Re: Need hardware recommendations
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far way, someone said... (1) Motherboard I intend to get a P-III CPU (probably 800EB). One store from where I got a quote recommended the ASUS CUSL2 i815e mobo. My current system has a BX-based ABIT BH6 which has served me well. Anyone care to comment on ASUS boards (I have almost always heard good things about them) ? Recommendations/opinions/experiences for other boards (Tyan, Soyo) including current ABIT offerings ? I would avoid Soyo like the plague. I can't think about their Socket 7 boards without running in horror... I've had good experiences with Abit, Asus, and Tyan. I would also consider getting an Athlon Thunderbird - they're cheaper than a PII with a higher clock speed, and are faster as well. BTW, I don't plan to overclock this system. Smart boy :) (2) SCSI I intend to have a SCSI hard drive for this system, and maybe later a SCSI CD-Burner (see below). In a recent thread on this list, I heard someone mention the Adaptec Ultra160-based 29160N card. Which is newer: an UltraWide2-based card, or an Ultra160-based card ? The Ultra160 is newer and quite a bit faster. Fortunately highly backwards-compatible :) Ultra160 == Ultra3 Wide SCSI. I am not sure about which HD to consider. I need a SCSI HD = 10 Gb. Seagate drives are good. I haven't ever had a system with SCSI components, so is there anything else I should know ? I'd prefer to stick with the latest SCSI technology. The termination on Ultra-, Ultra2-, and Ultra160- Wide devices can get tricky. (3) Printer I am considering the HP 1100 laser printer. But have heard good things about Lexmark printers (Optra 310/E310/E312). I am looking for a laser printer that is capable of 600dpi (at least), and is easy to setup under Linux (of course!). It would be nice to get a printer that is supported under both Linux and FreeBSD, as I do intend to run FreeBSD on this machine from time to time. One odd thing I noticed about the HP 1100's specs on HP's site is that Windows 2000 is not listed under the supported OSes. Is this true ? I need a printer that works under Windows 2000 in addition to Linux. Just cause it doesn't say it's supported under Win2k doesn't mean it won't work :) IIRC the HP 1100 is the replacement for the 6L; both work fine with the generic lj4l driver in ghostscript. I've used the LaserJet 5L PCL driver with a 1100 with good results under NT4. (4) Network Card I need a good 10/100 PCI card. How well are DLINK cards (e.g. DLINK 10/100 RTL) supported under Linux ? I was considering the 3Com 905/vortex PCI card[*], as I have had a linux system with it and it worked flawlessly. The D-Link 530+ (I think that's right) uses the rtl8139 driver; some people have had trouble with those cards, however. The Linksys 10/100 card is an excellent unit as well, and doesn't cost much more than the D-Link card. (5) CD-Burner I was told that SCSI CD-Burners tend to perform the best under Linux and cause the least problems, which is why I decided to go SCSI in this new system. Plextor has been recommended. Are there any other SCSI CD burners that work well under Linux ? Can't help there. (6) Removable storage How well are Iomega zip and Jaz drives supported ? I haven't ever worked with removable storage media, so I'd appreciate any info about which ones to consider. Zip drives work fine (IDE and SCSI). I've never used a Jaz. - -- - -- Phil Brutsche [EMAIL PROTECTED] GPG fingerprint: 9BF9 D84C 37D0 4FA7 1F2D 7E5E FD94 D264 50DE 1CFC GPG key id: 50DE1CFC GPG public key: http://tux.creighton.edu/~pbrutsch/gpg-public-key.asc -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.0.4 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iD8DBQE6D5PD/ZTSZFDeHPwRAlDQAJ9+Js91jr2w+lulOuLVqGfac5QraQCfRZGm j28XC2tTK0993tRC1te2RHY= =DEyY -END PGP SIGNATURE-
Re: Need hardware recommendations
At 12:49 AM 11/13/00 -0500, you wrote: I will be scavenging a sound card (SB PCI 128), video card (Matrox Millennium G200), and CD-ROM (Creative 52x) from the current desktop which will subsequently be turned into a headless server. ... Price isn't too much of a consideration since this desktop system will be a business expense and I will be leasing the system, but I don't want to go overboard :) The leasing company might not be happy with you sticking your own bits in their machine... something to watch for. (1) Motherboard I intend to get a P-III CPU (probably 800EB). One store from where I got Asus truely rocks... I have a strong preference for asus boards (note 1) (2) SCSI Which is newer: an UltraWide2-based card, or an Ultra160-based card ? SCSI 160 is the far more recent standard. Its getting hard to find U2W controllers now. (note 1) I am not sure about which HD to consider. I need a SCSI HD = 10 Gb. I haven't