I'm in the market for a new computer, I'd like to build my own computer, and while I'm at it, make a complete switch to linux. I've played around with linux many times, but now I'd like to really switch entirely.

What I'm interested in is getting some feedback as to what I should change, if something's too cheap or overkill, if some hardware would be easier to get linux working with, if some of the hardware wouldn't work together, etc.

I could save some money by buying cheaper, non-ECC/unbuffered ram. Is the more expensive ram going to give noticable improvement over regular or should I just get the value ram?

As for what I do with my computer: I don't really play games, I always listen to music, I do some ray tracing and fractal art, I've got a normal set of apps running in regularly (openoffice,gaim,firefox), and I do some programming.

As the system stands, it will cost $1950, which doesn't bother me, but if I could save money somewhere without giving up much performance I'd go for it.

Here's the hardware / peripherals I'm looking at buying:


Shuttle XPC Black Barebone System for Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64 CPU, Model SN95G5

AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64 3500+, 90nm, 2.2 GHz, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor

Kingston HyperX Series Dual Channel Kits 184-Pin 1GB(512MBx2) ECC Registered DDR PC-3200

WD Caviar Series 250GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive Kit, Model WD2500JDRTL

CHAINTECH nVIDIA GeForce FX5500 Video Card, 256MB DDR, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "SA5500T2"

Plextor 12X DVD+/-RW Drive, Black, Model PX-712SA/SW-BL

Logitech Cordless MX Duo USB/ PS/2 104keys

PRINCETON LCD19D 19" LCD Monitor w/ Stereo Speakers

ALTEC LANSING MX5021 2.1 Multimedia Speakers

Okay your set-up is similar to mine but I don't pay anywhere close to $1900.
I have a:
Asus k8v deluxe mobo that came with a 754 socket 2800+ ($250 including processor) Sold processor to my dad and purchased the 3400+($220)
AOpen 12x dvd +rw: duw1608 ($49.00)
2gig ddr pc3200 ram (Ultra 1024 ddr) ($300)
160gig SATA (Seagate 7200rpm)($120)
Wireless Keyboard and Mouse (Wal-mart Special) ($30)
Yamaha 2.1 Speakers ($100)
Sound Blaster PCI Sound card (Let over from another computer)
Diablo ATX Mid-tower case $50
550w diablo Power Supply (%50)
Asus GeForce FX 5200 128meg ($40)
Also left over from another comp.
Cd-rom drive
Floppy Drive

So lets see <$1230 total including shipping
I can safely say it is more than fast enough for anyone. I have Slackware and WinXP Pro dual-booting.

I thought I'd post my 2-cents.
ECC is probably a good thing to have, as it most likely will extend your memory's life a bit. I don't think you'll need buffered RAM unless you're planning to have like over 2 gigs of RAM or something wild like that. But I don't know enough about it to say.

Make sure you take a look at linuxcompatible.org first before you do stuff.

I don't think there are too many distibutions yet that take advantage of a 64-bit chip. I guess the major ones, Suse and Fedora Core and Debian, are supporting it. I'm sure the support will grow more too.

NVIDIA is a good choice as it has much more linux support than any other graphics card.

If I can promote a distro, I've just installed Yoper and am loving it. It's very easy to configure and update and use, detects hardware very well, and is optimised for i686 architectures (they refuse to do i386 stuff for backwards compatibility reasons). The install's a little unintuitive, but after that, it's about the easiest linux disto I've ever used.

-- the dudeman

Thanks for the feedback!

dudeman, thanks for the link, I'll be checking it out. As for the ram tip, I think I'll go with something a bit cheaper. For a distro I'm looking at gentoo because I've played with it a bit and I love the documentation. Having said that, I''m still not completely sold, so I might switch. I'll have to give yoper a look.

tormented_one, thanks for the tips, I'll look online at some of the hardware you've got, but don't forget that I've got a 19'' monitor on the list took, and if I go for cheaper ram/hdd/video, which I very well might, it would basically be the same range as you.

Yeah true. I have a 21" flat-screen fullsize monitor, also a freebie courtesy of my father and his place of employment. He gets stuff killer cheap and also has his pick of the "old" stuff. By 'old' I mean 2yrs max. I have 2 17" compaq v75 running dual-head on a p3 550. All of which works perfectly and the company was just throwing them away. I wish I could efford a flat panel 19", man that is an awesome monitor. Good luck shopping. Let us know how it works out.

I'd love a 21'' but that's way above my range, lucky you that your dad can get stuff cheap. As for old hardware, you should see the computers we have for computer science at my high school, 8 years old, win98 (really really painful).

