I'll spare you the current configuration and reasoning behind this. Here's what I'm looking to ultimately do:
Current desktop ==} TiVo-like machine
--currently has AMD Athlon 1500 (1.3GHz), 2 IDE HDs (14GB 5400rpm & 80GB 7200rpm), 2 discs (12/10/32 CDRW & old DVD-ROM), 256MB RAM, ATI Radeon 7000 32MB (this will be upgraded to handle TV input), will install wireless LAN card and double RAM
New desktop ==} gaming/heavy app configuration
--will be my main desktop PC, would like to build this, but unfamiliar with newer hardware (read: less than 2yrs old) since I built my last (current) machine
I have an OLD Gateway case I can use for the TiVo machine and can use my current case for the new machine, though I'd like to upgrade the power supply (currently 350W, would like 500+).
For those of you into configurations and networking, I'd greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions regarding components, especially appropriate motherboard, hard drive, and video card setups. I want to be as economical as possible, but I know some pricier things will need to be bought. Help me stay under $2000 max, better $1500.
Also, I mentioned in my training log (why, I don't know) that I broke down and bought a legit copy of Windows XP Pro (incl. SP2). With the whores at Microsuck having their online validation software in place, will I be able to install this one copy of XP on potentially three machines (2 desktops and 1 laptop)? PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE say it IS so!
None of this will likely happen for a few months, but I want to get my research done now so that when time and money allow, I can buy and assemble this stuff over a weekend. Thanks a TON in advance.
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Regarding the sharing of the winxp - no, don't think you'll be able to do multiple installs. I'll find the articles for you. If you can take it back, see if buying a couple of upgrades instead would be as expensive. The upgrade version is much cheaper, especially if you can get a student to buy it for you at the school or something.
As far as building your own computer, I haven't found that to save money. If you do same a bit of money, it seems to be a bigger headache.
Thanks for the heads-up on XP. The upgrade purchases are way too much to spend on an OS. I might have to learn Linux My contingency plan is to download all Microsoft updates without installing them, copy the install files to each computer, then execute them without an Internet connection.
As for the new box, the only reason I'm considering building my own is that I have the cases and enough components for one complete machine minus adequate RAM and a compatible video card, though you're right about the hassle of building. There's just something wrong in my head with buying a computer off-the-shelf. If I did, it'd be from these guys: Vitality Computers. They sold me the components for my current setup, and their gaming boxes look pretty decent.
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I would suggest downloading a Linux distribution and giving it a go. It won't cost you anything but time, and while there is a bit of a learning curve to get the most out of it, you can be up and running in short order. Most modern hardware is supported out of the box (or right out of the install) with most distributions so configuration usually isn't an issue -- wireless networking is an exception.
My favorite distribution of the moment is Ubuntu (based on Debian). It has a nice clean interface and a very active community for support. If you search around you should be able to find a live CD of it. If you're not aware of what a live CD is, its a bootable version of the OS. It'll allow you to try it out without having to install anything. Just boot from the CD and you're good to go.
Can't help you on the hardware side of things... sorry.
Good luck.
P.S. Linux support for creating a DVR or multimedia system based on Linux is fantastic. There are lots and lots of projects out there. Geeks love their toys you know [img]smile.gif[/img]
UN, that Linux build looks impressive. My biggest hang-up with switching to Linux has been compatibility with Windows-based programs. Basically, will my Adobe products, Mozilla, Outlook, and games work the same or better on that platform? I assume that the file system isn't NTFS (haven't read much into it yet), so will it support a drag-and-drop from a backup hard drive? For that matter, I'd be backing up everything on an NTFS-formatted external USB hard drive. Doable? I'll keep reading...
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NOW I remember why Linux intimidates me so badly: COMMAND LINE. For all my technical knowledge, I'm so dependent on an automatic GUI that I get the shakes when faced with a command line prompt. I'll be able to experiment on my laptop, but I don't really know if I'll have time to learn a completely new OS anytime soon.
