New System planning -- Summary

[David Teague(T-bird acct)]

All:

Again apologies for posting to both groups, but both groups sent me
information and this seems to me to be an efficient way to send a
summary and a "thank you."

I asked on the Ubuntu and Libranet-OT lists about recommendations for
building a new system.

I heartily thank all of you for this, and invite further comment on these
remarks. Especially motherboard suggestions.

In particular, I thank Sasha Tsykin, Mike Koryciak, Ken Purcel, Keith,
Kim Briggs, and I am certain I owe others who were inadvertently
omitted but gave useful information thanks and an apology.

Here is as a summary of the recommendations:

 >To build a system that to run Linux (probably Ubuntu or Kubuntu,
 > possibly some other Debian derivative) and Windows. I would like a
 > recommendation of:

 > Motherboard? What have you used with some success?

Anything NForce based. Avoid MB with built-in low end graphics as when 
one adds
an nVidia card, the onboard graphics may not be completely disabled, 
causing problems
with Linux. Technology changes too fast for on-board video.


 > Processor do you like, preferably AMD. Which one? 32 or 64 bit? How fast?

You folks like AMD, and recommend 64 bit processor.

 > I will be doing sound processing, in real time, where it listens to 
me sing or play
 > and repeats with corrected pitch in real time.

 > How much RAM? 1GB? More? Less? (I think not.)
 > Advice on tech specs for RAM will be appreciated

You recommend 512 MB to 1 GB RAM, noting that more isn't likely to pay
for itself with increased performance. 

 > Sound card (it needs to give as close to professional quality sound 
as I can afford.)

go for 64 bit, M-Audio or Audigy Platinum, Subscribe to maximumpc, or
www.maximumpc.comand check www.ubuntu.comm, and MAKE SURE LINUX
DRIVERS EXIST FOR THE SOUND CARD (I read emphasis into the message)

 > Speakers? I need it flat from DC to infrared. No, not really. but as
 > flat as possible from 32 Hz to 20,000 Hz (low C string on my bass
 > to the highest frequency the human ear can hear, not that I can hear
 > it at my age.) Flat at the low end is the hardest and the most expensive
 > if I understand correctly.

Monitors are expensive ($2000 for a really good one.) Someone suggested that
I use just pretty decent speakers for general listening, but for $300, I 
can buy
a really good set of headphones for critical listening. I think that is 
the way to go.


 > DVD/CD Linux compatible reader/burner Lite-On? Windows runs nearly
 > anything here.

You seem to agree that anything works here. Any IDE DVD/CD burner is
going to work with Linux.

 > Flat Panel monitor, Make? Price? Size compared to a equivalent CRT 
monitor?

Samsung.
I may buy a flat panel, but I have a usable monitor that belonged to my 
wife, and
I'll probably use it until I can spring for a 17 inch flat panel, as 
space is at least
as much a  premium as money past much beyond $1500

You weigh in against ATI cards, and in favor of nVidia. I'm using an nVidia
GeForce MX 4000 right now and it works flawlessly, and is 2 x or 3 x as 
fast as
the MoBo video was. I may go one step or so higher.

 > What rodentia do you prefer? I think I will prefer my mice tethered, as
 > I tend to lose TV controllers, I am certain I will misplace an infrared
 > mouse. Does anyone use a trackball? What do you like? Hate?

"Logitech mx 510 works for me. Not expensive, anything compatible" 

 > I tend to be a pack rat, so I think gobs and gobs of disk space. Two
 > fast 160 GB drives?

SATA!!! Stay away from PATA. Serial ATA not Parallel (?) ATA???

You want huge hard drives with 16 MB buffers.
Two fast 160 GB drives will work, but not RAID, one 250 MB drive is cheaper.

Note:
RAID 0 is 2 drives, striped, faster, but not redundant.
RAID 1 is disk mirroring
RAID 2, 3 are not much used due to inefficiency of the design.
RAID 4 the drives are striped at the block level and a dececated ECC drive
RAID 5 the drives are striped and the ECC code is distributed.

There are other implementations. Once I found out about this, I decided I
can live without the redundancy and the expense.

 > Is it true that it is easier for Linux and Windows to coexist if 
installed on different disks?

NO.
Can't prove it by me.

Some don't like to have Windows coexisting with Linux, and one person
states he has lost systems where Linux was rendered inaccessible or had
its type changed by a hard reset or by a reinstall of Windows.

Keith says: There is a bug in Breezy where you install to the 2nd drive. If
you install to hdb, Breezy won't boot. He gives this fix:

If boot fails with Error 17, in grub press "e" to edit. Find thline that 
says
"root (hd1,0)" and change to "root (hd0,0) Press "b" to boot, once you're
up, "sudo vim /boot/grub/menu.lst" and make this change there to make it
permanent.

 > What have I missed?

Not much. Be sure you get an nVidia graphics card, they are better supported
in Linux than ATI

 > Any advice at all, even on part of this will be appreciated.
 
 > Someone will ask what my budget is. I think $1000 to $1500 is the budget,
 > but I would prefer to keep this to the lower side of that range, 
subject to
 > good sound, and there it can run to $1500 if need be.

 > Apology to those who see this several times as I will post this on
 > several lists.

Finally, Kim Briggs suggests that I split the money and get two machines
because I can't use Linux when I'm running Windows, and conversely,
and I can get a pretty decent machine for a fraction of the budget. "Dual
booting .. [is] more headaches than it is worth ...."

--David Teague

-- 

-- David Teague, cs.wcu.edu/~dbt -- Advocating Free Software and Double 
Bass tuned in fifths -- Classical Bass www.dennismasuzzo.com; 
www.silviodallatorre.com; www.joelquarrington.com -- Jazz Upright Bass 
Red Mitchell, home.teleport.com/~mimuma/; www.larryholloway.com/;