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.... or is it a tectonic shift? The wife is now more sensitive to her
computer performance than am I! So now we go hunting for new hardware.

But all that is negotiable. What is not is that it run Slackware 12.x.
Ergo, that is the benchmark, and why I'm mentioning it here: What are
you guys using for hardware? What is the most rock solid reasonably
performing system (actually, components, I suppose) that Slackers have
found?

Understand that the wife is running my old Tomcat 3 w/ 133MHz Pentium,
now in its 3rd case using who knows what generation of HD, etc. So
virtually anything would be a marked improvement, specifically my
currant Asus CBUX, sporting a faster (1GHz) processor, of course. So
I'm really talking about what I should get when I hand this system down
to her...

A dual core Intel would be splendid, but mobo and chipset have to be
bullet proof under Linux. I know to avoid Invidia graphic stuff, but
nothing else in particular. I also know I could get reams of
information elsewhere, but Slackers (bozos?) know best, I suspect; they
are the least likely to be bullshite artists in any case.

Suggestions, comments, caveats, etc all welcome!

Thanks all,

Longfellow

On 2008-04-24, Longfellow <not@this.address> wrote:

> But all that is negotiable. What is not is that it run Slackware 12.x.
> Ergo, that is the benchmark, and why I'm mentioning it here: What are
> you guys using for hardware? What is the most rock solid reasonably
> performing system (actually, components, I suppose) that Slackers have
> found?

I guess you will get a wide range of opinion here. FWITW I have always
bought second hand machines, usually Dells from their business line.
This gives solid performance but no particular frills in terms of
sound and video. Upgrade the ram (new) and off I go. I am typing this
on a Dell GX270 that I did exactly that to. Cost me a couple of
hundred when I bought it.

Andrew

--
http://www.andrews-corner.org

On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:18:50 -0500, Longfellow wrote:

> ... or is it a tectonic shift? The wife is now more sensitive to her
> computer performance than am I! So now we go hunting for new hardware.
>
> But all that is negotiable. What is not is that it run Slackware 12.x.
> Ergo, that is the benchmark, and why I'm mentioning it here: What are
> you guys using for hardware? What is the most rock solid reasonably
> performing system (actually, components, I suppose) that Slackers have
> found?
>
> Understand that the wife is running my old Tomcat 3 w/ 133MHz Pentium,

Do you mean an original, P5 pentium at 133 MHz? If so, you may be
interested in the upgrades listed below.

> now in its 3rd case using who knows what generation of HD, etc. So
> virtually anything would be a marked improvement, specifically my
> currant Asus CBUX, sporting a faster (1GHz) processor, of course. So
> I'm really talking about what I should get when I hand this system down
> to her...
>
> A dual core Intel would be splendid, but mobo and chipset have to be
> bullet proof under Linux. I know to avoid Invidia graphic stuff, but
> nothing else in particular. I also know I could get reams of
> information elsewhere, but Slackers (bozos?) know best, I suspect; they
> are the least likely to be bullshite artists in any case.
>
> Suggestions, comments, caveats, etc all welcome!
>
> Thanks all,
>
> Longfellow
>
Assuming you don't want virtualization, then this is a lot of bang for the
buck (YMMV):

MB: Gigabyte GA-945GCM-S2C
CPU: Pentium Dual Core E2180
Memory: 2G
Video: (on board) *
LAN: (on board)
HD: (250-500G SATA)
Optical: 20x DVD-RW SATA
Power Supply: 350W is adequate

The next step up is going to be quite a bit more expensive:

MB: Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R
CPU: Core 2 Duo E6750
Memory: 2G
Video: pick 'em
LAN: (on board)
HD: (250-500G SATA)
Optical: 20x DVD-RW SATA
Power Supply: 400W is most likely adequate

There is a lot of room at the "low end" too. For example,
I am writing this on a system that I got at the local university surplus
property. It is a Dell, Dimension 4100 (circa 2001), sold "AS IS" with no
HD for $20.

MB: ?
CPU: P3 @ 933MHz
Memory: 512M
Video: nVidia Riva TNT2 64M AGP
LAN: 3Com 10/100
HD: 250G PATA
Optical: CD-RW
Sound: Ensoniq ES1371 PCI (separate board)
Power Supply: 200W (probably tight for P3)

This is very usable system for working with the web, open office, etc. I
don't think you will be running any of that software with a P5 @ 133MHz.

* Caveat: with some motherboards with recent intel chipsets, such as
i945gc, make sure you get the most recent X. Probably, wait for Slackware
12.1, or use slackware -current.

Longfellow <not@this.address> wrote:
>
> bullet proof under Linux. I know to avoid Invidia graphic stuff, but

Why avoid nvidia? The have supported Linux for a long time and I found
the ATI stuff to be more of a pain to setup.

- Kurt

On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:09:06 -0500, ~kurt wrote:

>> bullet proof under Linux. I know to avoid Invidia graphic stuff, but

> Why avoid nvidia? The have supported Linux for a long time and I found
> the ATI stuff to be more of a pain to setup.

I agree. Wouldn't use anything but Nvidia, myself, at least for a higher
end machine where I cared about video performance.


