Mentor "request", pretty please?

Howdy from the Radio Ranch,

I'm at the end of my rope, I'm grateful my neck was not in the noose, LOL!

I'm looking for a part-time mentor who can help me start putting together a "new" Linux computer. I can't pay you anything, but my undying gratatude.

To start out, I'll need some advise as to the quad processor, 8 gB of RAM, full tower case and ample power supply. I'm willing to go with a decent slot video card and slot audio card (with Surround sound?). This will not be a game machine, unless you don't consider regular I]Solitaire[/I] or Mahjong.

Now, as far as hard drives go, it's my understanding the 1& 2 Terabyte hard drives are not reliable and go belly up way too early. But, I'd like to set the computer up with the ability to add additional hard drives (up to 9?) in a RAID configuration.

I have a lot of data in M$ Excel spreadsheets and would like to convert them over to a Linux database, so that other club members could view and download the information they need, even if they are a WINDOW$ user.

This would envolve something like building a website, getting it on the Web, yet keeping it hidden to unauthorized people. To those who could see it, would have to have a password to get into the site and download information. Some of the data is very confidential, so not everybody needs to see it.

Now, I promise not to pester you all the time. I'll do my best to look things up first, then ask for HELP when I'm stuck.

Is therer anyone out there willing to help an Old Man realize his dream? You can send me a PM on here OR: KA5.LQJ(at) gmail.com,

Thanks for LQ^QKing <===glasses, LOL!
Regards,

Buck

I'm sure there are plenty of folks here who are willing to help. I can help get you in the right direction but we should talk a bit more about your usage of the machine. If this is going to be an end-user home machine or if it will be more of a service type server, such as Apache. Feel free to send me a PM or re-post your info here, if you keep it in the thread you can get multiple points of view which would probably be best.

You're talking about tackling a couple of complex projects here. The computer is not a big deal. I suggest one of the multi-core AMD Athlons, they are the best deal for the money. You need a good quality mainboard, preferably one with solid capacitors. You also need a good quality case and power supply...this is something that a lot of people chintz out on and are sorry for it later. The larger hard drives had issues early on, but those are pretty much resolved now. All hard drive brands have problems with quality these days, so unless you're investing in enterprise-grade stuff, it's pretty much luck of the draw. You should always have everything backed up. I wouldn't dump tons of money into any high-performance gaming type stuff on a Linux system, it's just a waste of money.

Here's what I would build for a Linux workstation:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131758
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103961
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...l-_-20-104-173
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.995295
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148868
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...d-_-27-135-204
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820223109





Settin up websites with secure logins is a complex topic in it's own right. A lot depends just what you're putting on the site and how you're presenting it. You can export your Excel files to Microsoft Acess to create a database, then import it to MySQL using the MySQL Workbench. There are a number of methods to secure pages and control logins, PHP, .asp, or java. There are both free and paid solutions to this. Actually presenting your database on a web site will require some backend programming to make it accessible in that way. I don't know what your skill level is, you might have to hire someone for that.

Please post your thread in only one forum. Posting a single thread in the most relevant forum will make it easier for members to help you and will keep the discussion in one place. This thread is being closed because it is a duplicate.