New Hardware, any Suggestions?

[mrl-scotland]

Hi there,

I am looking to order the bits for a new pc soon and would like to hear your opinions on what's hot and what's not.

I'me looking for a fast and stable machine to run Linux (RH7.2) to act as a development and learning platform and to control a small network of 5 PC's.

Any idea's / opinions / critisms about the following set up ...


* * * * * * 1 *ATX Midi Tower Case Viper * * * * *
* * * * * * 1 *QDI Platinex 2A (P4 Skt 478) M/Brd * *
* * * * * * 1 *Intel P4 Socket 478 1.7GHz PC133 * * *
* * * * * * 1 *ATX 80mm Case Fans * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * 1 *40 Gb IDE Hard Drive * * ** * * *
* * * * * * 1 *Upgrade Case PSU to P4 300W * * * * *
* * * * * * 1 *S/Blaster 128 PCI * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * 4 *256Meg PC133 *DIMM 168 Pin * * * * * *
* * * * * * 1 *32Mb G450 Dual Head Video Card * * * *
*
I am really interested to hear what you think of the following points ..

The platinex motherboard and P4 chip - are they worth it? Any problems running linux on these?

Also, I have never used a Matrox video card before but have seen they have been the topic of many posts. I am nervous of using this card but would like the dual head functions. I am not into Games but I do like to get the best out of desktops. Do you think this is the Card for me (the 450 that is)?

Any comments are welcome, thanks in advance

Mike

[Choozo]

If this was me - I would switch the motherboard and CPU for a Abit/MSI SocketA board and a AMD XP processor. Price/performance for the AMDs is way ahead of Intel.

Just my 2 øre :D

[doublec16]

I agree that you should consider an AMD CPU and MB, and DDR RAM. Also you should put as many case fans in it as will fit, to keep it cool. and get a good HSF, because you are going for a fast CPU which will generate lots of heat. Put the fans blowing into the case in the front and the ones blowing out at the back. Consider building the computer yourself, because it is less expensive and quite fun. :)

[mrl-scotland]

Hi there,

Thanks for the words of advice ...

I'me going to look into the AMD gear a bit more.Are there any issues you know of with RH7.1 (7.2 even)?

I'll be ordering the parts (yep, plan to self build) next week so that gives me some research time. There seem to be a lot of negative comments in this forum about AMD and I am geussing that they need a bit more care and attention than Intel chips?

I hear what you are saying about heat, I was planning one case mount fan but that does not appear to be good enough. I'd be gutted if the chip burned up!!

Double:
You say fans in the front and back - do you mean not just two (1 front 1 back). If so any advice on how to keep sound (fan noise) down. I tend to be pn the comp late at night and the fan noise from two machne (just one fan each) drives me mad.

Also I was planning on building a perspex fronted case to put all the machines in, and then feeding this case with a conduate to a remote blast fan to keep air flowing. Do you think I am asking for trouble?

Geeps, you've got me paranoid about heat now :p Do you know of any system that will mesure the temp of vital internals and act accoringly (maybe force a controlled shutdown or lighten the CPU load).

Just going off on a tangent, Could this heat not be used for some good (my two pc's produce enough heat to keep my room at a comfortable temp, and this is Scotland). If the Processor could be water cooled how long would it take to heat enough water for a coffee? May sound mad but I bet there is a market for that!

Cheers for the advice :)

[thedexman]

I would look into the Athlon solely because of the fact of DDR SDRAM. You're paying a significant performance penalty if you combine a fast CPU with slow RAM such as the PC133 SDRAM.

Heat can be an issue, but is usually easily solved. I cannot comment on heatsinks specifically for the Athlon thunderbirds or P4's, but you definitely want good quality. I use one made by Alpha on my Athlon classic, and it works wonderfully (although a bit expensive, ~$55).

If you have multiple fans in your computer (which you probably should), the key to noise control is to get a quality fan. Look in to brands such as Panaflow, Sunon, and perhaps Papst if you can find any. Low speed versions are very quiet. Typically there will be an intake fan on the lower front, and an exhaust on the upper rear, plus the powersupply's exhaust fan, and a fan on the heatsink. It can get loud, but quality components help control this.

Your idea with the conduit sounds like a nice idea.

As far as your tangent, I share a room with one other person, and between our 4 computers (800MHz Athlon Classic (slot),and a 1.4GHz Tbird, K6-233, 100MHz 486) , the bedroom is 5 degrees farenheight warmer than any of the other rooms in the apartment we are in.

I won't ramble on too much longer, but getting brand name RAM can make a lot of difference in your system's reliability, and is not significantly more expensive now days than buying generic.

Lastly power supplies. A generic powersupply can also be murder on an otherwise good system. Look into Enermax and PC Power & Cooling (PC P&C are very expensive). Tom's Hardware (www.tomshardware.com) has a recent editorial up about cheap powersupplies. Just remember that the heavier it is, the better.

[YaRness]

gigabyte 7dxr board + fastest athlon you can afford + 512 megs (or more!) of pc2100 ddr ram @ crucial.com

:D

[Choozo]

Check out http://www.thermaltake.com for some really nice heatsink/coolers for the AMDs. I use a Chrome Orb on my Duron 700 which have kept it nice and cool for several months uptime :) (yes, there is a distinct sound of air rushing through the heatsink 'gills' on those models, but its tolerable.)

Cheers :)