[KLUG Members] Building a PC - recommendations

[Bryan J. Smith]

Richard Vincent wrote:
> I shamefully have to confess that I have never installed Linux desktop (X
> windows), or setup any of the multimedia features on one of the Digilink
> Barebone systems. Sorry.

You can get Creative Labs Ensoniq AudioPCI (ES1371) cards for <$15. 
You can also get the PCI128 (ES1373) cards for around the same
price.  If you want to splurge, the 4-speaker output versions of the
PCI128 are <$25 (4-speaker in Windows, I haven't tried hacking to
get 4-speak in Linux, although OpenAL exists to give you 3-D
gaming/sound).  In any case, the $10-25 is well worth it in quality
and compatibility.

This "PC recommendation" thing comes up quite a bit on this list.  I
haven't had the chance to update my site, but I did post a
"extensive list" at the end of April.  You can find it here
(original sent to KLUG, cc:ELUG-HARDWARE):
   http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/04/0055.html

Some things have been changed/updated since.  If you have time,
check out the various posts in ELUG-HARDWARE over May - July:
   http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/05/
   http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/06/
   http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/07/

I will try to summarize the "latest" here:

MAINBOARD/CPU:

- P4 is still costly along with the RDRAM is uses.  The forthcoming
i845 SDRAM P4 chipset is "crippled" (see ELUG-HARDWARE).

- For P3, nVidia has a new "nForce" mainboard chipset with on-board
GeForce2 MX video and an excellent memory controller design.

- For Athlon, the ViA KT133A mainboards are quite proven, and the
PC133 memory and 266MHz.  See
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/06/0031.html .  The
new ViA Pro266 (P3) and KT266 (Athlon) mainboards are also appearing
with both [SDR] SDRAM and DDR SDRAM slots.

- AMD's 760 DDR SDRAM chipset for Athlon is nice and DDR SDRAM is
not too expensive (more than [SDR] SDRAM, less than RDRAM).  See
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/07/0016.html

- If you use PC133 (SDR) or PC2100 (DDR) memory, always pair it with
a 266MHz FSB Athlon so the CPU/memory signaling is synchronous.

ENCLOSURE/PS/COOLING:

- I still swear by the Antec (http://www.antec-in.com) SX800/1000
series.  Well worth the costs ($70-130, depending on if you get a
300W or a 400W).

- Antec has also introduced a new 350W P.S. that is ~$50 and offers
180W on 3.3+5V (which means it can tame any CPU).  I recommend that
PS, even if you don't grab one of their cases.  Your PS will run
more efficiently which means cooler and your voltages will not drop
as the CPU current draw doesn't taxi the PS.

VIDEO:

- nVidia -- nVidia GeForce2 MX200 cards start at under $70 nowdays. 
No reason to go with the older TNT2s IMHO.

- The Gainward CARDExpert GeForce2 TwinView/VIVO Golden Sample
w/3.5ns SDRAM offers a $150 nVidia GeForce2 MX400 card with the
16-bit color performance of a more costly GTS DDR, and has
video-in/video-out features and dual-VGA monitor support.  See: 
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/06/0030.html

- I'm waiting on the GeForce3 MX for dual-head (the normal GeForce3s
don't).  It's up to you if you want to spend $300-400 for a GeForce3
now.

AUDIO:

- Again, minimum hassle:  Creative Labs ES1371/1373 chipsets = SB
AudioPCI, SB PCI16, SB PCI64, SB PCI128

HARD DISK:

- Anything but Western Digital because of ATA-DMA issues.  Beware of
the new, cheap "ValueLine" 25GB for <$80 as they are WDs as well.

- Mainboard "ATA RAID" is really software RAID with a "trick BIOS
and driver" (and drivers for Linux are usually not available or of
poor quality).  For more info, see
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/07/0014.html

CD-REWRITABLE:

- I used to be a SCSI bigot.  For Windows, especially Windows 9x,
I'm probably still a bigot.  But for Linux, even my TDK VeloCD 24x
CD-R ATAPI with a measly 2MB buffer (not even a 2/3rds of a second
buffer) has 0 issues when burning at the full 24x under Linux (as
long as you put it on its own IDE channel).  See
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/07/0020.html

- CD-Rs above 12x don't burn at their rated speed all the time.  At
12x the inner track is spinning at 9000rpms.  There is a "step-up"
to their full rated speed as the head moves out (to avoid spinning
above 9000rpms on the inner tracks).  As such, 24x is not much
faster than 20x which is not much faster than 16x.

SCANNERS:

- SCSI still toasts USB, usually by a factor of 2-8x, depending on
the bit depth (24-36) and resolution (300-1200dpi).  USB 2.0 will
overload your CPU -- long story.

- I blame Intel for not letting IEEE 1394 FireWire (which is vastly
superior to USB, especially in CPU utilization as it was designed
for high speed transfers, whereas USB was designed for
keyboards/modems) catch on because they have promised to put it on
their chipsets for the last 3 years and have not done so.  Word is
that AMD and ViA will be in their next gen chipsets, and many
mainboards are coming with it on-board anyway, so FireWire will be
an increasing choice (FireWire2 cards are almost out as well --
either way, even FireWire[1] toasts USB 2.0).

DISTRO:

- RedHat 7.1 w/SGI XFS 1.0.1 -- but that's just me.

-- TheBS

-- 
Bryan "TheBS" Smith  mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org  chat:thebs413
Absolute Value Systems, Inc.        http://www.linux-wlan.org
SmithConcepts, Inc.              http://www.SmithConcepts.com