I was wondering what kind of system most of you guys run Linux on. I'm using a very slow system right now (see sig) while I'm learning. I hope this summer to build a better system but I'm having a hard time deciding what kind of specs will run Linux very well without breaking the bank. I don't want to spend too much on it. My main system has a 1ghz Thunderbird right now. I plan on upgrading that when the new .13 AMDs come around so I would take that old 1ghz to my Linux box. But the real question is how much RAM should I run, should I save a few bucks and stick with SDRAM or get DDR.

So for right now can you guys post up your systems specs and how it runs? Thanks.

Well, last weekend I Frankiensteined up my Dad's old computer and my old computer to put Linux on it. I've used Windows all my life and wanted to see what Linux was like. So far as a newbie, it is both frustrating and exciting at the same time!!

I must say I think I am getting the hang of it. I'm pretty proud of some minor accomplishments so far: 1) I installed the Java platform on it and 2) installed LimeWire that needs Java to run. Small steps, but I did it!!! Plus I've got MP3s playing on it

Anyway, my system is pretty much like yours:

Old Dell with Pentium II 233 MHz
64 Megs of RAM
6 Gig harddrive

It runs kinda slow on KDE and Gnome, but I've been using Blackbox lately and it is much faster on that (by faster I mean it doesn't get on my nerves too much). I would assume you would have no problem with the 1 gig processer and maybe 128 Megs of RAM. I was thinking of buying one of those cheap systems for $800 so I could use KDE or Gnome better.

Is there that much of a difference in price for SDRAM and DDR?

1.2ghz t-bird
256 mb pc133
abit kt7 mobo
western digital 40GB HD
hp scanjet 5p on adaptec 2930 scsi card
canon bjc 4100
usrobotics sportster external modem
voodoo 3 vid card
soundblaster compatible (ensonic 5880)
gravis destroyer extreme usb joystick
acer 77e monitor
zip 100 internal
kensington orbit usb trackball

SuSE detects and configures everything perfectly, as far as speed goes, its hard to say. it will do a data packet from seti at home in about 7-8 hours. my old k-6 took well over 24hrs.

i would go with atleast 256mb memory to get good performance out of kde with all it's bells and whistles turned on.

I don't think there is much of a difference. I just have some (128MB) SDRAM lying around I could use.

Honestly, there's so little performance difference with DDR to SDRAM that it doesn't really matter, just save your money. The newer stuff though is nice, runs at 266. I've got a 1Gig T-bird also, with 512MB and it runs fast enough for me. I just have a plain Asus A7V-E (Pro it's called now). Linux flies on it just dandy. Funny thing is, I upgraded 6-8 months ago and i'm 2 years behind already. Man won't they just stop?

Would you say Enlightenment needs 256MB to run well also?

probably not, kde and gnome are the main memory hogs (and kde more then gnome) when you have all the eyecandy on

The DDR price market started to improve after Christmas so now Taiwan is actually making money again instead of just bleeding into the market. The best source for the pulse of the industry is still www.pricewatch.com, well, at least in the states.

Hmm... AMDpowered, which machine?

Athlon 1.2Ghz, 512Mb pc133 SDRAM, 40GB Wes Digi ata100, ATI 128 el cheapo vid card, abit k7v-a raid, running Slack 8.0/Win98/FreeBSD 4.4/LFS 3.1/RedHat 7.2. No window fails to open in a blink. KDE and Gnome both at full tilt and the only thing that bogs the machine is opening 100 pictures in the Gimp all at once. Unless I run accross something really system intensive and fun to play with, I don't think I'll upgrade anytime soon.

P3 500Mhz, 128Mb pc100 SDRAM, 10Gb ata66 HD, IBM 1400 series Thinkpad running Mandrake 8.0, Gnome at full tilt, great performance minus Star Office which is always a pig.

Ultra Sparc 5, 270Mhz, 256Mb RAM, 9.1 Gb ata66 Seagate, PGX8 framebuffer card, running SuSe 7.3 Sparc edition. I've got the graphics cranked into the ceiling so its not incredibly quick, but everything I need it to run it does well. Heck, Opera even put out a version for Linux on Sparc.

There's an assortment of about 8 PPros (dual and uni) and Pentiums (desktop and laptop), with just about any major distro through a number of different versions, and a whole lot of different kernels around here, but I guess you only want the newer machines.

Well, I think I've got two roads I can go down here.

#1. I don't upgrade my current Windows box. I'd buy a ~800mhz Duron, Shuttle AK31A, 256MB DDR for the Linux box.

#2. I get one of the .13 micron chips when it comes out. Take this 1ghz T-Bird and get the Shuttle board and some RAM.

Either way, I'm going to have two kickass systems.