Ouch. about the school.
The 21" was used before I got it. I had a p2 350 that was a compaq that says Designed for Windows 95, but I ran slackware on it with 383meg ram. Ran faster than a Ibm ThinkCentre with a 2.6gh celeron, 1024 meg ram, 80gig satahd with XP Home on it. Looked better than thinkcentre even with a 4mb mullenium g200 video card that could pull 1280x1024@24 on a cheap 15" monitor, and the 15" flat panel that came stock with the IBM could pull only 1024x768@24bit on an Inteli810 on board video supposed to be 8mb.

The Shuttle XPC Black Barebone System for Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64 CPU, Model SN95G5 is ok but it is buy now and forget upgrading it later. I suggest micro-ATX cases if you want a case that takes up very little room.

The CHAINTECH nVIDIA GeForce FX5500 Video Card, 256MB DDR, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "SA5500T2" is worthless. I suggest GeForce6 6600. Keep an eye on the memory speed when buying a video card with a lot of memory. Usually video cards with 256 MB tends to be slower than the 128 MB models.

The Logitech Cordless MX Duo USB/ PS/2 104keys is ok if you want an unreliable input device. I suggest a corded keyboard and mouse because they are very reliable.

The PRINCETON LCD19D 19" LCD Monitor w/ Stereo Speakers is a monitor I never heard of and many reviews say they do not recommend it. I suggest something better like from Samsung or DELL. As with all LCD monitors, check on dead and partial dead pixel warrenty.

Overall the other components are ok, but the 939 socket processors do not have ECC functionality. For chipsets, get either VIA K8T800 Pro or nVidia nForce3 250. Depending on your fractal programs. You may want to look at AMD processors with 1 MB cache. The more cache the CPU has, the faster the processor is at calculating formulas.

ECC ram is used to increase data reliabity. No, it does not extend the lifespan. If you want to increase lifespan of the memory, decrease the speed of the memory or buy faster memory. For a 400 MHz memory bus, you should buy 433 MHz or 500 MHz memory.

Thanks for the tips Electro, I'll go look around some more. As for the processor, I'd like a more expensive one, but there's the problem of money and I don't do enough fractal work to make it worth while.

AMD Athlon 64 processors are very fast, so may want to use 3400+, 3200+, or 3000+. They are still faster than P4 but at a much lower cost than the 3500+. You may want to go for WD Raptor series hard drives if you are spending time loading applications.

Here's an update as to what I'm planning on getting:


Shuttle XPC Black Barebone System for Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64 CPU, Model SN95G5

AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64 3500+, 90nm, 2.2 GHz, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor

Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, Low Latency (Twin Pack) 184 Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200

Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD

eVGA nVIDIA GeForce FX5700LE Video Card, 256MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/TV Out, 8X AGP, Model "256-A8-N333-TX"

Plextor 12X DVD+/-RW Drive, Black, Model PX-712SA/SW-BL

Logitech Cordless MX Duo USB/ PS/2 104keys

SAMSUNG 710VT-Black 17" LCD Monitor

Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 THX Certified Personal Speaker System


As you can see I changed video cards, but I didn't go for the Geforce 6600 because of cost reasons. I switched to a cheaper, faster and smaller hard drive 'cause I doubt I need 250 GB, and I got some cheaper, non-ECC / unbuffered memory. I changed to a 17'' monitor because I could get better quality in the same price range. I'm sticking with the wireless keyboard and mouse 'cause I haven't had problems with wireless equipment to date, and I'll probably keep an old keyboard and mouse around for when they're needed. However, I am wondering, can linux be configured to take advantage of all the special function keys on the keyboard and mouse? I looked into getting a MicroATX, but there is no 939 support on MicroATX yet, and I don't really want a tower.

edit: changed videocard again.

After I researched for my new system, I know you'll definately want a 5700 128Megs instead of that 5700LE with 256Megs. The LE version is cut down, you'll want the proper 5700 and I was going to get one until I decided to try a PCI-E option. Most of the socket 939 mobos are AGPx8 or PCI-E with SLI which is £££, but I found a basic nForce4 board without the full SLI and HyperTransport support which I wouldnt be needing, allowing me to save cash on a PCI-E version of the 6600 graphics card. If I wanted to put more cash into my system, I've got a non 4x (ie full HyperTransport x5) nForce4 mobo and the GT version of the 6600 which is double the GPU and RAM clock speeds. The 5700LE is closer to the 5500 and below, while the 5700 is noticably better performing, and as metioned it is probably suited to 128megs ram instead of 256megs which will run slower.

Did you ever put the system together? Any changes to what you listed? Recommendations? And finally, which distro are you using? Any problems there?

Thanks for your input- It helps a lot!