Recomendations for a "Dad" system.
My father asked me if I thought Linux was ready for the typical home user. I had to hesitate because I know the problems I have run into with my systems. He currently does a ppp dial-up to get to the net. (I shudder to think about it.) He has a very old HP which his wife probably thinks is 'just fine.' If I recommend that he might want to try linux I will surly suggest he have two hard drives and dual boot for now. I think he should buy the system in parts and build it himself. 40 years as an engineer - I think he can handle it. I would want him to buy hardware that SuSE will play nicely with. I think he'll need a new printer because his HP is inter-mangled with the HP box he currently has. I've not been shopping for hardware for the past several months, so I really don't know what's out there. Here's what I think he will need or want. 19'' or 21'' monitor Decent sound-card DVD - do these come with burnable capabilities at reasonable prices? R/W CD-ROM if DVD R/W is too expensive Decent video Quality mother-board (what are the bus clocks at? And cache?, etc.) Printer that plays nicely with Linux. (I hate what happened with my HP 970Cse. Epson may be an easy sell for him.) Modem (people still use those?) What kind of RAM is hot these days? (I guess that is interdependent with the mother-board) My MS-trackball with wheel suites me well. Any special mouse or keyboard recommendation? Perhaps a NIC or three. (One for the new system, one for the old system, and one for a future ADSL connection.) I can give him a hub. Are there any pre-installed SuSE boxes available in the US? Just in case. Any observations about the CPU? (What are the outer busses of the P-4s clocked at? This historically mattered more than the advertised frequency.) It is very important that this stuff is really plug-n-play. I don't want to get him into tweaking the XF86Config, and etc. Oh, he also has a pre-teen daughter who is quite smart. TIA, Steve
Wow, I would go with a P3, Duron or ThunderBird. 256MB RAM as RAM is not too expensive (well is to me, but at $50 for 128 not too bad). Duron's and Thunderbird's have DDR (double data rate) memory. ViewSonic PS790 are nice, you are going to get a lot of recomendations here. Try to get one with 0.25 dpi or less as it will be more pleasing to the eye. Sb Live! This is now the de-facto standard. DVDR-Not sure... R/W CD-Drive. The IDE ones are OK, but you may have to set it up with ide-scsi, not sure if SuSE 7.1 will do that for him. If thats too much, you can get a cheap SCSI card and get a SCSI CDRW. Nvidia Geforce 2 MX or greater. 16MB should suffice I would imagine, unless he wants 32MB. Motherboard will be dependant upon the Processor type. Duron/Thunderbird m/boards tended to be more expensive, but you save a lot on the CPU price. Asus tend to make very good medium to high end boards. Low end boards are not good, but they tend to come with sound and video which you do not want anyway. Tekram are not too bad either, I am sure everyone here as their favourite. Bus speed of 100MHz on a Thunderbird board gives a speed of around 200MHz as information goes both ways (DDR). Everyone seems to say Epson, not sure on the model :-(. Get an external Modem, way easier to setup. I have used the Creative Labs Modem Blaster external with no problems (do not get the USB one, too slow). It was priced at around $55. Dependant on motherboard, most likely to be Pc133...Get as much as you can afford (and make me jealous hehe). thinkgeek.com has Linux keyboards as does penguincomputing.com (under accessories). That would be a nice touch (all they really did was replace the windows keys with penguins). Do not get the FA311 from Netgear as its so new and I am not sure on quality. One broke on me a day ago after 3 months of near continious operation, it was the external device facing the Internet. Now replaced with an Edimax, whcih uses the rtl8139 chipset. How much are you willing to spend? Did you notice switches are the same price as hubs nowadays? Just got an 8 port swicth for $62.01 inclucsive of tax and delivery. P4's are too new and lots seem to think they are slow. Add in there expense...Intel IMHO is not doing too well... Not sure if anyone pre-install's SuSE, but get it with 7.1... Well, just my 2 cents or so, Matt On Fri, 16 Feb 2001, Steven T. Hatton wrote:
My father asked me if I thought Linux was ready for the typical home user. I had to hesitate because I know the problems I have run into with my systems. He currently does a ppp dial-up to get to the net. (I shudder to think about it.) He has a very old HP which his wife probably thinks is 'just fine.' If I recommend that he might want to try linux I will surly suggest he have two hard drives and dual boot for now.
