hi
I am a comlete nebie with no clue at all ( not entirely true ) but have picked up a copy of red hat 9 and intend to build the most powerfull workstation that I can yes I fully realize that I am decending quickly into maddness ...oh well ... any sugestions on where I can start would cause me to sacrifice a beer on the alter of slack in your name with special suplications towards the continued confusion of your enemys. yours truly COG........

You could look for a case at http://www.casedepot.com/ , they have alot of great cases there. I got most of my other hardware from either Best Buy or TechDepot.com. I put alot of research into my computer, and I spent alot of time over at http://www.hardforum.com reading what other people had to say about their hardware. As for the beer, box it up with some ice, mail it to me, and I'll "sacrifice" it myself.

Ian

I assume you mean that you are planning to select each and every component and then build your own computer from the pile of parts. I did that with the one I am using now. So anyway, here are a few thoughts. I do not know if you use a dial up connecton, broadband, or DSL. But if you use a 56K modem and a dial-up connection do not use a Winmodem if you are buying one from scratch! Winmodems are not completely independant modems and are dependant on Windows to make them work. Many can be made to work with Linux, but somethimes that is not easy. Nearly all external serial modems are not winmodems and are very easy to install under Linux. That is not always true of external USB modems however, many are winmodems. Internal modems that have a built in UART are usually not winmodems. If the modem says it will work with Linux that is also good.

Some of the newest fastest CPUs put out a lot of heat and sometimes come with a noisy cooling fan for the processor. I use an AMD XP 2600+ which tends to require a good cooling fan. Most of those use a noisy high speed 60mm cooling fan. Instead of doing that I used a heatsink so large that it needs to mount through the 4 holes in the mother board instead of clipping on. That heatsink uses an 80mm fan instead of a 60mm fan. I am able to run the 80mm at a slower and less noisy speed. My CPU runs at 52 degrees C. on the die and works well with Linux, but even so I wonder if I should have used something other than the AMD XP 2600+.

Obviously all the components you choose should be compatible with Linux. I have found that occasionally Manufacturer's web pages say components are compatible with Linux when they are not. On other manufacturers web pages there is sometimes no mention of them working with anything other than Windows and yet the Linux Installation program recogizes them automatically and they work just fine. The Soyo web page said my Soyo KT400 DUP motherboard was compatible with Linux. On the Soyo Users web page I soon discovered several other people with that motherboard who could not get any version of Linux to install. It was not until Red Hat 9 came out that I could install Linux will all the motherboards features enabled and have everything work properly! So the Soyo web page was wrong at that time in claiming it was compatible with Linux!

Sometimes a part has to be out a few months before the Linux drivers are written. So you need to be a little more careful when buying something that has just come out on the market. I am not yet an expert at building computers and all aspects of installing Linux. But, at least my computer works and has several copies of Linux and several other operating systems installed!

Below is a link to a web page that criticizes winmodems:

http://www.idir.net/~gromitkc/winmodem.html

As far a selecting a case, I prefer cases which have a cover that is easy to open. On my Antec case I just pull on a handle to remove the side-pannel. Some cases use just 2 or 3 thumb screws which is also easy enough. I also prefer cases that have the CD-RW and other such devices are mounted on rails not just screwed in. On that type of case, the rails are screwed onto the side of the CD-RW. Then to insert or remove the CD-RW no screws need to be used. Just press on the ends of the rails and slide it in or out.

I have a 430 Watt power supply. I probably could have gotten by with less but with multiple harddrives, multiple cards and a few other devices I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of power for everything. Some new computers come with only 200 Watt power supplies. I am not sure how many Watts to actually recommend.

I also prefer cases that have at least an adequate number of internal and/or external drive bays. If you use IDE harddrives or other IDE devices, the cables that label which device is master and which is the slave are nice! The round ones on mine even have pull-tabs which make unsnapping the cables easier. If you have a window with a light in your case choose whichever color cable would look best. I do not have a window on mine.

