Thank you for your really great suggestions. I am watching the prices of PC's at retail plumet, in all the big chains around me, and they are including Win95 in a 200 mhz box for $1100! I am watching the local volume discounters in my area sell the similar machine (assembled on premises) for $799.00 without operating system. I know that I can squeeze a little out of the cost of some components as prices drop, and when volume rises. Right now, I want a stable machine, at an entry level price, for individuals and the small business. Robert Drzyzgula wrote:

Not to bash anyone, but I don't feel like the original question has been answered, even though it was, to me, a pretty interesting one.

I've thought about it a little and have some ideas, but there were quite a few considerations left unspoken:

* What is the target market? Are these business systems or home systems? * Servers or workstations? * What kinds of communications facilities would be required... Modem? Ethernet? ISDN? * How good a monitor (at $800, you can blow your whole budget on a monitor, no sweat...) On a server, clearly you need only be able to configure the system, so an el cheapo monchrome unit would do... For a home/websurfing unit would TV output be sufficient? * Is this for gaming? WebSurfing? Is 3D Support required? High resolution/performance? * What would be more important... stability or performance? * Will tape backup be a neccesity for your target market? * Are you an integrator or just a reseller? Can you cobble these things together yourselves or do you need COTS finished units in a box? * What Memory/disk space requirements do you envision? * How do you rank all these things in priority? What would you give up first to cut the price?

Now If I were going to try to put together a solid Linux Box to stamp out and sell at a eye-catching price, I'd probably do something like this:

$ 85 DFI P5XV3 (ATX VP-3 MB, 512KB, not O/C-able but rock stable) $100 Intel or AMD processor, whatever you can get at this price $ 45 EIDE CD-ROM, Whatever you can get in overstock, 12X or higher $ 40 Rockwell (non win-modem) 33.6 Modem (Acer?) $ 50 One 32MB SDRAM DIMM, 10ns $ 40 Jaton 67TV 2MB video card (explicit SuSE X support, TV output) $140 Fujitsu MPA3032ATA 3.2GB Drive (great warranty) $ 15 3.5" Floppy $ 25 Generic Sound Card (which sound chips work well in Linux?) $ 10 Basic Speakers $ 25 IBM Win95 Keyboard $ 13 Logitech OEM Mouse (PS/2) $ 12 High-quality Ball-bearing HS & Fan, with tach for DFI board $ 40 Basic ATX Chassis & Power Supply $140 Basic 14" 1024x768 .28 Monitor $ 50 SuSE Distribution & Manual

This gets it down to about $825, and I think that the result should be pretty functional. One might be able to push it under $800 with volume purchases of some of the parts. The IBM keyboard and Logitech mouse are possible targets for cutting back, but these parts do have a substantial impact on a customer's perception of quality. This system also has a great deal of headroom for upgrades should the user outgrow the basic configuration.

Also in the perception category, one thing that I personally would do to make the system *seem* more substantial would be to spend a little extra on the chassis. It would add about $200 to the price (for a total price tag more like $1000) but I particularly like the products from California PC Products (<A HREF="http://www.calpc.com"><A HREF="http://www.calpc.com</A">http://www.calpc.com). They are reasonably expensive as chassis go (don't try to buy one or two... the prices only get tolerable in moderate quantities), but are made completely of heavy-weight steel and use top-grade power supplies. The mid-tower chassis outfitted with casters & fenders is wonderfully roomy to work in and easy to move around. If you are selling to business these would make an impressive product that would capture attention and scream "quality".

I know that this isn't what most hardware geeks (myself included) would put together for themselves, but we are talking (I thought) about putting out a stable product in moderate volumes that will give people a perception of quality and reliability, in part to build a mainstream image for Linux. I'd be interested to know how other people would modify this design to make it more suitable for mainstream buyers who are looking for a solution platform rather than a hot-rod.

--Bob Drzyzgula bob@mostly.com

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