Hardware queery
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From: Godzilla on 20 Mar 2006 21:53 Not long ago, there was a very knowledgeable response to a question about the difference between different brands and models of CPU's. When and if the next final edition of SuSE appears, I would like to take that occasion to upgrade my ageing current hardware, which consists of a 350 Mhz Pentium II with 384 megs of memory. From the previous post, it looks like some model in the AMD Athlon series will be the way to go. That is the easy part. Selecting a good compatible stable mainboard is the avenue of infinite choices. 1. I have ZERO INTEREST in gaming, therefore overclocking is not desired. 2. I would like to be able to play and burn DVD's and multitask in addition to the mundane tasks of word processing, spreadsheets, etc. 3. I do have some interest in multimedia editing Are there any experienced SuSE enthusiasts who would care to share some hardware knowledge? Thanks, Godzilla
From: imotgm on 21 Mar 2006 00:39 On Mon, 20 Mar 2006 20:53:47 -0600, Godzilla wrote: > Not long ago, there was a very knowledgeable response to a question > about the difference between different brands and models of CPU's. > > When and if the next final edition of SuSE appears, I would like to > take that occasion to upgrade my ageing current hardware, which > consists of a 350 Mhz Pentium II with 384 megs of memory. > > From the previous post, it looks like some model in the AMD Athlon > series will be the way to go. That is the easy part. Selecting a good > compatible stable mainboard is the avenue of infinite choices. > > 1. I have ZERO INTEREST in gaming, therefore overclocking is not > desired. > > 2. I would like to be able to play and burn DVD's and multitask in > addition to the mundane tasks of word processing, spreadsheets, etc. > > 3. I do have some interest in multimedia editing > > Are there any experienced SuSE enthusiasts who would care to share > some hardware knowledge? I recently completed a total rebuild, and have similar requirements, so this is how I did it. AMD 64 chips are fast, and allow the installation of either 32bit or 64bit OSs. They most commonly come with either 754 pin sockets or 939 pin sockets. If you think you would, at some time, choose a dual core CPU, go with a 939 pin socket motherboard. In my case, I chose a 754 pin, because the Gigabyte motherboard I wanted, K8NS-Pro, came with sockets for 8 IDE devices, 4 SATA devices, and both IDE and SATA RAID capacity. They did not offer a similar board with a 939 pin socket, and I was more interested in the drive capacity than the dual core, mostly because of price considerations. When the price of the dual cores drops sufficiently, I'll build another. I've used Soyo, Asus, and Gigabyte motherboards, and have had no problems with any of them, but prefer the Gigabytes. Nforce chip-sets are excellent, and well supported, and were my starting point for choosing a motherboard. I chose an AMD 64 3000+ as it was both inexpensive, and more than fast enough for my needs. (I was upgrading from an Athlon 500 with 384MB RAM) I went with an Nvidia GE-force 6600 graphics card, with 256MB on-board memory, two 1GB Micron pc3200 ddr memory cards, and as the power supply socket on the motherboard was different from the old one, an Antec 500 watt Smartpower power supply. DVD burning is through a Pioneer DVR-AO8 DL-DVD-R/W, which was part of the old set up. I finished the machine last June, and have had no problem, with operation, or Linux compatibility. This is certainly not a Gamer's machine, but is a relatively inexpensive, excellent platform for doing multimedia processing, which I do a lot of. I'm currently building an almost identical machine, for a friend, who's used mine, running SUSE 10.0 x86_64. Multimedia processing, especially DVD, takes some major drive space, and I currently have a total of 760GB on board, through four removable drive bays. The latest drive is a 200GB Seagate, that I picked up last month for a whopping $29.99, after rebates, from CompUSA. -- imotgm "Lost? Lost? I've never been lost... Been a tad confused for a month or two, but never lost."
From: David Wright on 21 Mar 2006 04:13
Godzilla wrote: > Not long ago, there was a very knowledgeable response to a question > about the difference between different brands and models of CPU's. > > When and if the next final edition of SuSE appears, I would like to > take that occasion to upgrade my ageing current hardware, which > consists of a 350 Mhz Pentium II with 384 megs of memory. > > From the previous post, it looks like some model in the AMD Athlon > series will be the way to go. That is the easy part. Selecting a good > compatible stable mainboard is the avenue of infinite choices. > > 1. I have ZERO INTEREST in gaming, therefore overclocking is not > desired. > > 2. I would like to be able to play and burn DVD's and multitask in > addition to the mundane tasks of word processing, spreadsheets, etc. > > 3. I do have some interest in multimedia editing > > Are there any experienced SuSE enthusiasts who would care to share > some hardware knowledge? > > Thanks, > > Godzilla What sort of budget do you have? That will determine what sort of system you can go for, although the price of an AMD 64 series processor these days is not that much more than a Semperon... I would go 939 pin, AMD released it 2 years ago to replace the 754 pin, which is mainly used for the base model Semperon 64 and the slower Athlon 64. AMD will be releasing a new AM2 platform, proably in June, which will support DDR2 memory, so 939 will proably survive longer than 754, but both will slowly be phased out. I always use Asus motherboards when I can, they are usually reliable and I've been using an A8V Deluxe for nearly 2 years now with my AMD64 system. My other main system has an Asus board and Athlon 2100+ and is over 4 years old and still running reliably day-in-day-out (tempting fate here :-D). Any decent graphics card will do, the FX6600GT seems to be a good mid-range card these days, but anything in the 6000 or 7000 series should more than cope with your needs. Buy nVidia, currently they provide good accelerated drivers for their cards, whilst ATi currently don't (after 1 year, I'm still waiting for an accelerated drive for my Mobility X700). S-ATA drives offer nice performance, but after your old machine, even an asthmatic drive will seem quick ;-) I have Philips and LG dual layer burners, both work fine. Dave -- "I got to go figure," the tenant said. "We all got to figure. There's some way to stop this. It's not like lightning or earthquakes. We've got a bad thing made by men, and by God that's something we can change." - The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck |