Taking this another step I would:
1 Figure out your end goal with this machine
a Gaming machine
b programming
c learning
2 Figure out your budget.
a remember some parts can be had really cheap, but if you are making a
gamers box you will want to spend a little extra on a video card or you will
have an awesome gaming machine in 800x600 only :-)
b If you are going to be using this for programming and networking pick
a
mother board that is stable and stay away from overclocking IMHO it can if
not set up properly affect your stability.
c Buy memory it is dirt cheap right now I am running 1GB of 133MHz
memory
and I spent a whopping $70.00 plus tax for it.
d If money is tight buy a cheap sound card and speakers and upgrade
later
again IMHO.
e check your distro of choice and make certain you have compatible
hardware.
You may get the video card of the gods and have crappy performance because it
is not supported yet.
f buy a decent sized hard drive again they are running very cheap right
now
you can get a 40GB Hard Drive for around a $100.00.
3 If you know what you want to do with your computer choose a distrobution
that is well sopported and stay away from the off distros this way you can
get more help online and on this list.
a Debian always a great choice IMHO
b Mandrake and SuSE have just come out with some incredible new distros.
Mandrake 8.1 is very stable and user friendly. While Red Hat 7.2 is more
business oriented IMHO, but some swear by it.
c There are other choices read reviews online, but stick with one of the
four I have mentioned you will be the better for it. However if you are
attracted to distro XYZ and you just have to try it out download it and try
out the free version first then if you really like it go out and buy it so
they can continue to make it IMHO.
4 As the IF coordinator I would be hard pressed not to metion if you run into
problems and need help sing up for the Install Fest at
http://www.lugod.org/if and we can work out the bugs for you.
5 Most important have fun :-)
Rusty
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Wednesday 31 October 2001 17:26, you wrote:
> First, set a price, then pick a CPU brand (AMD comes to mind), then pick
> your motherboard, then your peripherals. Lastly, pick your CPU speed.
> CPU speed is such a non-factor nowadays. Us computer architects have done
> our jobs so well...... (make your own conclusions on this one) (at least
> on the desktop machine)
>
> Anyway, building your own PC is very instructive and really gives a
> hands-on perspective into how everything works.
>
> FL
>
> On Wed, 31 Oct 2001, Alexandra Thorn wrote:
> > Attempted to send this before, but hadn't properly added myself to
> > the list, so it didn't go through. Pete has been offering me some
> > suggestions, but I'd like other angles on this as well.
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Alex
> >
> > Original post:
> > Hi. I'm a relative newbie to the universe of geekdom, but want to
> > jump into things. I know I met some of you at the LUGOD meeting with
> > the lecture on Mac OSX. I'm a longtime Mac user myself, but want to
> > make the switch to Linux. First, though, I'm interested in building
> > myself a PC on which to install Linux. Never having done anything like
> > this before, I really don't know where to look for hardware, what exactly
> > I'll need, or how to decide among whatever options exist. So, if any
> > of you can offer guidance, etc., it would be much appreciated. If
> > someone would be willing to guide me through this step-by-step, that
> > would be even better.
> >
> > As a sidenote (I don't know how much it really matters), I don't have
> > a car.
> >
> > Thanks in advance!
> > --Alex(andra) Thorn
> >
> > "This is exactly the kind of high-tech
> > nonsense that never, ever worked when
> > we tried it in Vietnam"
> >
> > - Uncle Enzo, a character from
> > Neal Stephenson's _Snow Crash_
