# going to buy a new pc, here are the specs:

## kraylus

i was hired at stream international a week ago and now that money's rollin in i'm going to buy me a phat ass pc!

since i want something to replace my p233 RIGHT NOW i'm going to purchase low end hardware and when christmas rolls around i intend to get the latest nvidia card and upgrade my ram to the max (3GB!!)

here're the specs (i'm leaving the case out for obvious reason - im sure gentoo doesnt give a fuck):

NOTE: please keep in mind that i'm going for an even price:performance ratio. DO NOT recommend any other hardware unless it has known fatal, unfixable issues with gentoo.

AMD ATHLON XP 1800+ 1.53GHZ 256K 266FSB OEM

MICROSTAR MS-6380E KT3 ULTRA KT333 SOCKET A DDR333 AGP 5PCI ATA133 W/ AUDIO BADASS MOTHERBOARD!

MSI GeForce2 MX200 32MB AGP (yes, i know, but this christmas...)

WD CAVIAR 40GB 7200RPM ATA/100 HD 3.5LP 9MS 2MB

MICRON PC2100 256MB DDR 266MHZ CAS2.5 OEM

ASUS 52X ULTRADMA CD-ROM

there you have it. that's the basic stuff. the sound on the motherboard is SOUNDBLASTER/AC97 whatever that means (i recall alotta people having problems with AC97....)

am i missing anything?

im also aware that nvidia cards are slightly different to setup in linux than other video cards. something about needing to have an nvidia kernel and modules or some such. is this a pain in the ass?

thanks so much, everyone! i cant wait til two paychecks from now *drool*

does anyone know how long it'd take to do a stage1 gentoo install on a machine like that? how long would it take to compile a kernel??

by the way, with case and everything else (im building the machine myself) it's only costing me roughly 500 american (732.75 canadian)

bahh, im so excited. ill shutup now. thanks!

ryan

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## abhishek

Nvdia cards have the best suppourt for linux, so yes u need to do something extra. I don't think its too much(but ive never done it).

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## credmp

After a kernel compile you need to emerge the nvidia-kernel and nvidia-glx modules, but thats all laid out in the Desktop config doc... so just RTFM and it works like a charm  :Wink: 

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## 3x9

Kraylus

B4 you pee yourself,  think twice about postings

Gentoo-ers  pls note -  B.C does have a viable  education system, possibly this one 

imigrated  from  outside Canada  ( it  ends, Approx.  100 miles east of the B.C. - Alberta border)

  As for H/ware,  for the same  $$   get a Decent M/brd, such as Gigabyte.

(AC 97  supported better in Linux than under Win$$  - use Alsa  drivers )

For little more $$  buy a DVD -rom,  the initial  speed is better than CDrom.

Unless  you cannot live w/out a burner,   then  two are needed for on-the fly  burning &

supperior  MTBF   (Burners create heat, the heads are far heavier)  Get el-cheapo  vid-card

until you can afford  the best,  like the monitor,  the results are what you always stare at !

WD has had problems, suggest  Maxtor or Seagate,  best two of them,   60 or 80 GiG.

3 Gig DDR will be waste,  you will never come close to using it.    If your needs are that 

heavy,   build a Beowulf cluster.  My Gig 7dxr  has two  BIOS's,  raid  (8 IDE )  never

any stability problems, as has been  noted w/MSI  ( & others)

Your dime, your choice,   but if you want bang -4- buck  ??

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## metalhedd

I have the same motherboard and quite frankly I'm disappointed.  I have always been an MSI user and always liked their boards but their KT333 board has very poor performance compared to other KT333 boards (I believe Toms hardware said its performance is not noticably better than the MSI 266 boards), and It has caused me more trouble than its worth.  don't get me wrong, I've NEVER had a lock up or anything, but every time i change a peice of hardware or move my computer it takes me 10-15 tries to get the system to boot back up again.  I get wierd beep codes and no video... I usually have to remove everything and reinsert it before the system will boot again.  this happens to me *EVERYTIME* I move my computer, its quite annoying.  my friend got an Epox KT333 board, hasn't had any problems, i've heard good things aboyut the gigabyte boards too.

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## mellofone

 *metalhedd wrote:*   

> I have the same motherboard and quite frankly I'm disappointed.  I have always been an MSI user and always liked their boards but their KT333 board has very poor performance compared to other KT333 boards (I believe Toms hardware said its performance is not noticably better than the MSI 266 boards), and It has caused me more trouble than its worth.  don't get me wrong, I've NEVER had a lock up or anything, but every time i change a peice of hardware or move my computer it takes me 10-15 tries to get the system to boot back up again.  I get wierd beep codes and no video... I usually have to remove everything and reinsert it before the system will boot again.  this happens to me *EVERYTIME* I move my computer, its quite annoying.  my friend got an Epox KT333 board, hasn't had any problems, i've heard good things aboyut the gigabyte boards too.

 

Interesting. I have been using a slew of these boards and have never had a single problem. I have used everything MSI from this board, the Turbo2 series, as well as the 6390s and have never had s single problem...

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## metalhedd

[quote="mellofone]

Interesting. I have been using a slew of these boards and have never had a single problem. I have used everything MSI from this board, the Turbo2 series, as well as the 6390s and have never had s single problem...[/quote]

well, I tend to be kinda hard on my hardware.  its constantly being moved, or having parts added/removed, but i've never had problems like that before either.  I had the K7T Pro2-A motherboard before this one and it died after about a year and a half.. hmm. I had forgotten about that but now that I take both incidents into consideration... Screw MSI.  Shoddy crap.  :Smile: 

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## mellofone

 *metalhedd wrote:*   

> 
> 
> well, I tend to be kinda hard on my hardware.  its constantly being moved, or having parts added/removed, but i've never had problems like that before either.  I had the K7T Pro2-A motherboard before this one and it died after about a year and a half.. hmm. I had forgotten about that but now that I take both incidents into consideration... Screw MSI.  Shoddy crap. 

 

Hehheeh. Actually, at work we have 15 MSI boards on [turbo2] on lab carts that are used to teach students about PC problem solving. They are ripped apart 10-20 times a week, and havn't had a problem yet.

Plus they are inexpensive as hell  :Smile: 

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## kraylus

then it's settled! i'll stick with MSI.

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