ever had a system with SCSI components, so is there anything else I should know ? Yes - its bloody expensive compared to the same size IDE drives, and unless you load the system (burn CDs while playing quake) then you'd not notice a huge difference. (3) Printer I am considering the HP 1100 laser printer. But have heard good things about Lexmark printers (Optra 310/E310/E312). I am looking for a laser printer that is capable of 600dpi (at least), and is easy to setup under Linux (of course!). It would be nice to get a printer that is supported under both Linux and FreeBSD, as I do intend to run FreeBSD on this machine from time to time. Okay - you mention below that you'll have a network card, and hence probably a network. Have you considered a HP 2100 TN? Twin tray, jetdirect network interface, and postscript. What more could you want for under $2000 NZ (fsck knows what it is in your local currency :) One odd thing I noticed about the HP 1100's specs on HP's site is that Windows 2000 is not listed under the supported OSes. Is this true ? I need a printer that works under Windows 2000 in addition to Linux. That'll be because the 1100 is older than win2000. (4) Network Card I need a good 10/100 PCI card. How well are DLINK cards (e.g. DLINK 10/100 RTL) supported under Linux ? I was considering the 3Com 905/vortex PCI card[*], as I have had a linux system with it and it worked flawlessly. Again - if you have a preference then go for it... I use SMC or tulip cards in servers where possible. (5) CD-Burner I was told that SCSI CD-Burners tend to perform the best under Linux and cause the least problems, which is why I decided to go SCSI in this new system. Plextor has been recommended. Are there any other SCSI CD burners that work well under Linux ? Plextor is to CD drives as Asus is to motherboards. Go hard on a plextor and it just keeps on going. (6) Removable storage How well are Iomega zip and Jaz drives supported ? Zips work fine in linux and have for years... but you have a CD writer in this system... it will do everything a zip drive would do and be 5 times the size. Jaz drives are overpriced and fragile. Of course IDE or SCSI is best for a zip or LS120, don't go parallel port, and USB is just a bit too non-standard at the moment. Also theres the 250 Mb/100 Mb drives about. Remember media costs too. note 1 - The leasing company are not selling you a computer. Most likely they have name brand machines like compaq or IBMs or Digitals that will have a higher value in three or five or six years. You might end up with whatever the standard line is. Also I suggest you investigate rent-to-own... its a lease with an added clause that you get the option of purchase at the end of the lease for a nominal one-off payment, but this is not standard in all leases. -- Criggie
Re: Need hardware recommendations
on Mon, Nov 13, 2000 at 12:49:54AM -0500, S . Salman Ahmed ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: I have to get a new (desktop) system for my home use, and wanted to get recommendations from this list about some of the hardware components. I will be scavenging a sound card (SB PCI 128), video card (Matrox Millennium G200), and CD-ROM (Creative 52x) from the current desktop which will subsequently be turned into a headless server. Price isn't too much of a consideration since this desktop system will be a business expense and I will be leasing the system, but I don't want to go overboard :) ... (2) SCSI I intend to have a SCSI hard drive for this system, and maybe later a SCSI CD-Burner (see below). In a recent thread on this list, I heard someone mention the Adaptec Ultra160-based 29160N card. Which is newer: an UltraWide2-based card, or an Ultra160-based card ? I am not sure about which HD to consider. I need a SCSI HD = 10 Gb. You'll have trouble finding anything smaller. I've got a couple of 3 y.o. Seagate Baracuda 2 GB SCSIs, happy. IBM's got a good rep (and price to match). Western Digital's been having problems lately, from what I hear. I haven't ever had a system with SCSI components, so is there anything else I should know ? I'd prefer to stick with the latest SCSI technology. It's easier than you think. Chaining SCSI devices is fairly simple, and tends to work. (3) Printer I am considering the HP 1100 laser printer. All I can say is good. InkJet sucks, is slow, and is tremendously expensive on a per-page basis. One odd thing I noticed about the HP 1100's specs on HP's site is that Windows 2000 is not listed under the supported OSes. Is this true ? Quite possibly. HP's had a lot of trouble/issues in getting their Win2K drivers out. The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/) has been carrying this story for a while, might search their archives. Last I'd heard, support was supposed to have been