yes, I checked it and it is pretty cheap, just 20,000 INR (INdian Rupees) whereas the box I am building is costing me 46,000 INR.

I am thinking of building a PC because my personal-life is disturbed because of job. I spend all of my waking-life in Office. When I get home, I clean my floor, wash some clothes, make my dinner (and breakfast for next morning) and then it hits 9:45 PM and after 1.5 of more hours I have to go to sleep. My personal and family life is gone. Only Sat-Sun I get for myself (except if there is nothing pending in job)

With new PC, I want to download somethings, want to enjoy exploring Linux, Gentoo way of things, and listen to some songs, put the *personal* word back in to personal-life. With ASUS Eee PC, I can not do that, its barely 900 MHz machine with 4 GB of flash-drive and again a CRT screen. My eyes ache at night after working for 8-10 hours continuously at CRT in office. ASUS Eee PC is fine for pure work only, not for other things like for H.264 movies which I am gonna watch a lot.


Thanks for that . Yes, its says I need 304 W of power only.

arnuld,
I would avoid Transcend's RAM. I do not know anything about Hitachi RAM.
I would go for the Kingston RAM, either 2gb or 4gb. It has good reviews here.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820134635


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820134582

I am sure that you will feel a lot better when you have built your new pc and use it to explore Linux, do downloads, watch films etc.
Let us know when you have built it.
Good luck.

IMHO, ASUS motherboards is not always the best. From what I am seeing ASUS quality is going down hill. Just pick motherboards with out Marvell NIC, Marvell storage controllers, JMicron storage controllers, Promise storage controllers, and Silicon Image storage controllers to installing Linux.

I suggest go with 780G/SB700 instead of 680G/SB600 because you lose money and performance. A 790GX/SB750 or 790GX/SB700 is a good choice because most of the motherboards using this chipset uses sideport. Sideport is a feature for the on-board video to use its own memory for video memory instead using system memory. Using this feature it is like getting a dedicated graphics card.

I suggest find the lowest latency memory at the rated speed that you want for the best performance. Make sure the memory can work at the normal voltage of 1.8 or 1.9 volts for DDR2.

The clock for DDR2-800 is really 200 MHz. Some systems may state it as 400 MHz. Since it sends 4 bits per cycle, it is virtually 800 MHz memory. Its data rate is 6400 MB per second. Using DDR2-800 is still wide enough for quad core processors. Just remember dual channel memory increases the bandwidth to 12800 MB per second. Using DDR2-1066 is waste since latency is more and memory is actually over clocked to reach this speed. Manufactures does not want to state it that they are stating an over clock rating. Using the lowest latency or lowest CAS memory is better than finding memory that can be clocked high.

Get a processor that will handle your tasks and future tasks. Do not worry about the memory speed. Worry more about using the normal voltage of DDR2 and lower timings. What previous posters have said is mostly true, but not accurate. The memory speed should relate to the front side bus of the processor, but that is impossible with AMD K8 processors and above. The memory controller is included in the processor, so it does not have to fight for bandwidth. The memory speed should match to what the processor can handle with out increasing the timings too much.

All RAM should have a lifetime warranty, so you should not worry. Read the manufacture's warranty to make sure.

Seagate drives have poor latency compared to Western Digital and Hitachi. Seagate drives are known to fail if the power supply is not regulating properly. Also Seagate's disk utilities are not helpful if there is a problem. I suggest stay away from Seagate hard drives.

I mostly disagree with beachboy2 on power supply brands and the amount of hard drives. The power supply brands that I recommend is Seasonic and Enermax. Antec and Corsair uses Seasonic as their power supply contractor, so you will be spending more money on them. The amount of watts for a power supply is around 300 watts to 800 watts depending how much components you put, how much power each components consumes, and how long you want the power supply to last.

Multiple hard drives are OK, but select small capacity hard drives to ease backing it up. Use a safe for hard drives that are used for back ups and make sure the safe is bolted down.

Not all USP are the same. There are many types of UPS. I recommend find a UPS that is an in-line type that is not using a modified sine wave (square wave), but select versions with true sine wave.

SATA optical drives should work in Linux. I still prefer IDE since I am still using IDE. I will still pick IDE optical drives for my future computer unless I can not find them any more. ASUS optical drives are better than Sony, Lite-On, Pioneer, LG, and Samsung.


jay73, AMD motherboard chipsets that includes on-board video feature sideport. It is a way to use its own memory instead of using system memory for video memory. Motherboard manufacture can choose to use it or to not use it. I have not seen any nVidia motherboard chipsets with on-board video that has this feature.

You are thinking about multi-processors is not accurate. Linux is able to balance multiple single threaded programs on each processor compared to an OS like Windows. A quad core processor is better for daily tasks because it is able to be more responsive.

