On Tue, 2 Nov 1999, Yasin A. Vohra wrote:
> OS : Windows and Linux , and maybe Beos
>
Introducing BeOS makes this aclassic three body problem ( = NP-annoying,
heh heh).
> DVD drive,
*shrug* no idea (no budget or need for a DVD drive at teh moment ;) )
> iomega zip drive,
AFAIK linux should support this, either through SCSI or parport.
> Sound Card,
Soundblaster is probably your best bet, like an AWE 64 or so.
> Network Card,
If you have money, get a 3com. If not, get a NE2000-compatible
(pref. pci) card.
> Video Card (play games sometimes)
>
My new riva TNT runs nice, but be sure to use a recent distro so that X
knows what to make of it. You can get one from ~70. I also have a funky
dual-voodoo2-on-one-board thing, that gives me about 70-75 frames per
second in 16bit color 1024x768 quake2 with my other hardware in windows,
but I haven't gotten around to cajoling it to work in linux yet. I've
heard good things about Matrox cards too.
> I am also interested in a 21 inch monitor. Any suggestion
> please
> let me know. My budget for both is around 2K - 2200 $.
You could probably get a 21 off of pricewatch for ?300? dollars, but you'd
have a hellacious shipping charge to pay too... :^D If you want my advice
I'd say skip the DVD for now. Their support in linux is questionable at
the moment, and they aren't cheap. Go for at least 128 meg of ram, more
if you can afford it. An AMD K6-(2 || 3) / Super7 motherboard will
perform similarly to an equivalently clocked (p2 || celeron) / BX
motherboard, roughly (and you'll probably save ~100 bucks going that
route). Lots of disk space is good. If you are planning on heavy
concurrent IO SCSI disk(s) are a good idea. Look at www.tomshardware.com
for good reviews, and www.anandtech.com is good too. Cooling is good,
and the default fans from Intel (the ones that come with retail box
p2s/celerons) are OK for most purposes. Ask if the case will let you
mount another fan, and do so if possible (blowing OUT, and try to have the
pwr supply fan do the same). A three button mouse is very nice, and a
good scroll mouse is twice as nice. ;) The MS scroll mouse is pretty
nice. Never underestimate the value of a good, comfortable mouse / KB
combo, as being a computer nrrd you'll spend lots of time with it / them.
Many good motherboards exist, and sometimes even no-name ones are OK. The
"BCM" super7 board I got cheaply from chipsmart worked really well for a
year, just retired it a month ago (->abit bh6 + cel 300a(450)). Abit,
Asus, et al. all have good reputations. If you have LOTS of money and
want a Athlon system, I think only FIC makes Athlon boards that a DIYer
can buy.
Hmm, that's about all I can think of. Get copies of the "hardware
compatibility" lists if such exist in a centralised form for BeOS and
Linux (I _think_ there is a Hardware-HOWTO, at least there was one back in
the kernel 1.2 days when it was short...). Most anything will work with
win98 (but not NT!!!!).
Good luck!
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