I think he should buy the system in parts and build it himself. 40 years as an engineer - I think he can handle it. I would want him to buy hardware that SuSE will play nicely with. I think he'll need a new printer because his HP is inter-mangled with the HP box he currently has. I've not been shopping for hardware for the past several months, so I really don't know what's out there. Here's what I think he will need or want.
19'' or 21'' monitor
Decent sound-card
DVD - do these come with burnable capabilities at reasonable prices?
R/W CD-ROM if DVD R/W is too expensive
Decent video
Quality mother-board (what are the bus clocks at? And cache?, etc.)
Printer that plays nicely with Linux. (I hate what happened with my HP 970Cse. Epson may be an easy sell for him.)
Modem (people still use those?)
What kind of RAM is hot these days? (I guess that is interdependent with the mother-board)
My MS-trackball with wheel suites me well. Any special mouse or keyboard recommendation?
Perhaps a NIC or three. (One for the new system, one for the old system, and one for a future ADSL connection.) I can give him a hub.
Are there any pre-installed SuSE boxes available in the US? Just in case.
Any observations about the CPU? (What are the outer busses of the P-4s clocked at? This historically mattered more than the advertised frequency.)
It is very important that this stuff is really plug-n-play. I don't want to get him into tweaking the XF86Config, and etc.
Oh, he also has a pre-teen daughter who is quite smart.
TIA,
Steve
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At 05:09 PM 2/16/2001 -0500, you wrote:
My father asked me if I thought Linux was ready for the typical home user. I had to hesitate because I know the problems I have run into with my systems. He currently does a ppp dial-up to get to the net. (I shudder to think about it.)
kppp and wndail are quite easy to set up
He has a very old HP which his wife probably thinks is 'just fine.'
Ouch...
If I recommend that he might want to try linux I will surly suggest he have two hard drives and dual boot for now.
Certainly
I think he should buy the system in parts and build it himself.
The best way....
40 years as an engineer - I think he can handle it. I would want him to buy hardware that SuSE will play nicely with.
Then I would strongly recomend that he buy only hardware that's listed on www.suse.com (under that hardware section) as being supported...
I think he'll need a new printer because his HP is inter-mangled with the HP box he currently has.
??? not sure what you're saying - HP printers work the best with Linux atm...
I've not been shopping for hardware for the past several months, so I really don't know what's out there. Here's what I think he will need or want.
19'' or 21'' monitor
Good, ~$250...
Decent sound-card
Creative or ensoniqe, Soundblaster Live!'s rock of course....
DVD - do these come with burnable capabilities at reasonable prices?
no: 1. there's 2 kinds ov DVD DVD-ROM (what you watch movies on) and DVD-RAM (kinda liek RW-CDs) DVD-RAM can only be used for data storage, and are ~$700 There are only 3 DVD-ROM burners made today: 2 of thme are ~$6,000, iirc, and the other only comes with Apple's top-of-the-lin-mac.....just drop the DVD burning for now. For a reader, get the Creative Labs DVD/CD drive with hardware decoding (~$200)....
R/W CD-ROM if DVD R/W is too expensive
RW CD is a very good deal...
Decent video
3dfx Voodoo 3000 if you can find it...if not get a middle- of the line (~$100) nVidia, Matrox or ATI...
Quality mother-board (what are the bus clocks at? And cache?, etc.)
Printer that plays nicely with Linux. (I hate what happened with my HP 970Cse. Epson may be an easy sell for him.)
HPs work quite well, Epsons second best. use CUPS, not LPD, and check the CUPS web site for what printers are supported...
Modem (people still use those?)
