[NTLUG:Discuss] asking for thoughts and guidance ... new desktop ...

[Greg Edwards]

Maybe we should consider a Linux Box Build party:)

I'd highly recommend the build your own approach.  You can go several
ways but the easiest (if your not adventurous) is to buy a bare bones
box and add the cards you want.  I always build my own but I've
recommended others to order partially built systems from Directron.com
(http://www.directron.com).  You can select the parts and have them
assemble and test, for a fee of course.

> Here is a sketch of what I had in mind:
> CPU: maybe not the latest, but at least a PIII, and at least approaching
> 1Ghz speed, thought I probably wouldn't turn my back on a P4.

I just helped a friend build an Athlon 1.4GHz box with an ASUS A7V266 MB
(no audio version).  The only bad thing was that he wanted Win98:( 
Total build cost (w/o monitor) was a little short of $800.  The Athlon
will give you allot more bang for the buck than Intel.

> Memory: 512MB to 1GB

I'd recommend that you buy a single 512MB stick and add more later. 
This will keep the cost down and unless you make this a server or use it
for creating movies or music 1G will be no more useful than a
conversation piece.  If you get a board that supports 266MHz FSB get
PC2100 DDR SDRAMs.  The board I mentioned above will allow 3 sticks of
RAM so you can get to 1.5G one stick at a time.  Also do NOT buy cheap
memory.  This is one area that you get what you pay for, or don't pay
for.  The difference between cheap and good ram isn't more than
$30-$40.  I always use Crucial (www.crucial.com) memory.

> Hard Drive: 100+GB - one or more drives, could go SCSI, wouldn't
> complain about a RAID.

Get the IDE drive(s) initially and add a SCSI card later (or now) if you
find you need the capacity or performance.  SCSI will by far outrun and
out perform IDE but if you don't need it don't spend the money on it. 
SCSI gets real expensive real fast.  SCSI drives also run allot hotter
than IDE so I'd recommend using external drives (extra $$$).  One
advantage to external SCSI is that if you need to move the drive(s) to
another machine you just unplug and go.

> CD/DVD/CD-RW: all of those would be lovely, especially the CD-RW.

I don't DVD so I can't help there.  My TV is allot better place than my
computer for watching movies:)  As already mentioned CD/CD-RW is a $$$
issue.  IIRC there are only 4 actual CD/CD-RW manufactures and everyone
else puts their own labels on them.

> Floppy: 1.44MB

Hey for $14 this is a not very useful item that I always add.  You never
know when you will need to boot off a rescue disk or install Win9x. 
However, I'd also recommend a Zip Drive for those files larger than 1.4M
that you want to take to another machine.

> Sound/Video/Graphics: Not looking for a home entertainment center here,
> but would like some modicum of quality to handle the general stuff that
> comes down the WEB pipe.  The graphics we would be producing would be
> basically on the level of GIMP - no 3D or animated as yet.

I put an ASUS V7700 in a box I built for my daughters graduation present
last year (Linux of course).  This card turned out to be a killer
graphics card and installed without any issues.  I don't like Creative
as a company but they seem to be the most consistantly supported sound
cards under Linux.

> Modem: Internal

External!!

> NIC: 10/100Mbs

Pay the extra couple $$$ and get a 3Com card.

> OS: Linux (probably Red Hat, since that is what I am most familiar with
> - though I suppose I could be convinced to try something else).
> Desktop: GNOME

I like Mandrake and KDE, but this is a religous thing:)

> Other stuff: VMWare (or something like it) - want to run Linux, but need
> to keep Win95 available for some legacy stuff that she doesn't want to
> loose just yet).
> 

I run VMWare on my workstations and I don't complain about having to buy
it.  My company accounting package and Quicken don't come in Linux. 
DirectX support sucks in the 2.x versions so most games don't play
well.  The new 3.0 is suppose to be better for DirectX but I haven't
installed it yet so I can't confirm.  Not having to dual boot is well
worth the purchase of this package.  I can move files between the 2
OSes, access the net with IE when necessary, and maintain my security
since Linux is still between Windows and the world.

-- 
Greg Edwards
New Age Software, Inc.
http://www.nas-inet.com