AMD 850Mhz Athlon
Shuttle AI61 Mobo
256 M pc133 sdram
Rage II video
40 Gig 5400rpm Maxtor
6.5 Gig 4500rpm Quantum

Dual boot with XP(less and less) and Mdk 8.1

hmmm... lets see if you really want to know:

1st:

AMD Duron 800mhz
512 MB 133 SDRAM
Maxtor 16GB ATA66 5200RPM
Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Pioneer 10X DVD
Iomega 4x4x32 CDRW
Soundblaster
LS-120 Superdrive
OS: Slackware 8

2nd:

Intel 500mhz Celeron
256 MB 133 SDRAM
Maxtor 6 GB ATA66 5200RPM
Voodoo 3 2000 AGP
Acer 50X CDROM
LS-120 Superdrive
Soundblaster
OS: Slackware 8

3rd:

Intel 400mhz Celeron
128 MB SDRAM
Western Digital 17GB ATA66 5200RPM
ATI Xpert98 PCI
Acer 40X CDROM
Soundblaster
OS: Windows 2000/Slackware 8

( all three above use Tyan motherboards with Linksys LNE100TX )

4th:

Old AST Bravo 166mhz Intel System
48 MB EDO RAM
ATI Mach Graphics
2GB Western Digital 5200RPM
Soundblaster 16
8X CDROM
OS: Windows 98
( Community Computer I like to call it for people visiting like to get on the net and browse, customized spray painted machine, keyboard and monitor, due to boredom a long time ago. I really like watching friends who look down while typing use this keyboard as the keys have been painted over and its just one solid color, so they don't know what keys are what.. as I sit back and scream, use the home keys.. )

All my machines running Slackware are running flawlessly, fast and give me no troubles at all.

-trickykid

So now it's like a place to show off, so here is my setup
AMD Athlon 700 MHz clocked to 850 MHz
512 Mb SDRAM
ABIT K7-RAID (don't have money for additional drives to make RAID array though)
Maxtor 40G 7200 RPM (ATA 100) , it is on primary IDE channel so it is actually ATA66 for now
Maxtor 8G ATA66 5400 RPM (this is the old one)
Creative CD-ROM 52x
Ricoh CDR-RW MP7120A 12x10x32
Elsa Erazor X GeForce256 32 Mb SDRAM (with the latest NVIDIA drivers - kicks ass)
3Com NIC
DLink 530+ TX NIC
SoundBlaster Live! X-Gamer
PS2 keyboard, Logitech USB wheel mouse
17" Samsung SyncMaster 750p moitor (crisp colors, handles 1600x1200@76 Hz)
UMAX Astra 1220S scanner
Adaptec AHA 2930 SCSI card
RedHat 7.2, LFS 3.1 still underway.

Dell Pentium III @ 500 MHz
128 Mb SDRAM
ATI Rage Pro 8 Mb
9 Gb WD HDD
US Robatics Internal Voice/Fax 56K modem
3Com NIC
32x CD-ROM
17" Dell/Sony Trinitron monitor
Mandrake 8.1

I had an old P200 with 24 Mb RAM setup as a firewall/router with SmoothWall - ditched it after HDD/IDE controller failure

The AMD machine is running Enlightenment pretty smooth.
KDE is on Mandrake machine.

My system specs are:

Abit KG7-Raid
1.4 Ghz AMD XP processor
1GB RAM DDR
Dual 80GB 7200 RPM Drives
3Com NIC
SB Live! with Dolby 5.1
ATI Radeon Dual Head 32MB DDR
16x DVD
HP CD Writer

Nice system. And so very fast!

neo7777777777777 - showing off about a 700mhz?

i got...

"trevor" - my workstation
abit kt7e
1.2ghz athlon tbird
256mb
2x 20gb 5400 ide's
ls120
12-10-40 cdrw
16-40 dvd
geforce2mx 400
sis 6326

"pete"- my bought-for-working-on-campus machine
fic ae31
duron 800
128mb sdram
50 cdrom
2x 1gb 3rpm-ish ide's (mmmm caviars....)
that built in video everyone bitches about.

"simon" - my gateway server
P200mmx
64mb simm
2gb, 40gb
erm.. 8x cdrom
erm.. floppy.

"nigel" - my toy - gonna get elk-y on it's ass one day
386 20mhz
60mb hd i think
2mb ram

i'm bored of those names now tho, i think i'm gonna shift to muppet names, probably Kermit, Piggy, Gonzo and Animal in that order. but i shold be after a 2ghz+ machine when i get round to that anyway...

------------------------

test box

400 mhz celeron
64 mb sd-ram
2 x 6 gig hard drive
OS: debian 2.2 + whatever im currently playing with on the other hard drive (currently BeOS)

-------------------------

work box

1.4 ghz athlon
256 DDR ram
40 gig hard drive
OS: windows 98 + mandrake 8.1

--------------------------

sun box

360 mhz 64 bit ultrasparc
256 sd-ram
6 gig hard drive
OS: debian 2.2

--------------------------

debian rocks, soild, fun and fast. im going to give slack a try soon as well as ive heard great things about it on these forums.

the work box is used for VB + office for school and some games, also for imaging using gimp under linux. The test box is used for developement and hacking.

the sun box is my server. great peice of kit which i got for free