Hey yes...get an external one, not a card. Creative LAbs Modem blaster and Zoom modems do well... I've alos used a Diamond SupraExpress external...anything that takes standard hayes commands...
What kind of RAM is hot these days? (I guess that is interdependent with the mother-board)
Yup. I strongly vote for Athlon/MSI K7Pro or higher/PC-100 or PC-133, get at leat 128 if you can afford it, if not 256...
My MS-trackball with wheel suites me well. Any special mouse or keyboard recommendation?
Logitec...certainly not an M$ one!
Perhaps a NIC or three. (One for the new system, one for the old system, and one for a future ADSL connection.) I can give him a hub.
Linksys and 3com rocks.....
Are there any pre-installed SuSE boxes available in the US? Just in case.
Doubt it...
Any observations about the CPU? (What are the outer busses of the P-4s clocked at? This historically mattered more than the advertised frequency.)
P-4s are trash. A P-III at the same Mhz generally runs better and faster...Intel really blew it... Get and Athlon, 800's are about $100 and 550's are like $70...
It is very important that this stuff is really plug-n-play. I don't want to get him into tweaking the XF86Config, and etc.
Then you'd /better/ pay close attention to the SuSE supported hardware list.....
Oh, he also has a pre-teen daughter who is quite smart.
SuSE likes ladies too, I'm quite sure....and hey, it's even multi-user <g>
TIA,
Steve
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---------------------------------------------------- Jonathan Wilson System Administrator Cedar Creek Software http://www.cedarcreeksoftware.com Central Texas IT http://www.centraltexasit.com
On Friday 16 February 2001 17:42, Jonathan Wilson wrote:
At 05:09 PM 2/16/2001 -0500, you wrote:
I think he'll need a new printer because his HP is inter-mangled with the HP box he currently has.
??? not sure what you're saying - HP printers work the best with Linux atm...
Printer that plays nicely with Linux. (I hate what happened with my HP 970Cse. Epson may be an easy sell for him.)
HPs work quite well, Epsons second best. use CUPS, not LPD, and check the CUPS web site for what printers are supported...
Holy Sh!t, I could walk to where CUPS is! http://www.cups.org/support.html They're about a mile from here. The real downside to the HP DJ 970Cse is that it has a duplex capability that I cannot use easily (if at all) with my Linux box. I have a great little bash script that can section a document into 40 page sections on10 sheets in book section order. If I could use the duplex feature, I could simply hit print and out would pop a book. All I'd need to do is separate the sections, fold them and run them through my industrial strength stapler/torture tool. http://www.officedepot.com/shop/catalog/sku.asp?ID=495515&LEVEL=SK&SID=1TL17C3MQFBA9NWU80X0M34FELWE7421&PP=14 I actually think very highly of HP's recent products. I was extremely pleased with the Kayak I had at my last job. My printer is quite nice. It just doesn't have anywhere near the same level of support on Linux as on NT. This is a fact!
Are there any pre-installed SuSE boxes available in the US? Just in case.
Doubt it...
