[KLUG Members] New machine - Linux hardware?

[Bruce Smith]

> > * Video cards
> 
> Do you need 3D?  Very nice 2D cards are cheap.  Spend money on RAM.

Matrox, Nvidia, 3DFX.

> > * Network cards (for this old machine to new machine)
> 
> Avoid Linksys.

Yes!!!

> SMC cards are pretty good for the money.
> If you intend to generate loads of traffic shell out for an SMC.

I've had good luck with Tulip chipsets (some are SMC's),
Intel eepro100, and some 3com's.

> > * Ram (amount and type)
> 
> Real memory,  not the PC100/PC133 utter crap.  Failure rate on
> PC100/PC133 is phenominal.  Shell out for memory with at least Parity,
> and at best ECC.  At worst case keep a spare stick for when one freaks
> out,  which it will, if you use PC100/PC133.

ECC is great.

> > * Hard drives (probably two 10-30gig ea.)
> 
> More drives the better.  If you use IDE stick to one drive per bus. SCSI
> is cheap these days and will maintain performance while you saturate the
> processors compiling OpenOffice.
> 
> > * 3 1/2 floppy
> 
> How about an LS-120?

I heard that LS-120's are discontinued and hard to find now.

> > * CD-rom(/burner)
> 
> If you get IDE keep it on it's own bus.  I have Ricoh, they work great.

Also good are Plextor & Yamaha.

> > * Anything else you would like to comment on
> >would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> And how do you intend to back it up?

<user>Backup?</user>   :-)

> Get an SMP motherboard,  you can add another processor later when the
> model you used is CHEAP.

Worked for me.  I'm running a dual P2-450 now.  (recent upgrade to 2nd CPU)

> Budget for a UPS.

Yes.  The APC Powerchute software works great with Linux to shut 
down the computer during a long outage (if you buy an APC UPS).

> >If you have had good or bad experiences with hardware or building a new
> >box, please respond.
> 
> Cheap hardware is cheap.  Do not be deveived by glossy ads, mother
> nature never blinks.
> 
> >I don't mind reading about this stuff if you could point me to some of
> >your favorite sites dealing with hardware or building a machine.
> 
> hitechcafe.com and compgeeks.com always have a supply Fujitsu and IBM
> drivers,  buy no other brands.  Nothing will ruin your day like a flaked
> out drive (except flaked out memory).  I can reliably bake a PC brand
> hard drive in six months, Best Buy started to get real annoyed with me.

I always buy IBM drives.  If you can't find closeouts like compgeeks,
sometimes you can get a deal on an auction like ubid.com or egghead.com.
If you buy new, egghead.com, buy.com or price shop at shopper.cnet.com.

Warning:  Be careful on the auctions.  Know the lowest price of what 
you're bidding on.  Many times I've seen idiots pay more for an item 
on an auction than they could have just bought it new.

--------------------------------------------
Bruce Smith                bruce@armintl.com
System Administrator / Network Administrator
Armstrong International, Inc.
Three Rivers, Michigan  49093  USA
http://www.armstrong-intl.com/
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