[svlug] New Computer

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Scott Jaderholm (daoem at geocities.com):

> My brother is interested in purchasing a new computer and he has asked me
> to scout out and find him the best deal : )

Build him one.
http://electriclichen.com/people/dmarti/low_road.shtml 

To update that piece:
o  Get an AMD K6-2/300.  That's the sweet-spot price, today.
o  FIC PA-2012.  Uses VIA VP3 motherboard chipset.  The PA-2007 has
   been discontinued.
o  Your 64MB of SDRAM (physical configuration: DIMM) should be rated
   for CAS2 operation (two CPU cycles needed for Column Access Strobe, 
   instead of three) at 100 MHz local bus (aka "front-side bus") 
   operation.  If the vendor doesn't understand this term, as is usually 
   the case, you have the wrong vendor.  Clueful RAM vendors include SA 
   Micro of San Jose, CA, which does do mail order.  Corsair Memory, Inc.
   and Mosel Vitelic are among the firms making compliant RAM.
o  I would now DISrecommend the NetGear FA310TX, unless the chip visibly
   says "Digital" (for Digital Equipment Corporation) on it.  The 
   imitation chipset Bay Networks/NetGear now uses is inferior, and works
   on Linux at all only because of appallingly relaxed timeouts in the
   revised driver.  In the unlikely event that your brother needs ethernet,
   I recommend an Intel Pro/100+ (Intel 82558 chipset).
o  Use at least a mid-sized tower, not a mini-tower.
   http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/#minitower
o  External modem. 
   http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/#internalmodem
o  Creative Labs SoundBlaster AWE64 Basic.  Not a "compatible".  See
   the AWE64 HOWTO at the Linux Documentation Project.

I'm not putting a lot of time into this post.  Why?  Because most people
who get free hardware advice from me value it at cost:  They sop up hours
of my time trying to explain hardware to them, and then they buy whatever
crap the local dealer tells them to.
 
Please note that the above recommendations envision your buying component
parts, e.g., via mail-order, and banging them together to construct your
brother's computer.  Otherwise, in my opinion, you are highly unlikely 
to get a well-balanced, satisfactory system.
 
> I was thinking that he should get nothing less than 333mhz. 

As usual, it's a question of what increment of overall performance you 
get by putting a dollar in one component of a system rather than another.
A 333 MHz CPU will not yield an 11% improvement over a 300 MHz CPU unless
it's the system's sole and overwhelming performance bottleneck (which 
won't be the case).  You might get a faster-performing system overall
by buying 300 MHz and applying the price savings to more RAM, or a better
video card, etc.

> Do you guys think that I could set him up with a system for $900?

Of course.

> SCSI hard drive is probably out of the question huh?  

You determine that.  Price it, using a Symbios (formerly NCR) host
adapter and a good SCSI drive, such as an IBM.  Compare.  Decide
whether the extra expense is allowable.  Multithreading, mulitasking,
and multiuser functionality benefits substantially.

> Would i be better off buying the parts and then building it or can i get a
> better deal from some company that sells already made ones?  

I have found that the "good deals" in pre-assembled systems are simply
not adequate, in my opinion.  I no longer tolerate the crud parts that
tend to cripple such systems.  E.g., I no longer accept crap power 
supplies common in such machines that tend, sooner or later, to blow up 
and destroy hard drives.

> How much cache do these AMD chips w/ 300+ mhz have?  

Geez, guy!  http://www.amd.com/

One last thing:  http://www.tweakit.com/
                 http://www.tomshardware.com/

If you yourself are not well-read on hardware, and not able to be
critical of what you read/hear, then you'll have no way to distinguish
good advice from bad.  And God knows, there's huge amounts of really,
really bad advice out there.

As you'll read at the above sites, K6 chips as a class have good
performance in all areas except that they're weak in FPU (math) 
performance relative to (much more expensive) Intel alternatives
at the same clock speed.  A truly gonzo gamer would want a Celeron
or Xeon-based system to do Quake 3D, on account of the FPU.  He
would also want a 3Dfx-based video card, rather than S3 Virge DX.
He would _not_, however, be able to achieve this for $900.

-- 
Cheers,                Linux:  It is now safe to turn on your computer.
Rick Moen
rick (at) hugin.imat.com

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