Hmmmm..... I wonder????? I'd have to support them though, and that's a bite. Steve
On Sat, 17 Feb 2001, you wrote:
On Friday 16 February 2001 17:42, Jonathan Wilson wrote:
Holy Sh!t, I could walk to where CUPS is! http://www.cups.org/support.html They're about a mile from here. The real downside to the HP DJ 970Cse is
I wouldn't walk to fast to start using Cups. Unless you have a printer that fits into their category of full working printers. I have been using a Canon with the bj600 driver for years with different Linux distributions with no problems. With Mandrake and their cups printer interface I could print text alright but graphics would give me forty pages of text mumble jumble. After working with all kinds of adjustment it did print out graphics finally but produced the most washed out print out that I ever saw. The Cups interface is a good idea as it adds the usual options you find in Win for paper and printout. The problem is that it has to grow some with the interface and printers they support. John
Yes, I would add words of caution to using CUPS as well. I fought with that piece of crap for 4 hours last weekend and it had so much trouble printing from Mutt or any other textbased application that I almost pulled my hair out. It printed OK in X, but still destroyed margins and other such things. I have an HP600C which prints perfectly using lprng and so that is what I went back to. I have found the console apps and X apps print much better with this option. CUPS is a good idea, but until it's matured a bit. I would stay away from it. * John Murphy (jfmurphy@charter.net) [010217 12:40]: => =>I wouldn't walk to fast to start using Cups. Unless you have a printer that =>fits into their category of full working printers. I have been using a Canon =>with the bj600 driver for years with different Linux distributions with no =>problems. With Mandrake and their cups printer interface I could print text =>alright but graphics would give me forty pages of text mumble jumble. After =>working with all kinds of adjustment it did print out graphics finally but =>produced the most washed out print out that I ever saw. The Cups interface =>is a good idea as it adds the usual options you find in Win for paper and =>printout. The problem is that it has to grow some with the interface and =>printers they support. => -- Ben Rosenberg mailto:ben@whack.org ----- SuSE Linux 7.1 : Mutt 1.3.12i : KDE 2.1 Beta2 : Peace of Mind ----- If two men agree on everything, you can be sure that only one of them is doing the thinking.
On Saturday 17 February 2001 15:58, you wrote:
Yes, I would add words of caution to using CUPS as well. I fought with that piece of crap for 4 hours last weekend and it had so much trouble printing from Mutt or any other textbased application that I almost pulled my hair out. It printed OK in X, but still destroyed margins and other such things. I have an HP600C which prints perfectly using lprng and so that is what I went back to. I have found the console apps and X apps print much better with this option. CUPS is a good idea, but until it's matured a bit. I would stay away from it.
Is CUPS in the Suse 7.1 distribution? If it is I hope it's not the default in the printer setup. If this is the case Suse will be creating a lot of unhappy users with print problems. John -- Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have.
On Sat, Feb 17, 2001 at 08:13:50PM -0500, John Murphy wrote:
On Saturday 17 February 2001 15:58, you wrote:
Yes, I would add words of caution to using CUPS as well. I fought with that piece of crap for 4 hours last weekend and it had so much trouble printing from Mutt or any other textbased application that I almost pulled my hair out. It printed OK in X, but still destroyed margins and other such things. I have an HP600C which prints perfectly using lprng and so that is what I went back to. I have found the console apps and X apps print much better with this option. CUPS is a good idea, but until it's matured a bit. I would stay away from it.
Is CUPS in the Suse 7.1 distribution? If it is I hope it's not the default in the printer setup. If this is the case Suse will be creating a lot of unhappy users with print problems.
John -- Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have.
It's included, but not the default :) I was just dumb enough to deselect the lprold ( which IS the default, not lprng which works so much better :) I myself have a DJ840C and it's said that this printer ( along with two or three others ) are NOT supported in CUPS, except int the commercial version ( ESP PrintPRO ), but gaddem if I'm gonna pay $50 to be able to print in color ? Hell no, I'll buy myself an Epson for that money :-) -tosi -- ______ /---------------------------------------\ \ | Þór Sigurðsson | Tor Sigurdsson | t | | Netmaður | Network Specialist | o | |-----------------------------------------| s | | tosi@rhi.hi.is | i | \---------------------------------------/_____/
On Sat, Feb 17, 2001 at 08:13:50PM -0500, John Murphy wrote:
Is CUPS in the Suse 7.1 distribution? If it is I hope it's not the default in the printer setup. If this is the case Suse will be creating a lot of unhappy users with print problems.
John
Actually, at least as of 6.4, SuSE still used the old Berkeley LPD. Victor
Almost forgot: If you get a Duron or Thunderbird they get kind of hot, you may want to get him an Orb for a heat sink...Most are supplying K7 heat sinks which are not good enough (my wife's machine is HOT). Matt On Fri, 16 Feb 2001, Steven T. Hatton wrote:
My father asked me if I thought Linux was ready for the typical home user. I had to hesitate because I know the problems I have run into with my systems. He currently does a ppp dial-up to get to the net. (I shudder to think about it.) He has a very old HP which his wife probably thinks is 'just fine.' If I recommend that he might want to try linux I will surly suggest he have two hard drives and dual boot for now.
