golinux Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Incompatible hardware is the stumbling block that's always held me back from seriously trying to move to Linux. But I'm feeling that it may be time to give it a realistic try. I've scrounged around Video Help a bit and they actually have a Linux forum with a great list of apps to try out. (Relax GPB, I won't be discussing them on this forum.) But it looks like it might be possible on the right hardware. So I've been investigating computers. Dell is the choice that many would recommend but after yesterday's foray into their tortuous automated phone menu and multiple hoops to jump through before getting an answer to even a simple question, I realized there was no way I could deal with them EVER! So I went to a local shop this afternoon and talked to a guy over the counter. They can put this together for under $600. Not bleeding edge but better than my current XP box. INTEL DUAL CORE E2140 ASUS P5VD2-MX VIA 1GB DDR2/533MHZ WD SATA2 160GB NVIDIA FX 7300 256MB CACHE 400 WATT PS LITE-ON #LH20A1P USROBITCS MODEM (LINUX COMPATIBLE) And a nice black case with room for a rack of hard drives if I want to expand. They will also sell me an OEM copy of XP just in case I need to wipe the drive and retreat to the familiar. Whaddya think folks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerman Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 My 2 cents is you shouldn't have any problems with it for a Linux box but if you ever want to jump to XP, it's a little weak. And, if you decide to add a 'rack' of hard drives, and maybe update the Video card, you mind find 400 watts cutting it close. I'm sure others have their own opinions but you ask for it and got mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Highlander Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 One word: PCLinux http://www.pclinuxos.com/ I use this alot, i like it, and works well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
golinux Posted June 12, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 My 2 cents is you shouldn't have any problems with it for a Linux box but if you ever want to jump to XP, it's a little weak. And, if you decide to add a 'rack' of hard drives, and maybe update the Video card, you mind find 400 watts cutting it close. I'm sure others have their own opinions but you ask for it and got mine. Wow! That was quick!! Well, it would have more muscle than the P4 2.8GHZ and nVidia video card (64 MB cache) than I'm running XP on now. I was kinda joking about the rack of drives - I'd probably only add one - but it looks like at least 5 would fit in there! Is the burner a good one? The hardware is OK otherwise?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Highlander Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 The hardware is OK otherwise?? yes it is, nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdanteek Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Sister, the work I call it for a new pc is the research on the components. Slapping the thing together and installing the os and other programs are the reward. Here are 17 reviews for the MB, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131162 Tom's Hardware CPU Charts. http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?mod...7&chart=178 Review: Lite-On LH-20A1P Firmware: KL05 Manufactured: November 2006 http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/Lite-On-LH...nced-tests.html I agree with Paul on the power supply 550 minimum, need a recommendation ask. cd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
golinux Posted June 12, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 One word: PCLinux http://www.pclinuxos.com/ I use this a lot, i like it, and works well Over the years I've installed every Linux flavor out there (except Gentoo - know better than to try that!) and I really like Ubuntu the best. Also prefer Gnome interface over KDE which has too many bells and whistles that need to be turned off. Sister, the work I call it for a new pc is the research on the components. Slapping the thing together and installing the os and other programs are the reward. Here are 17 reviews for the MB, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131162 Tom's Hardware CPU Charts. http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?mod...7&chart=178 I agree with Paul on the power supply 550 minimum, need a recommendation ask. cd cd, you should know that I am really hardware challenged and don't want to have to think about this too much. I know just enough to be dangerous! Wanna be my researcher?? Someone on the local Linux list said that got almost the identical box at the same place and he really likes it. He got a different MoBo, AMD processor and on-board video. He wishes he'd gotten the MoBo on my specs. My current PS is only a 300 watt ATX. Why 550? All that being said, I will look at those links later tonight. But OMG please tell me if the wheels are going to fall off!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerman Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Wow! That was quick!! Well, it would have more muscle than the P4 2.8GHZ and nVidia video card (64 MB cache) than I'm running XP on now. I was kinda joking about the rack of drives - I'd probably only add one - but it looks like at least 5 would fit in there! Is the burner a good one? The hardware is OK otherwise?? I have the SATA version of the Lite-On and like all Lite-On drives --as far as my experiences--they are nosier than others. Some noise doesn't bother me so that doesn't weigh in on my opinion. The drive is relatively new but it's worked fine for me in the month or so since I've had it. Too soon to tell but I think the way they're selling drives now, none will last that long as the old timers. Boy, pick up one of the new drives compared with drives a bit more than a year ago and you can feel the difference in weight. Now that doesn't necessarily mean much except that more plastic means it will be easier to break things. I think you're good with what you have other than the power supply. Updating to a bigger one shouldn't be that much more. I'm with you as far as Ubuntu is concerned. The latest version is much, much better but I haven't played around with others that much. I've read lots of good things about PCLinux too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Highlander Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 I like Ubuntu but for me the new release of PCLinux is just dam tidy..... i had no issues with it. as to the power supply, the reasion a 550watt is a good ideia is that you may want to add more drives or devices later on , and its good to know that you have power to jam when that ever comes up, and also to many people get 300watt or so Power supplys and have issues with there units becouse they dont seem to have much grunt to run everything... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
golinux Posted June 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 Here's another thought . . . Instead of a new box how about doing this to my current machine since it's still working pretty well? 1.) Replace the Winmodem with a US ROBOTICS modem 2.) Get a larger boot drive (maybe 250GB) 3.) Restore image to new drive, partition then install Linux (not necessarily in that order). I'm soooo confused . . . It's always been this way around Linux. [sigh . . . ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerman Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 Here's another thought . . . Instead of a new box how about doing this to my current machine since it's still working pretty well? 1.) Replace the Winmodem with a US ROBOTICS modem 2.) Get a larger boot drive (maybe 250GB) 3.) Restore image to new drive, partition then install Linux (not necessarily in that order). I'm soooo confused . . . It's always been this way around Linux. [sigh . . . ] My minor fumbling with Linux tells me you don't need a huge hard drive for most of the distros. Of course, if you're big on media, you'll need the space but I don't find Ubuntu and PCLinux2007 very strong in the same type of video work as EMC and others. Unfortunately, the ones to ask don't ordinarily frequent these forums. Ubuntu (and others) have a pretty good community forum. They don't all talk my language but have some good Cliff Notes to follow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REDWAGON Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 Just a little more regarding a bigger power supply---There are a lot of other hardware parts in the computer besides just the hard drives and optical drives that require power also. i.e all the Fans, USB, IEEE1394 (firewire) and any other PCI cards also require power. they all add up. My suggestion is pretty much what's already been siggested---Get a bigger PS and a min. of 500 watts. Frank... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gi7omy Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 You said you'd ptrefer Gnome to KDE, but KDE actually has a good burning app (K3B) which is available as a separate install Hard drive - sure, ghost the image over for the doze partition, then use the setup with your distro to install Linux in a set of extended partitions (usual recommendations are /, /boot, /usr and /home but ask 10 different L:inux users about size and what partitions and you'll get 10 different answers) The important thing is that doze MUST be in the first partition and installed before Linux (it's a bit nasty in that it will kill off the boot loader for Linux, whereas the Linux boot loader will give you a dual boot option if doze is there And btw - Gentoo isn't THAT hard to use What does tend to annoy me tho is that fiddly app is available in .rpm packaging Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerman Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 As far as fixing the bootloader, some nifty freebies are VistaBootPro and Easy BCD. You can also edit the BCD file in many of the Linux OS's but I think that depends on the distro. Of course, after installing Linux, it's the default boot option but you can change the boot time to default boot and the default OS to boot in all these programs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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