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I built my gaming computer in Jan, so I consider myself pretty on top of the latest hardware, if you need support. I've also done my own debian/mandrake/redhat/suse installs as well as worked through some linux programming, though I'm a little rusty at present.
I also have a 700Mhz box sitting around that I will get around to making a Tivo-like machine as well, once I buy a tv tuner card. I'm actually debating writing my own program in Windows to handle the media aspect of things, though I dunno about writing the actual video recording part, but more so the media organization and such, so that I can watch videos on my tv that I have on my main desktop, or mess around on my tv doing various computer stuff. The whole program is still pretty conceptual, but the company I work for produces some pretty some .NET visual components that could make writing this program pretty fun and take a lot of the tedious parts out of it.
Of course, I could have just shortened this post and just said ask me if you have any questions
Originally posted by Erika: As far as building your own computer, I haven't found that to save money. If you do same a bit of money, it seems to be a bigger headache.
quote:Originally posted by Erika: As far as building your own computer, I haven't found that to save money. If you do same a bit of money, it seems to be a bigger headache.
I would agree. [/quote]Ok, well there's one issue to address and that is that if you build your own computer, you might feel compelled to buy better quality parts all around, and thus end up spending more money. Still, when I built the computer that I'm using right now, it would have cost at least $500 more to get the equivalent from Dell or something. Of course, I built my computer for overclocking (not that hard with the 90nm Athlon 64's, as they don't get that hot), so I'm really getting my money's worth pushing a 2.2GHz chip to 2.65GHz on air cooling alone. However, the overclocking part involves significant extra headache research into the realm of RAM timings, CPU Multipliers, Bus speeds, and all sorts of things that most people run away screaming from. When doing something like that, it's not worth it unless you enjoy doing it or at least learning about technical stuff and find fulfillment in the problem-solving, do-it-yourself mentality.
quote:Originally posted by Erika: As far as building your own computer, I haven't found that to save money. If you do same a bit of money, it seems to be a bigger headache.
I would agree. [/quote]Ok, well there's one issue to address and that is that if you build your own computer, you might feel compelled to buy better quality parts all around, and thus end up spending more money. Still, when I built the computer that I'm using right now, it would have cost at least $500 more to get the equivalent from Dell or something. Of course, I built my computer for overclocking (not that hard with the 90nm Athlon 64's, as they don't get that hot), so I'm really getting my money's worth pushing a 2.2GHz chip to 2.65GHz on air cooling alone. However, the overclocking part involves significant extra headache research into the realm of RAM timings, CPU Multipliers, Bus speeds, and all sorts of things that most people run away screaming from. When doing something like that, it's not worth it unless you enjoy doing it or at least learning about technical stuff and find fulfillment in the problem-solving, do-it-yourself mentality. [/quote]Why worry about all that mess when Dell can do it for you, plus include a warranty.
I don't have time for that, I'd rather be posting here!
I don't have time for that, I'd rather be posting here!
Yep, thus all my disclaimers about enjoying it and such As a related note, I seem to find great interest in the 'For All The Dorks...' thread as well; I'm pretty sure the two interests are correlated in a geeky way At least I work out!
TechBargains seems like a cool thing, spotting short deals around places. I bought all my stuff at NewEgg, as they have a ridiculously good reputation for exchanging bad equipment and having your order get to you quicker than originally stated.
I've been a fan of Price Watch for components, but Tech Bargains has been good to me, too. I like minor--not major--headaches when it comes to computer building, which is why I might buy a complete gaming system from Vitality and just modify a couple things on their ready-to-go system when the mood strikes.
As for Linux, I downloaded Mandriva last night as I HAVE to have a GUI OS (MEPIS and Ubuntu just didn't blow my skirt up). Fortunately, I can use my laptop to experiment with software without worrying about losing vital information (as long as I remember to unplug my external hard drive BEFORE blindly formatting everything) Hopefully I can get to that sometime this weekend or next week. I may do a double-OS install on the laptop until I get as comfortable with Linux as I am with Windows.
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It sounds like you're taking the right approach with Linux (nice and slow). I only recommended it because you seemed to be in a bit of a bind with all of the XP installs.
To answer the other questions. A Linux box can live confortably live within a Windows environment. Linux can be either a server or a desktop and you can share the files with Windows boxes and the Windows boxes can share files with Linux. As for the command line fear, most of the stuff you do at the command line can be done through a GUI interface. The popular windows managers are Gnome and KDE -- both look somewhat like Mac and Windows smooshed together.
Finally there is a Linux equivalent to almost every Windows program (Open Office vs. Office, Firefox vs. IE, Gimp vs. Photoshop) but generally they are not quiet as polished, although perfectly acceptable.
I'm not a Linux fanatic but if you want to go cheap AND legal it is the only way to go. And, of course you have much less of a fear of viruses, spyware and a like, but gaming on Linux pretty much sucks ass.
Mandriva is a good desktop choice and I think they just released a new version.
Yeah, I tried to get into Linux awhile back and got freaked out at the partitioning stage. Of course, they didn't have the GUIs that they do now. I'll probably put the Windows (for gaming performance) and Linux (for everything else) on the desktop and laptop and unsupported Windows alone on the TiVo (since it won't be networked). I saw a couple lists of Windows-like programs for Linux, and they were impressive. Like the OS itself, it'll probably take some time (several months to a year) of forcing myself to use the Linux-based apps to get comfortable with them. Until then, I'll maintain my Windows-based apps as my teddy bear/security blanket [img]smile.gif[/img] My biggest fear is e-mail. I have a small company's worth of e-mail stored in Outlook PST files. I know that Thunderbird can convert them over to plain text and that TB, being a Mozilla product, works well with Linux. I just worry about cross-compatibility and root file system issues between Windows and Linux. If my fears are unfounded, please tell me.
Now, see, my question is how would you get to Gnome and KDE from the command line? I mean, I'm just that ignorant of command line computing. I somehow made it through keyboarding class on MS-DOS but only because we had a step-by-step guide to get into different programs attached to our computers. According to several Linux websites, Mandriva seems to be the consensus for those of us chained to the Windows GUI [img]smile.gif[/img]
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The way I got myself to learn linux when I was in a similar situation was to put linux, and only linux, on my computer and force myself to do everyday things on it. This was a pretty brutal method of learning, but it certainly did the trick faster than other ways I could think of. I tried doing one computer linux, the other Windows, and I barely touched the Linux box.
I applaud your sacrifice, P. I would mirror that if not for needing to KNOW I have stuff available for work (I host our startup company's website on here), hence my hope of using the laptop as an experiment. I HAVE to use my laptop for some side work, so I can't completely neglect it.
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I understand the need for work, without being able to do your job, you don't get money to spend on any computers, let along building anything yourself. In my case, I knew that I could do most of my Computer Science projects in linux once I figured out how to compile and such, and I got much better with the command line as time went on, but the initial period was pretty rough. There are actually some pretty useful things to do command line, especially piping and redirection, but not necessary. I would, however, look up a tutorial on compiling source code, as you might need to do a bunch of that for some programs; I think many of the README files that come with source code list the commands (i.e. make, make install, etc.).
Well, P, my laptop is now ready for a full Linux install. I always partition my machines to run the OS on C: and all program files on D:, so I still have all my files, just no OS. I wiped Windows off today and tried installing Mandriva LE 2005 using the "mini" ISO file offered, but I only got a blank desktop with an analog clock face in the corner with no discernable way to open any programs (don't know if they even installed), so it's once again wiped clean, and I'll attempt the full install with the whole 3-CD setup tomorrow while I'm at work. Probably works out for the best since Sunday mornings are SOOOOOOOOO slow at work. I'll report on my progress(?) along the way.
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The *nixes are fun once you can the hang of them. I use FreeBSD and Fedora, the reason why I haven't switched is that I need an outlook clone along with something to do video editing.
I'm ditching XP to move to OS X soon, bye bye Microsloth.
