[svlug] New Computer

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Alvin Oga (alvin at planet.fef.com):

> whilst most of ricks comments and concerns are valid..
> you still put a lot of time into posting and replying...
> ( good )...

Perspective is everything:  From mine, _all_ my comments and concerns
are valid.  ;->
 
> anyway, fry's ( good-or-bad ) is sellina:

Ever bought a "new" hard drive from Fry's, and then found out that
it's already formatted?  I did -- and took it back for a refund, 
and never repeated the error.

Fry's also partakes heavily of the OEM scam:  Parts have no factory
warranty in way too many cases.

> CTX K6-2-300mz system for $600

Chipset unstated.  Ugh.

> 	- 32Mb sdram - donno brand name

Or whether it's PC-100 certified, or can do CAS2 at 100 MHz.

> 	- 3.2Mb UDMA - donno brand name, etc

(Gb, I assume.)  Not promising.  Also, the best price per meg for
ATA hard drives recently seems to be for 4.3 Gb drives.  Why skimp?

> 	- 3D stereo sound - donno brand

Or chipset, for that matter.  Then Linux support is problematic.

> 	- 32x cdrom - donno brand

There's a lot of crap sold with that lame description.

> 	- Win98 - yeah throw it out afterward

I'd object to having to pay for it.	
	-
> 	- donno why SVGA controller is not listed...

Because Fry's ads, like Fry's merchandise, are not designed for
consumers who can tell the difference.

> they have these by the boxloads of um... and 17" monitors for $180 or so..

Generic monitors, unstated pointing devices and keyboards.  Quick:
Which parts of the computer do you deal directly with, and make the
biggest difference to user comfort and a pleasant experience?  Answer:
the monitor, pointing device, and keyboard.

> ( a good thanksgiving present/toy to oneself I suppose )

For very small values of "good".

> and will it work for linux... ??? who knows...

Whereas constructing a system from known-good parts -- to form a
well-balanced system with no notable bottlenecks (_and_ with good,
factory warranties)-- poses no such uncertainties.

Which was my point.

-- 
Cheers,                   (The cynics among us might say:   "We laugh, 
Rick Moen                 monkeyboys -- Linux IS the mainstream UNIX now!
rick (at) hugin.imat.com  MuaHaHaHa!" but that would be rude. -- Jim Dennis

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