here by buying lesser quality ram.

Get a good case and a beefy PSU (dual cpu systems suck up a lot of juice)
Lian-Li or ThermalTake seems to be popular choices for cases, and Silent Systems, Tyan(for tyan mobos) and makes good stable PSUs - which you will regret if you don't get a good one here - look at how many watts it provides and which amper rating it's able to sustain. For a dual setup 450W or higher is a good choice.

Harddrives... hard one, you will want a Fluid system HD, at least 7200 RPMs, currently Western Digital supplies a good HD series. Throw in that extra few bucks to get a big HD, you will thank yourself later.

Videocard, I really like ATI cards, they support Linux, and currently the ATI Radeon 9500Pro provide the best price vs. Performance on the planet - and it's only a resistor from being the exact same card as it's big brother the mighty 9700Pro card - which is the fastest videocard on the planet - cool, but it's a bit dangerous to solder you gfx card.
But nVidia has a patent on the S3TC technology, so if you want to play Unreal Tournament 2003 under Linux, you'll want a GeForce card, and here the TI-4200 is a good card.

LAN, well stay clear of the Realtek cards, if you need to know why - read the source for the Linux driver.. it's a really bad card (trust me I have the 8139 card - I bitterly regret buying it). 3Com seems good.

Soundcard, I'm fairly happy with both my onboard card and my SB Live! 5.1 card - some people might need a better card here, but it's good enough for gaming.

CDrom drives, I really wouldn't bother if a cdrom drive, get a DVDrom, and a cdburner instead (for burners I like LiteOn, good burner, low price).

[Schotty]

[quote author=Lovechild link=board=3;threadid=6461;start=0#60967 date=1046380116]
I can't praise SMP systems enough. Because 2 is better than 1.

I really want a nice dual Athlon setup.

2 x AthlonXP CPU (2400+) all you need is to pencil over one gate on the CPU and you have a cpu that's almost the same as the twice as expensive AthlonMP which is SMP capable.

[/quote]

No speak your heart -- Dual AMD64 Hammers.

[Kernel_Killer]

all you need is to pencil over one gate on the CPU and you have a cpu that's almost the same as the twice as expensive AthlonMP which is SMP capable.

Don't even think on penciling that thing over! The pencil trick does not work anymore. It hasn't worked since the T-Birds. Grab some conductive silver paste, and then go at it. If you go over a laser lock though, you might as well toss the chip. As for running XP's under SMP, I've never heard of such capability unless this is some type of modification to trick the CPU into thinking it's capable of such a thing. Even then, I'm not sure that's a wise thing to do.

[Tyr_7BE]

Generally if you're going to try to mod your CPUs you should expect to get burned and be thrilled when you don't.

[quote author=Kernel_Killer link=board=3;threadid=6461;start=0#60976 date=1046393597]

all you need is to pencil over one gate on the CPU and you have a cpu that's almost the same as the twice as expensive AthlonMP which is SMP capable.

Don't even think on penciling that thing over! The pencil trick does not work anymore. It hasn't worked since the T-Birds. Grab some conductive silver paste, and then go at it. If you go over a laser lock though, you might as well toss the chip. As for running XP's under SMP, I've never heard of such capability unless this is some type of modification to trick the CPU into thinking it's capable of such a thing. Even then, I'm not sure that's a wise thing to do.
[/quote]

This is the L5 gates, those aren't lasered.. the L1s are, but those are for unlocking the multiplier - which we aren't really interested in right now - we want cheap SMP.

As for the safety of this mod, I've heard of problem with stability from some kernel hackers (Alan Cox for one) - but I haven't seen it on the machine I played with - it's however a bit slower than the real MP CPUs (you get what you pay for). You are at all uncertain, get real MP cpus, messing with your hardware is dangerous and can potentially kill you (I'm not responsible if you do.. you broke whatever and get to keep it.)