I think he should buy the system in parts and build it himself. 40 years as an engineer - I think he can handle it. I would want him to buy hardware that SuSE will play nicely with. I think he'll need a new printer because his HP is inter-mangled with the HP box he currently has. I've not been shopping for hardware for the past several months, so I really don't know what's out there. Here's what I think he will need or want.
19'' or 21'' monitor
Decent sound-card
DVD - do these come with burnable capabilities at reasonable prices?
R/W CD-ROM if DVD R/W is too expensive
Decent video
Quality mother-board (what are the bus clocks at? And cache?, etc.)
Printer that plays nicely with Linux. (I hate what happened with my HP 970Cse. Epson may be an easy sell for him.)
Modem (people still use those?)
What kind of RAM is hot these days? (I guess that is interdependent with the mother-board)
My MS-trackball with wheel suites me well. Any special mouse or keyboard recommendation?
Perhaps a NIC or three. (One for the new system, one for the old system, and one for a future ADSL connection.) I can give him a hub.
Are there any pre-installed SuSE boxes available in the US? Just in case.
Any observations about the CPU? (What are the outer busses of the P-4s clocked at? This historically mattered more than the advertised frequency.)
It is very important that this stuff is really plug-n-play. I don't want to get him into tweaking the XF86Config, and etc.
Oh, he also has a pre-teen daughter who is quite smart.
TIA,
Steve
-- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/support/faq
Ahhh, converting the parents...I hope you like giving tech support :-P Check out the Linux Hardware Database, too: http://lhd.datapower.com/
My father asked me if I thought Linux was ready for the typical home user. I had to hesitate because I know the problems I have run into with my systems. He currently does a ppp dial-up to get to the net. (I shudder to think about it.) He has a very old HP which his wife probably thinks is 'just fine.' If I recommend that he might want to try linux I will surly suggest he have two hard drives and dual boot for now.
I think he should buy the system in parts and build it himself. 40 years as an engineer - I think he can handle it. I would want him to buy hardware that SuSE will play nicely with. I think he'll need a new printer because his HP is inter-mangled with the HP box he currently has. I've not been shopping for hardware for the past several months, so I really don't know what's out there. Here's what I think he will need or want.
19'' or 21'' monitor
Just about anything as long as it looks good to him and you can get the specs for it (horizontal and vertical refresh, etc). Monitors that have been around for a while have better chance of being in the monitor database which can make setting them up much, much easier. One thing about apeture grill monitors that no one seems to mention: they have "damper wires" that create little shadows on the screen...some people don't mind, but they annoy the hell out of me.
Decent sound-card
The SBLive is very nice...and not too horribly expensive anymore. It has open-source drivers which are in the kernel.
DVD - do these come with burnable capabilities at reasonable prices?
Ha ha, heh, no. The ones on the new PowerMacs are the first I've even heard of...DVD on Linux is still in its infancy.
R/W CD-ROM if DVD R/W is too expensive
CD-RWs work fine for the most part. The IDE ones use the SCSI-emulation, so that has to be in the kernel. I just bought the Plextor 12/10/32s SCSI version for $279. The IDE one should be much cheaper.
Decent video
Matrox G400. Excellent 3D support in Linux, and a great all-around card.
Quality mother-board (what are the bus clocks at? And cache?, etc.)
Go to Tom's Hardware for this one: http://www.tomshardware.com Tom even uses the compilation of the Linux kernel as a benchmark...this is what killed the Pentium 3 1.13GHz! I like the quality of Asus boards, myself.
Printer that plays nicely with Linux. (I hate what happened with my HP 970Cse. Epson may be an easy sell for him.)
Personally, I don't have much use for color, so I stick with cheap HP lasers...the HP 1100 has served me very very well for over a year now. I used to have an HP 850C color ink-jet which worked fine IIRC.
