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Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?

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Old 12-30-2003, 04:29 PM   #1
blotch
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Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Shrewsbury, England
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cheap system


Hi,

I putting together a cheap system and would like someone to run an eye over the selected components for me. They are:

Compucase with 300w Hec psu (I have this already)
MSI kt600 lsr mobo (very favourable posts on the amdmb site)
AMD Duron 1.6hz duron 266fsb
Crucial memory pc2700 512mb
MSI g4 mx440-t8x 64mb graphics card
Maxtor diamond 60+ 5TO40H4 ide 100 hard disc (I have this already)
A lite-on cd-rom (to be selected)
A lite-on cd-rw (to be selected)

I'd value your opinions. I'm most concerned about matching the speed of the mobo to the speeds of the cpu and the memory. This is something I've never understood.

The computer will only be used for basic Linux apps - word processing and web surfing mainly. Is a 64 mb graphics card overkill? Will I need a heatsink and fan?

Happy New Year to all readers, particularly those who post on this!
 
Old 12-30-2003, 05:27 PM   #2
mipia
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well, its faster than my system
 
Old 12-30-2003, 05:41 PM   #3
snatale1
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Location: Richmond, Virginia, US
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Re: cheap system

Quote:
Originally posted by blotch


Compucase with 300w Hec psu (I have this already)
makes no diff

MSI kt600 lsr mobo (very favourable posts on the amdmb site)

haven't used but if it got good reviews go for it, 1 tip i've built about 4 in the last year and only having a prob with the current one. if the mobo is very hyped up with onboard everything check here for compatibility.

AMD Duron 1.6hz duron 266fsb
good

Crucial memory pc2700 512mb
a newer mobo should support pc3200 (DDR400) get as fast as you can.
I just got a 512mb dual channel kit from bestbuy for $85

MSI g4 mx440-t8x 64mb graphics card
check the reviews and compatibility, I've had great luck with ATI's radeon series (except for current box)

Maxtor diamond 60+ 5TO40H4 ide 100 hard disc (I have this already)
fine


A lite-on cd-rom (to be selected)
A lite-on cd-rw (to be selected)

I'd value your opinions. I'm most concerned about matching the speed of the mobo to the speeds of the cpu and the memory. This is something I've never understood.

Mobo's now are easy to match with cpu, they basically go by series than by exact speed most would say "Compatible with AMD, Atlon, Atlon XP, Duron"
plug in and go, just make sure it detects it at the right speed.


The computer will only be used for basic Linux apps - word processing and web surfing mainly. Is a 64 mb graphics card overkill? Will I need a heatsink and fan?

OH YEAH! rule of thumb get the biggest heatsink and fan you can fit, the cooler the better I have and AMD 2400+ with a 3" heatsink and 80mm (case fan). does a good job but would like to go bigger. plus if your mobo supports overclocking you'll prob do that.....more heat.

My older machine AMD 1800+ ran pretty good, w/same heatsink and fan I added an 80mm in both front and back of case, "the muffler" a HDD triple fan, one on the vga card, and heatsinks on the ram now this is total overkill for THAT machine and it sounds like a leer jet trying to take off but beleive it or not the sys performance after a while is very noticible. BTW only about $40 total investmant for all.
 
Old 12-31-2003, 08:41 AM   #4
hw-tph
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Registered: Sep 2003
Location: Sweden
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I think overall it looks like a really nice low end system that will do very well as a desktop running Linux. Just a few random thoughts:

Good choice on the CPU. It's almost free, and with that motherboard you are free to upgrade to an Athlon XP with considerably more punch when you have the money (and if you care to!).

About the motherboard: I have no experience with it, but dont' expect SATA (there is traditional IDE connectors too, so don't worry about that) and sound to work right out of the box.

The nVidia drivers are usually pretty decent (except the current latest version which is crap!) so that card will probably serve you well.

I wouldn't buy a CD-ROM and a CDRW though. I have only a CDRW...it works fine to read CD-ROMs too.


Håkan
 
Old 12-31-2003, 10:40 AM   #5
blotch
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Hi guys,

Many thanks for your replies. It's nice to know I'm on the right track. A couple of things that I'd like a bit more info on, though:

The duron 1.6 has a frontside bus of 266, I gather. How does that relate to the memory speed exactly. I listed Crucial 2700 as being the nearest figure.

I thought I'd have two cd drives in case someone gave me a cd disc to copy something from. Now I think about it, could I just load the data to my hard disk and then copy to the cd?

I really hope you enjoy 2004. Don't drink too much tonight....

Best wishes,
 
Old 12-31-2003, 10:53 AM   #6
MitchM99
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IMHO, get a second cd device like you origionally stated. CD to CD copies rock and it doesn't wear out the burner as fast (the newer one have shaken them self apart at the 52x speed)
 
Old 12-31-2003, 07:51 PM   #7
slakmagik
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I dunno how cheap cheap is, but a DVD/CD-RW pair of drives gives you the most capabilities until the standards finally shake out. It can do CD>CD plus handle DVDs.
 
Old 01-01-2004, 04:45 AM   #8
blotch
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Hi,

Yes, I see what you mean. I could play dvds and cds on a dvd player and copy the cd data to a cd-rw. Good idea and will do.

Best wishes,
 
  


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