i need a new computer, my old 2 gig HD laptop is too wimpy.

i used to shop at compgeeks.com and tiger.direct.com when i was a windows guy. sothat is where i went. excited to find some boxes with no OS.

i found this: http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=CP2240-1

it will suit my needs (i am engaging in voice synthesis work) as far as power and speed. however, being a total newbie to linux and having had driver issues with my laptop, this part of the listing caught my eye...

"Device drivers not included (Compaq drivers may be difficult to find)"

would that matter? i am currently in the middle of the outback in australia...and i really need to nail the right system for my needs (P3 or P4, 1G+ RAM, 20G HD+).

any suggestions?!?

thanks a million,

jxl

Your pretty much poking and hoping on something like that. Unless you can get them to guarantee what the vidio and audio chipsets are. Those are the two biggest problems people seem to have anymore.

Basicly if its Nvidia it works. Via as a MB is good. Intell i8** chipsets are causing trouble. Stay away from LG cdrom drives if your going to try out Mandrake unless you really read the directions and make sure about the kernel version you use.

If you can ask them to find one like that with Nvidia vidio and Via MB.

Anyone else have better ideas?

Older mass produced PC's seem to work flawlessly with Mandrake 9.2. I've installed old Dells, and my generic homebuilt P3's without any hardware issues. Mandrake 9.2 even took care of setting up and recompiling my kernal on the one system that had an NVidea video card.

Don't know what your budget is, but there are places like www.penguincomputing.com (haven't used them) that will ship you a PC already loaded with Linux. Most of these outfits (I've been looking around myself) install the latest RedHat distros, but that's a pretty good acid test of the hardware. If RH is working on it, it would be very unlikely that Mandrake would not work as well.

If I were on a budget, I would go for refurbished IBM PC's because they have a Linux-ready evaluation on their website. Find them on ebay, then check the model number on the site for compatibility. They pretty much list any known driver issues there, so you would know whether a particular model will work. Dell is another possibility, since they use Intel motherboards.

I used the Mandrake site for their hardware compatibility list. You can check the components there and then order a barebones system from anywhere and be pretty safe. If it's a motherboard with everything built in, make sure it's certified.

perfect, thanks!

jxl