Modem (people still use those?)
Unfortunetly... Any non-winmodem should be ok. The USRobotics/3com ones work fine for me.
What kind of RAM is hot these days? (I guess that is interdependent with the mother-board)
Yes, this will depend on the motherboard. Plain old SDRAM is a very safe choice. Stay away from Rambus cr@p, aka "RIMM" slots...it's 5-10 times as expensive and not much faster (maybe 3% IIRC) in typical situations. DDR-SDRAM is the hot new thing, but it's only on bleeding-edge boards that may or may not be fully supported under Linux yet.
My MS-trackball with wheel suites me well. Any special mouse or keyboard recommendation?
Nothing with the proprietary "Internet keys" or any of that other garbage they try and lock you into Windows with. Mouse wheel support has come a long way, but I've never used it. A three-button mouse helps immensely, especially with old Athena-type apps. My fav is the $20 Logitech "First mouse"...nice countour and three good buttons.
Perhaps a NIC or three. (One for the new system, one for the old system, and one for a future ADSL connection.) I can give him a hub.
The Intel Pro 10/100s have been said to be the best by kernel folk (Linus included) several times. But they don't come cheap...around $100 each. We use them here on the servers and have never had trouble. If you're looking for cheaper stuff, you can probably get an SMC or tulip-based card for $15. I have an SMC and a Linksys LNE100 and while neither of them gave me any trouble (I rtfm first), the SMC would probably be easier.
Any observations about the CPU? (What are the outer busses of the P-4s clocked at? This historically mattered more than the advertised frequency.)
The P4's front-side bus still runs at 100MHz, but it's four times wider than the previous one, so Intel's marketing calls it 400MHz...I've only seen a few benchmarks, but the P4 in all its quad-pumped glory still looks like a very evolutionary step, if anything. It's only real advantage is that it can handle very high MHz where the P3 just can't (witness the 1.13GHz recall).
It is very important that this stuff is really plug-n-play. I don't want to get him into tweaking the XF86Config, and etc.
Hmmm, then stick with the well-established hardware (i.e. it's been out for at least a year or so). SaX does a pretty good job of tweaking X, so if he can handle that, he should be ok. -- Jeremy [jeremy@wellsgaming.com]
On Fri, 16 Feb 2001, Jeremy Buchmann wrote:
19'' or 21'' monitor
Just about anything as long as it looks good to him and you can get the specs for it (horizontal and vertical refresh, etc). Monitors that have been around for a while have better chance of being in the monitor database which can make setting them up much, much easier. One thing about apeture grill monitors that no one seems to mention: they have "damper wires" that create little shadows on the screen...some people don't mind, but they annoy the hell out of me.
I was wondering what that was. I'm looking at one right now and they annoy the hell out of me, too.
Perhaps a NIC or three. (One for the new system, one for the old system, and one for a future ADSL connection.) I can give him a hub.
The Intel Pro 10/100s have been said to be the best by kernel folk (Linus included) several times. But they don't come cheap...around $100 each. We use them here on the servers and have never had trouble. If you're looking for cheaper stuff, you can probably get an SMC or tulip-based card for $15. I have an SMC and a Linksys LNE100 and while neither of them gave me any trouble (I rtfm first), the SMC would probably be easier.
I'm very happy with the Intels for the high end and use the Linksys at home. Greg
On February 16, 2001 06:16 pm, Jeremy Buchmann wrote:
19'' or 21'' monitor
Just about anything as long as it looks good to him and you can get the specs for it (horizontal and vertical refresh, etc). Monitors that have been around for a while have better chance of being in the monitor database
Don't all modern monitors send all the info down the cable? Throw in Xfree 4.x which can read the data and the old days of needing to know refresh rates should be gone.
Personally, I don't have much use for color, so I stick with cheap HP lasers...the HP 1100 has served me very very well for over a year now. I used to have an HP 850C color ink-jet which worked fine IIRC.