Performance is not noticeable when doing daily tasks. It is all depends on the latency of the hard drive and the amount of RAM. AMD systems are cheaper compared to Intel for a setup that is going to be used for daily tasks.


Xolo, A triple core processor is OK to use. It does not work any differently than the quad core processor. AMD is just taking what they have in the trash bin and trying to sell it to provide more efficiency per silicon disk. Intel did the same thing with the Celeron. Soon Intel might do the same with their i7 processor. If you still do not like it, do not buy it. It is simple as that.

Electro,
I was simply making the point that a case /psu combo like the Antec NSK6580 or NSK 4480 would contain a good quality psu and be better value than buying the items separately.
There is no bigger fan of Seasonic PSUs than me but you have not got your facts straight, I am afraid.

Seasonic do make some PSUs for Antec and Corsair, that is correct, but they are NOT the sole supplier as you imply.

Seasonic makes the HX Corsair PSUs.
OEM manufacturer CWT makes the VX Corsair PSUs.
Seasonic and CWT both make PSUs for Antec.

You also state that with Antec and Corsair PSUs “you will be spending more money on them.” (compared to Seasonic). This is simply not true. Antec and Corsair do not just add a percentage to Seasonic's prices and pitch them on the market. How many PSUs do you think they would they sell, compared to Seasonic, if they did that?
The market rules and it is just a matter of shopping around to get the best deal.

I do not understand your comment about “the amount of hard drives”.
arnuld said he was planning to use 2 hard drives.

If you are referring to my comment:
“You can have a second, matching internal HDD, which need not be mounted at every boot.
You can have a USB external drive, HDD enclosure, media player, network backup away from your home site etc, etc.”

I was suggesting alternative backup methods. I was not suggesting arnuld adopted them all.

I never said it wasn't OK to use. The device functions doesn't it? no problem there.
I did say forget about tri because the value is very minimal compared to getting a full quad in both financial and upgrade terms.

Rough comparison on Newegg.com between X3 and X4

AMD is the one who profits, because the price difference between Phenom X3 and X4 is just a handful of dollars.
And no, I do not like it, again because of the very minimal value for money.
In the end it is your choice and your wallet, i'm only warning.

I do not know about arnuld's area in particular but the EEE Box is definitely available in India (actual one of its target markets).

I have already said its available in India but for around 20,000/- rupees, which is 50% of what I will spend on my Dream Machine. Not a good idea in anyway because I will not even get 20% in comparison to my dream machine.

Just to be clear the EEE pc and the EEE Box are two different things. The EEE pc is a laptop and the EEE Box is not.

It comes with a 1.6ghz processor and 160GB hard drive.

Oh.. sorry, my mistake . I was talking of EEE pc, the laptop. I wonder what box would cost when laptop is so expansive.

Copied from lazlow's link for the Eee Box.

Specifications of the Eee Box
OS Microsoft Windows XP Home
CPU Intel Atom N270 (1.6 GHz)
Chipset Intel Chipset
DIMM DDR2 SO-DIMM 1 GB
HDD 80 GB
Card reader SD/SDHC/MS/MS Pro/MMC
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
LAN 10/100/1000
Accessories Keyboard and Mouse
Price Rs. 16,490 (Excluding taxes)

Here in the states the Linux one cost the same as the Xp one except it comes with a 160gb drive instead of a 80.

Looking at ASUS EEE Box, why wouldn't I use my 3 years old Box with:

• AMD Athlon 68 2800+ (1.8 GHz)
• ASUS K8V-MX Motherboard
• 512MB DDR 333 MHz, 512MB DDR 400 MHz
• Logitech Mouse/Keyoard
• 17 inces Samsung CRT Monitor
• SONY DVD-ROM + LG CD-ROM
• 2 x 80 GB SATA (Samsung + Seagate)
• SONY Floppy Drive
• Netgear ADSL Modem
• APC UPS

I think its better, just 3 years old and ran it like hell for that time


EDIT: RAM Frequency Corrected

The only advantage would be size and power saving. But I agree, for what you are doing that machine would be more than adequate. The machine I have out in my living room is a 1Ghz PIII. It plays movies, music, and surfs justs fine.

I checked different forums and also searched the archives of this forum and I found that Gigabyte is good kind of motherboard.

Well, in case I am mentioning something new to you.

4-4-4-12 or 5-5-5-15 are the notations for the memory timing. If you have a motherboard with a BIOS that allows this, it is possible to to overclock your system by increasing the cyclic rate of the memory. Lower is better and progressivly more costly.

I would think that a surge control, a UPS, and backup would be more important if the system is to be used for something important and is a major investment. India is a great nation and culture, but the vagarities of the electrical grid can wreak havoc with the components and the installation of a system.

I too purchased Gigabyte and everything functions well. I have read that their boards are closer in reality to the norms and standards that could be expected by their specifications, and therefor easier to get working under linux.

Just remember your wrist strap and good luck with the project.