--
"Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me".
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://improve-usenet.org

On 2008-04-24, andrew <andrew@ilium.invalid> wrote:
> On 2008-04-24, Longfellow <not@this.address> wrote:
>
>> But all that is negotiable. What is not is that it run Slackware 12.x.
>> Ergo, that is the benchmark, and why I'm mentioning it here: What are
>> you guys using for hardware? What is the most rock solid reasonably
>> performing system (actually, components, I suppose) that Slackers have
>> found?
>
> I guess you will get a wide range of opinion here. FWITW I have always
> bought second hand machines, usually Dells from their business line.
> This gives solid performance but no particular frills in terms of
> sound and video. Upgrade the ram (new) and off I go. I am typing this
> on a Dell GX270 that I did exactly that to. Cost me a couple of
> hundred when I bought it.
>
> Andrew
>

Is there a dell url for these machines...you're talking about buying from
dell right.

ken

On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:37:24 -0600, Douglas Mayne wrote:

> There is a lot of room at the "low end" too. For example, I am writing
> this on a system that I got at the local university surplus property. It
> is a Dell, Dimension 4100 (circa 2001), sold "AS IS" with no HD for $20.
>
> MB: ?
> CPU: P3 @ 933MHz
> Memory: 512M
> Video: nVidia Riva TNT2 64M AGP
> LAN: 3Com 10/100
> HD: 250G PATA
> Optical: CD-RW
> Sound: Ensoniq ES1371 PCI (separate board) Power Supply: 200W (probably
> tight for P3)

By a curious coincidence, that is almost exactly the same as the machine
I am using for Slackware experimentation. The main differences are that
mine had no HD (I guess the previous owners were scared of their data
being put to nefarious purposes) and that it cost less than $20. In
fact, I picked it up from the recycling pile in the basement of my
apartment.... So look around you carefully :-)

It runs the full Slackware 12.0 install, KDE and all, just fine. Not a
rocketship, but it's not slow either, and I haven't spent any time on
tuning it at all.

> This is very usable system for working with the web, open office, etc. I
> don't think you will be running any of that software with a P5 @ 133MHz.

There's a huge difference from a Pentium, 'tis true.

On 2008-04-24, Douglas Mayne <doug@localhost.localnet> wrote:
> On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:18:50 -0500, Longfellow wrote:
>
>> ... or is it a tectonic shift? The wife is now more sensitive to her
>> computer performance than am I! So now we go hunting for new hardware.
>>
>> But all that is negotiable. What is not is that it run Slackware 12.x.
>> Ergo, that is the benchmark, and why I'm mentioning it here: What are
>> you guys using for hardware? What is the most rock solid reasonably
>> performing system (actually, components, I suppose) that Slackers have
>> found?
>>
>> Understand that the wife is running my old Tomcat 3 w/ 133MHz Pentium,
>
> Do you mean an original, P5 pentium at 133 MHz? If so, you may be
> interested in the upgrades listed below.

Yep. Now to be retired to duty as a mail server or the like under
FreeBSD (or the like). It's now a teen-ager and behaves itself
remarkably well for its age... quality does show, dontchaknow... );

<snip>
> Assuming you don't want virtualization, then this is a lot of bang for the
> buck (YMMV):
>
> MB: Gigabyte GA-945GCM-S2C
> CPU: Pentium Dual Core E2180
> Memory: 2G
> Video: (on board) *
> LAN: (on board)
> HD: (250-500G SATA)
> Optical: 20x DVD-RW SATA
> Power Supply: 350W is adequate

I'll check this out. Thanks!

<snip>
> This is very usable system for working with the web, open office, etc. I
> don't think you will be running any of that software with a P5 @ 133MHz.

She doesn't think so either, and all she does is email, the WWW, and
some games! It worked great with W95 when that was the most power
available (199x?). Ah yes, W95, my last experience with that sort of
thing...

> * Caveat: with some motherboards with recent intel chipsets, such as
> i945gc, make sure you get the most recent X. Probably, wait for Slackware
> 12.1, or use slackware -current.

This is good to know, and is exactly the kind of info I want.

Thanks for this response!

Longfellow

On 2008-04-25, ~kurt <actinouranium@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Longfellow <not@this.address> wrote:
>>
>> bullet proof under Linux. I know to avoid Invidia graphic stuff, but
>
> Why avoid nvidia? The have supported Linux for a long time and I found
> the ATI stuff to be more of a pain to setup.
>
> - Kurt

I got that backwards? Thanks for the heads-up!

Longfellow

On 2008-04-25, No_One <no_one@no_where.com> wrote:
> On 2008-04-24, andrew <andrew@ilium.invalid> wrote:

>> I guess you will get a wide range of opinion here. FWITW I have always
>> bought second hand machines, usually Dells from their business line.
>> This gives solid performance but no particular frills in terms of
>> sound and video. Upgrade the ram (new) and off I go. I am typing this
>> on a Dell GX270 that I did exactly that to. Cost me a couple of
>> hundred when I bought it.

> Is there a dell url for these machines...you're talking about buying from
> dell right.

Not available in Australia from Dell. I actually buy from ebay.

Andrew

--
http://www.andrews-corner.org