Bascially the same but I'd reccomend looking at the non HP HP laser printers. Prices and features are usually better. Fujitsu used to make some nice laser printers but I think they've moved out of the low end of the market. Nick
On Sat, Feb 17, 2001 at 08:43:49AM -0500, Nick Zentena wrote:
On February 16, 2001 06:16 pm, Jeremy Buchmann wrote:
19'' or 21'' monitor
Just about anything as long as it looks good to him and you can get the specs for it (horizontal and vertical refresh, etc). Monitors that have been around for a while have better chance of being in the monitor database
Don't all modern monitors send all the info down the cable? Throw in Xfree 4.x which can read the data and the old days of needing to know refresh rates should be gone.
Yeah all of the latest monitors should be DDC compliant. *Hopefully* :-) Victor Cardona
On Fri, Feb 16, 2001 at 05:09:13PM -0500, Steven T. Hatton wrote:
19'' or 21'' monitor
There are plenty to choose from Viewsonic monitors are always nice.
Decent sound-card
SoundBlaster 16 PCI works very well with Linux. Cheap card that has great sound.
DVD - do these come with burnable capabilities at reasonable prices?
R/W CD-ROM if DVD R/W is too expensive
Decent video
Voodoo cards tend to do well. Matrox makes good cards, and they have Linux drivers for them. Also Nvidia makes cards with Linux drivers available.
Quality mother-board (what are the bus clocks at? And cache?, etc.)
If you want an Athlon, I would suggest something from Asus. I don't know about P4 boards.
Printer that plays nicely with Linux. (I hate what happened with my HP 970Cse. Epson may be an easy sell for him.)
Modem (people still use those?)
What kind of RAM is hot these days? (I guess that is interdependent with the mother-board)
SDRAM is still the most common. Most boards can support 768 MB. Some of the newer boards for the Athlon use DDR-RAM which is faster than SDRAM.
My MS-trackball with wheel suites me well. Any special mouse or keyboard recommendation?
Perhaps a NIC or three. (One for the new system, one for the old system, and one for a future ADSL connection.) I can give him a hub.
Linksys makes good, cheap cards using the Realtek chip. I have several, and they all work great.
Are there any pre-installed SuSE boxes available in the US? Just in case.
Any observations about the CPU? (What are the outer busses of the P-4s clocked at? This historically mattered more than the advertised frequency.)
Get an Athlon :-)
It is very important that this stuff is really plug-n-play. I don't want to get him into tweaking the XF86Config, and etc.
Oh, he also has a pre-teen daughter who is quite smart.
TIA,
Steve
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Victor, et al, Lot's of good responses to this question. I'll try to find time to respond to some of the other good points raised in others' messages. On Saturday 17 February 2001 03:33, Victor R. Cardona wrote:
On Fri, Feb 16, 2001 at 05:09:13PM -0500, Steven T. Hatton wrote:
19'' or 21'' monitor
There are plenty to choose from Viewsonic monitors are always nice.
Love my ViewSonic G810. I also have an LG 57M I snagged for such a low price that I'm still waiting for the police to come knocking at my door to arrest me for receiving stolen goods. Great little monitor.
Decent sound-card
SoundBlaster 16 PCI works very well with Linux. Cheap card that has great sound.
My SB-AWE 64 Gold was not completely detected by Yast. I have the basics, but some of the bells and whistels still don't work. I'm hoping 7.1 will fix this. Heck if you just want 'sound' my SB16 ISA plug and configure has worked great for years. That may be the best bet for my Dad for starters. SB16 PCI, that is.
Voodoo cards tend to do well. Matrox makes good cards, and they have Linux drivers for them. Also Nvidia makes cards with Linux drivers available.
This, to me, is the most important issue. People can live with a crippled sound card, but only us hardcore byte-monkeys are interested in telnetting into our box to kill X when we loose the keyboard. It happens. What I'm really asking for is what people are actually using. What worked for them first time, and every time. I have had reasonable luck with Matrox and SaX(2). I see the Nvidia and Voodoo drivers in the downloads on the FTP, but I know 0 about them. TTTT, I know .001 about glx in general. Perhaps I should read up on it. IMHO, if you have a 21" monitor, you need 32 Meg of video RAM to get the most out of it. I demand at least 75 Hz refresh and 24-bit color at 1600 X 1200.