Using a $10 anti-static wriststrap or similar device to pretect against static damage while assembling your computer would also be good. I put my new computer together about 6 months ago. I recently got a case badge which says Linux Powered. I am not a technician, but those are some of my prefereces.

Personally, I don't peticularly appreciate rails, I always lose them. Too many after me. Also, as far as the wrist strap, you can do just as well by holding onto the case metal while working on it. ...then again, I am a cheap bastard according to some.

My next computer it going to be mounted in directly in the wooden cabinet of my desk. It is supposed to hold the tower but it is a pain to open the door to access the CD drive. So, I am going to route out slots on the door so I can access the drives and will mount the drive cage on the back of the door so the drives can be secured. The motherboard will be mounted directly to the wall of the cabinet. Under the drives there will be three air vents with HEPA filters and 100 MM Fans. In the back of the cabinet I will mount four 80 MM fans.

Actually the cabinet is so big that I could mount two computers in it and still not worry about heat. But I will probably just go with a dual processor motherboard, 2 or 3 gigs of RAM. ATI Radeon 9000, two 120 GB ATA 133 drives or Serial ATA drives. 6.1 Dolby sound, DVD/RW and a 20 inch cinematic flat panel display.

hey guys
thanks for the input it is helping alot. I plan on doing with out a case at all I will be mounting everything in vertical grids in an acrilic box on my desk with the power supplys on top (heat rises) with a wooden box base w/mounted fans and dust filters the top of this setoup will be vented. if you have any ideas about this borg in a bottle please let me know I will be buying parts as I decide what to get. any ideas about laptop parts for this? COG

I've had that idea, but I have a metal desk. As far as Cog's box, BE SURE TO PUT PLENTY OF FANS! Otherwise that sucker will overheat and burn out before you even get it booted good. Wood tends to hold heat in. Beyond that, sounds good. You even using a good OS to push it.

yeh Im planing to use lots of heat linking and push the hot air up thrugh the uper stage with cooler air from below the wooden box (come to think of it I could use some stainless steel plate that I have access to and run heat sink leads to it ???) will only be on the botom and will not hold any components outher than the fans. the rest will be in the middle standing on there side to alow fast air flow. I might strip a compresser from a beer frige and slave it to an industrial logic controler w/thermistatic function this could be programed via the desk top but that is for later. any one know about programing these?

I think it would be great to have a window in your home made case so you can show everyone all those unusual parts. If you do that be sure that your CPU fan and case fans all have colored LEDs that make your fans glow red or green. There is one version of the Linux case badge which is backlight with an LED. If you get a water cooling kit for your CPU (you can buy those you don't need to make them!) be sure to get one of those "water cooled" stickers or case badges. Color coded cables would also look nice!

On my computer I have a monitor, keyboard and mouse in seperate rooms all connected to the same computer. I use Y-adaptors on each cable to connect both monitors and everything together. In additon, I also use a KVM switch so if I want to use my old computer instead I can press a button to switch which computer I am connected to. There are 4 buttons which could be used to switch between 4 computers (I only have 2). If I also hook up the old 286, I could choose between 3 computers. Of course I also have them both networked together with CAT5 ethernet cable. Have fun!

Stainless steel does not disapate heat very well. In a very short time it would become very distorted and discolored. Use aluminum or copper.
Head over to thinkgeek.com. They have some cool hardware.
If you want to make sure what you buy is compatible with linux, go to linuxhardware.org

the whole enclosure for the boards will be a window think mac cube only 4 times as big and totaly exposed (huh huh my puter will be naked bevis!!) the base will be stainless but I wont have to worry about heat distortion this stuff isnt that thin low grade found on kitchen applyences it is an 1/8th'' thick industrial grade flat stock the pipefitters I work with said they would help me with that. the bace will only hold the blowers and filtration ( you know no dust on the CPU!) thanks for the sugestions on LEDs hardware ect very cool!

How about doing something like this. Very cool I think!

Maybe you should invite Bender over to see your Linux box. (You know, Futurama! )

# Linux sytems
Cheap Linux Box
The Ultimate Linux Box - update
Price Watch
Computer Geeks