Sweet! Successful installation of a full Linux GUI! Obviously, it looks similar to the Windows desktop, but then, that's why I went with the Mandriva version. I've been poking around and am really liking what I see so far. Just sucks that having my laptop at work means I can't hook it up to the Internet to get updates and other software.
My only question as this point is this: as I mentioned in my previous post, my hard drive is partitioned to run Windows in a 2-drive setup (C - OS, D - program and all other files). C: is now setup with Linux, but I can't access the contents of D:, which is where I backed up everything (My Docs, bookmarks, etc). The Linux file system explorer doesn't even show the drive. I assume that D: being NTFS has something to do with this. Suggestions?
EDIT: I think I just found the drive under /mnt/windows (whatever that means)...
EDIT2: Yes, I did find the files. I just forgot how little I saved on the laptop (and for good reason). I'm impressed at how well Linux apps work with Windows files (Excel files can stay Excel files, PDFs are automatically built into word processing, etc). I can't wait to get home and get this thing online.
EDIT3: OMG, I'm getting giddy. I just ran through all the programs installed with this OS and almost nutted myself when I found Audacity. It's a linear audio editor very similar to the Audicy console at work and has some similarities with Adobe Audition. A couple months getting used to moving around in Linux, and I'll be fully converted from Windows. [img]smile.gif[/img]
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Okie dokie, one glitch I've found is that the OS won't recognize my external hard drive, regardless of connecting it before or after startup. An icon for the drive appears on the desktop when it's plugged in (USB 2.0), but when I attempt to open it, I get "Could not enter folder /mnt/New_Volume". Of all things my laptop needs to do, getting the music files on that external drive is the most important right now (I use a lot of it for work). NOW I'd love some suggestions [img]smile.gif[/img] I've dug around on the web on numerous help forums that showed up on Google, but nothing they've suggested has worked.
I LOVE NEW SOFTWARE! [img]smile.gif[/img]
Edit: Apparently I need to be logged in as the administrator rather than just a user to access the drive. I'll report back with how this goes (still trying to figure out how to login as the admin).
Edit2: Even logged in as the admin, I keep getting a message that says it can't change permissions on the drive, for the admin or any users. I'm sure this is a hiccup of Windows, but any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
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Get used to having to do things as 'root'. One command-line thing you should become familiar with is 'sudo (various commands)', meaning do some command as the root user. In Linux, there are a lot more security details to worry about, but not such a big deal once you get used to it.
Unfortunately I can be of little help when it comes to using an NTFS drive in linux; generally NTFS support wasn't complete during all the times that I had linux installed, and I've never had an external HD (except since I've had an iPod, but I only use that for the purposes of quickly backing up stuff when doing a reinstall).
It's good that you're finding all the apps that you need quickly. I think one of the harder things for me to get used to was the directory structure of linux (/, /usr,/home,/var,etc...). Eventually it will just 'click' for you; however, having not used linux in a little while, I'm a bit rusty myself. I do have a Powerbook, though, and naturally OSX has the best GUI for an underlying linux base (ok, modified FreeBSD base, close enough if anyone wanted to be anal and nitpick my statements )
Yeah, I'm finding out the "root" thing. I'm now reading that Linux cannot write to an NTFS drive, though it can read the contents. Linux CAN write to FAT16/FAT32 drives, though, so I suppose for cross-compatibility, I'd be best served with a FAT32 on the external drive, meaning I need to backup 60GB of music somehow, not good considering that drive IS my usual backup drive.
I have managed to copy files from my old D: drive (also NTFS) to my current Linux drive in hopes of formatting D: to FAT32. I'm not really sure how that will help me with the larger drive, but it's a start, it seems...
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Now that you've said the part about not being able to write to an NTFS drive, I think I knew that, it had just been a while so I forgot...my bad! At least you probably learned more stuff researching it on your own. The good thing about having to look up a lot of stuff is that you're going to pick up how to do a bunch of other things along the way from reading through different articles and such, trying to find the exact answer you need but having to sift through a lot of material.
My contingency plan is to download all Microsoft updates without installing them, copy the install files to each computer, then execute them without an Internet connection.
Linear Mode