If you want an Athlon, I would suggest something from Asus. I don't know about P4 boards.
Am I being completely paranoid by being gunshy about AMD? I have an ASUS P-III/600 w/133 MHz bus in this box, and it is very nice. The hardware set up could stand to have better documentation, but that is hardly unique to ASUS, perhaps if I read Chinese I wouldn't have this problem ;-).
SDRAM is still the most common. Most boards can support 768 MB. Some of the newer boards for the Athlon use DDR-RAM which is faster than SDRAM.
Do you think DDR-RAM is the future? I hate having hardware that uses yesterday's technology for expansion. I don't even know if I can still buy that old style 72-pin SIMM RAM I have in my oldest system. OTOH, MCA by IBM.
Perhaps a NIC or three. (One for the new system, one for the old system, and one for a future ADSL connection.) I can give him a hub.
Linksys makes good, cheap cards using the Realtek chip. I have several, and they all work great.
Are they easy to work with? I am partial to 3-Com because I know the cards and I don't have to think about configuring them anymore. Heck, my router has two 3c509s in it. Works great! The only arcanum is that they use the MAC address to decide who gets the first interface number. But 3-Coms do get pricey.
Any observations about the CPU? (What are the outer busses of the P-4s clocked at? This historically mattered more than the advertised frequency.)
Get an Athlon :-)
Educate me. What kind? What are the important specs, advantages/disadvantages? Steve
On Sat, Feb 17, 2001 at 06:07:02AM -0500, Steven T. Hatton wrote:
If you want an Athlon, I would suggest something from Asus. I don't know about P4 boards.
Am I being completely paranoid by being gunshy about AMD?
I have heard many positive reports about athlon based systems. They beat Intel with price and performance. The only problems that I have heard of are related to some of the IDE controllers on Athlon boards. Although most of those problems occured with FreeBSD, and they were relatively easy to overcome. I myself have used AMD processors for the last three years, and have never had any problems with them.
SDRAM is still the most common. Most boards can support 768 MB. Some of the newer boards for the Athlon use DDR-RAM which is faster than SDRAM.
Do you think DDR-RAM is the future? I hate having hardware that uses yesterday's technology for expansion. I don't even know if I can still buy that old style 72-pin SIMM RAM I have in my oldest system. OTOH, MCA by IBM.
I am not sure if it is going to be the wave of the future. However, it does seem that AMD is pushing it, and that Intel will soo. (They are tired of Rambus) It is already being used on some motherboards and graphics cards.
Perhaps a NIC or three. (One for the new system, one for the old system, and one for a future ADSL connection.) I can give him a hub.
Linksys makes good, cheap cards using the Realtek chip. I have several, and they all work great.
Are they easy to work with? I am partial to 3-Com because I know the cards and I don't have to think about configuring them anymore. Heck, my router has two 3c509s in it. Works great! The only arcanum is that they use the MAC address to decide who gets the first interface number. But 3-Coms do get pricey.
Linksys, Realtek based cards are extremely easy to set up. They are well supported in the standard kernel. Hell, I had a much more difficult time setting up my #com 3c509B than I did several Linksys 10Mb and 10/100 Mb cards.
Any observations about the CPU? (What are the outer busses of the P-4s clocked at? This historically mattered more than the advertised frequency.)
Get an Athlon :-)
Educate me. What kind? What are the important specs, advantages/disadvantages?
Start with AMD's website. They include some good documentation there, including system builder suggestions. Tom's Hardware also has some good reviews. HTH, Victor
participants (10)
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Greg Thomas -
Jeremy Buchmann -
John Murphy -
Matthew -
Nick Zentena -
Steven T. Hatton -
Tor Sigurdsson -
Victor R. Cardona -
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