provided by mid-summer, I guess they slipped. HP got fairly radically screwed by Microsoft in the PC space following a loudly trumpeted NT partnership ~1997. Not much love lost as far as I can tell. (4) Network Card I need a good 10/100 PCI card. How well are DLINK cards (e.g. DLINK 10/100 RTL) supported under Linux ? I was considering the 3Com 905/vortex PCI card[*], as I have had a linux system with it and it worked flawlessly. I've got a LinkSys card, 10/100, US$14. Love it. (6) Removable storage How well are Iomega ... Iomage sucks eggs, blows chunks, and spews forth shit copiously. They simply suck beyond belief. Zip is feasible, though I'd take the 120 superdisk in a heartbeat. Jaz is simply too fucked to consider. Cost is rediculous ($200 will buy you a $40 GB IDE disk, or 2GB Jaz), reliabilty stinks, and their customer service makes all the above seem sterling. The company should die a horrible death, after someone rather more creative than me can think of ways to make them welcome it. For data storage, reliability and recoverability is paramount, Iomega's walked all over their customers with over-hyped, under-performing products which screw with your data. I've blown over $1000 on Jaz drive and media, have never had the crap work for more than a couple months at a stretch, frequently less, and often found the drives and/or media DoA -- been through multiple drive and media replacements on very light use. Errors propogate -- bad media damage drives, bad drives damage media. GNU/Linux support from Iomega is nonexistant. If you need a backup solution, stick to SCSI tape. It works. It's reliable. It's proven. Quality vendors (HP, IBM, Sony) stand by their products. For file transport and/or random (rather than sequential) access, CDR or CDRW is pretty much the accepted standard. Cartridge-mount IDE disk is a viable cross-system portable storage solution, at a cost that blows Jaz out of the water. If you're looking for a more advanced and flexible solution, magneto-optical provides relatively large-format (1-2 GB) storage with reasonably fast read and write rates, and solid reliability, but at a cost. The technology is slightly too expensive for widespread consumer adoption, which is a real pity, but it's fairly popular in professional applications. -- Karsten M. Self kmself@ix.netcom.com http://www.netcom.com/~kmself Evangelist, Zelerate, Inc. http://www.zelerate.org What part of Gestalt don't you understand? There is no K5 cabal http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/http://www.kuro5hin.org pgpa0ZX02GJfK.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Need hardware recommendations
Obviously Phil Brutsche [EMAIL PROTECTED] thinks that: I would avoid Soyo like the plague. I can't think about their Socket 7 boards without running in horror... Hmmm, been running Soyo board with a PI/133 some time ago and worked pretty fine, for what I thought... Personally I had worst experiences with ASUS boards at work, so right now most of the time we are using Abit or NMC boards which seem to be good... Anyway, guess I don't have to tell You that it's not at all considerable to use a board with sound / graphics controller / NIC onboard. :))) I would also consider getting an Athlon Thunderbird - they're cheaper than a PII with a higher clock speed, and are faster as well. Right on that, our Athlon-Linux machines totally outperformed PIII systems of the same speed (and especially those of the same price ;) ). I am considering the HP 1100 laser printer. But have heard good things about Lexmark printers (Optra 310/E310/E312). I am looking for a laser printer that is capable of 600dpi (at least), and is easy to setup under Linux (of course!). It would be nice to get a printer that is supported under both Linux and FreeBSD, as I do intend to run FreeBSD on this machine from time to time. Actually, I would stay with HP printers because for what I tried out so far, seems they are most compliant on all OS platforms, speaking they do well with Linux and *BSD same as with the Ruindows OSes if this is of interest. Personally, we also used some Kyocera printers in Linux very often, with pleasing results. (5) CD-Burner I was told that SCSI CD-Burners tend to perform the best under Linux and cause the least problems, which is why I decided to go SCSI in this new system. Plextor has been recommended. Are there any other SCSI CD burners that work well under Linux ? Already seen devices by Ricoh, TraxData or TEAC work fine in Linux, but my first choice would be Plextor, as well.. :)) Regards, Kristian -- -- And the things that we fear are the weapons to be used against us. (Rush) Kristian Rink mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] fax : ++49 / 180 5052 5560 8162 =encrypted mail welcome. contact me for pgp key. --
