Hello all, I'm posting a question, and it would really clear up some doubts I'm having. Last year I downloaded Mandriva's 3 CD installer and had some difficulties installing it. It semmed to freeze up in the middle of the installation, and worked better in text mode. After getting it set up, It would often freeze and then become corrupt.

I had to install it several times, but just when I thought it was working, It would freeze. I noticed it used up a lot of processing power, and that sometimes messages about overheated CPU would pop up. (I always turned my computer off when they appeared, to be safe). Then one day, I tried re-installing it, and it froze again. When I rebooted my computer, the Install disc wouldnt boot. Neither would Windows, or Knoppix. I opened it up and it turns out that several things on the motherboard were fried (I dont exactly know what they're called).

My neighbor seemed to have the same problems, and he had a slightly newer model than me. They're both e-Machines, and they had burnt motherboards. (Mine was a 1.7 GHz processor, with 600 MB of RAM, with two 20-GB HD's and 1 40GB HD, but I dont know his pc's stats). HE had only used it for Windoze, but it was about the same age as mine.

I have a new computer now, It's a Gateway Media Center PC, with an AMD-64 bit processor that runs at 2.2 Ghz, with 1 GB of ram and 200GB of HD space. I'm thinking of using a 120GB removable hard drive and split 20GB of that to a Linux Distribution. I don't know whether Mandriva would be too taxing (i think it isnt on a 64-bit computer,right?) , so I also downloaded a Gentoo CD, but I'm not too sure about having to compile everything. I'd rather stick to Mandriva, but I'm not sure anymore. Has anyone had problems with it? Or is this just an e-Machines problem? And also, would getting a distro for AMD64 more of a burden on my computer than one based on x86? (My Knoppix is for x_86 and it works fine...except for the sound card).

If you're not sure about compiling everything, you probably ought to stick with Mandriva. It shouldn't be too taxing on your system. Gentoo's really not that difficult if you read the installation doc first and understand what you're doing.

I haven't used Mandriva, but I haven't heard of any problems with it either. The situation you described with the two e-Machines probably had nothing to do with the operating system. It was likely the result of either:

a). Poor design/manufacturing.
b). Poor maintenance/installation. Did you and your neighbor keep the machines clean and not restrict air-flow?
c). A combination of a) and b).

I don't know what model you had, but I think a) is highly probable, given this quote from e-Machine's website (italics added).

Here is the link that will explain how to submit a claim if you're affected.

I have had two clients with e-Machines. Both of those boxes had terribly underpowered PSU's and practically no case ventilation. You can kill such a box by adding an additional HDD or CD drive (additional power consumption and heat). Also, these cheap power units sometimes die and actually _raise_ the output voltage. This will fry everything around. In my experience e-Machine is not for computer enthusiasts.

Ah thats what happened. I had 2 extra HDDs, and the computer couldnt handle it. Anyways, I'll take your advice and make sure it's well ventilated. My new desk has an opening on the back, allowing air to flow, and I've opened the computer often to put in and take out PCI cards. (I just installed a wireless card, and the inside seemed to be relatively clean, as well as the fan). Thanks for the advice, I'll stick to mandriva as you've suggested.

However, I noticed they dont have a DVD edition for x86_64. What's the advantage of using the x86_64 edition? Wouldn't a 32-Bit edition be a bit smoother, since my computer can process twice as much?

32-bit programs are more stable and reliable than 64-bit programs because 32-bit programs have been perfecting since 80386 came out. Running a 32-bit program on a 64-bit processor will not speed up the execution by two times. The 64-bit processor will suffer running a 32-bit programs. However, AMD 64-bit processors does not suffer from running 32-bit programs because how well AMD designed their processors to be very, very efficient.