New Computer

[apomb]

I am planning on building my own computer in the next year and i am starting to round up prices on components for it. One area i was counting on eliminating cost was software. OS: Linux ... which one tho? I know theres a bunch of distros out there, so which one is best for Linux Noobs? plus, i am planning on using OpenOffice and Firefox for my primary apps , obviously both are free. Also the other programs i am intending on using i already have on Maximum PC CDs (awsome deal) like Spyblocker, adaware, Zonealarm, stuff like that.
Additionally, i was wondering which is a better deal : 80 Gb, 8Mb cache Maxtor drive $127.24 total or a Maxtor 60 Gb 2Mb cache $111.11 total all $ in Cdn.

[Andy]

errr obviously the 80... the 8mb cache will come in handy

[Maverick]

Agreed

[Andy]

what processor are u getting?

[wtd]

The 80GB hard drive. As others have said, the 8MB cache will be good.

I personally like Ubuntu Linux for novice users. Gnome is a very friendly desktop, and it comes with Firefox and OpenOffice. The whole thing comes on a single CD, and you can use apt-get (either command-line or via Synaptic) to get extras like GCC, G++, etc.

I find this better than a distro with 3 or 4 CDs that tries to package everything on the CD. With at-get you don't spend time installing unnecessary stuff, and you get better, more up to date software.

[apomb]

First, i am looking at a Chaintech VNF3-250 nVidia Socket 754 ATX Motherboard / AGP 8X/4X / Audio / 10/100Mbps Ethernet LAN / USB 2.0 / Serial ATA / RAID from Tigerdirect.ca (or something i can find here in town that closely matches that.) Combined with an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ / 512KB Cache / 1600MHz FSB / Socket 754 Processor ... This bundle Makes the Board only $123.01!! Alone it is _way_ to expensive (136.99) hey, its a $14.00 savings!

^i am kinda nervous about this part especially^

oh, and what exactly does the 8mb cache do?

[wtd]

Say you drag a 4MB file from a CD onto the icon for that 80MB drive with its 8MB cache. What happens next?

Well, the system first copies the file into that 8MB of memory that's embedded on the circuit board attache to your shiny new hard drive. The data is then written to the drive from that buffer. A larger buffer can speed up input and output involving the hard drive by allowing it to store recent data in memory that's much faster to access than the hard drive itself.

[apomb]

oh. i get it, its like a que for the data being written, but a que that is moving faster than the rest of the line?

[wtd]

Basically, hard drives, in the grand scheme of things are slow. Very slow.

You don't want to wait for your file to finish writing to the hard drive before you can work again, so instead of copying to the hard drive directly, it first copies to the much faster cache. The system moves on, and the drive takes its sweet time writing that data to the disk.

The bigger the cache, the greater the speedup, because you can write more to the cache without having to wait for it to finish writing to the disk.

8MB seems to be fairly standard. Even in the day of multimedia, many of the files youdeal with on a daily basis are smaller than that.

[Andy]

i think u should wait a month or two for the new nVidea nForce 3 chipset... and get a 3400+ processor...

[apomb]

uuum i forgot to mention ... NVIDIA nForce 3!!! i wasnt sure what u were talking about at first but i looked into it and i is definately 3!!! heres a screenshot ... and a 5200 is fine for my needs

[Leftover]

I'd wait on the whole thing. If you want 64 bit, Linux is definatly the best way to go (And on that topic, Gentoo is the best flavour for noobs I think, because your forced to do 90% of the setup atleast your self, which helps you learn all the basic commands in linux {of course there are documents, forums and IRC channels to assist you in your journey}), but even thought I've been working with Linux for 6 years, I still find it VERY hard to live without windows. There are many differences in the way things work in linux, and you may find something as simple as using TV-Out, or disabling one port on your motherboard, VERY difficult to do under linux, where as in windows, its the click of a mouse. There are also programs out there to help emerging linux users, but most of them still don't work (and I don't know how they get away with charging money for them). For example, Cross-over Office. I purchased it. Tried to install turing, wasn't a supported app, didn't work, okay no biggy. Tried to install MSO XP just for kicks, it was a supported app, but it still didn't work. Later I only found out it was merely a GUI for installing programs in Wine (a free windows emulator for Linux) and all it did was make its own Wine dir and install stuff, when its as simple for the user to type "wine blah.exe" to do practically the same thing. Anyways, enough rambling about that.

Don't buy windows online or from a store like futureshop or anything. I work at a PC store in Waterloo, and we sell Windows XP Home for $129 + tax when you buy a major component of a computer (MS makes us do that, it's not our choice) like motherboard, hard drive, cpu, anything thats required for a pc to run windows. Compare that to futureshops price of over $400. Not worth it anymore is it? Oh, and to add, you don't get a box with our copy of XP, only a manual, product key sticker, and the cd it self, no box sorry.

Anyhow, on 64 bit systems, wait untill end of year. PCI Express should be somewhat perfected by then, and there should be more support for 64 bit under windows beta 64 bit edition.

Thats my 74 cents.

[Andy]

damn... no doubt about that, nForce3... wait does this mobo support dual slot agp?

[apomb]

I dont think it does support dual AGP Dodge... Why do you ask??

Any whay as i said, i am building it over a couple months, so i can afford to wait and buy products, as for waiting for PCI express,it is not something i care about, AGP is fine, especially since i got a board and GPU to match!

Linux is something i want because it is free, and also because i hate the glitches and dead ends Windows contains. I might end up buying XP OEM any way just for convenience of knowing ... imasuker . I am beginnig to buy my motherboard/CPU combo and am becomming quite fond of the components i have chosen. The AMD 3000+ 2.0 GHz is more than enough for my needs since all i know is a Pentium III 933 MHz! I dont care if it takes a whole 80 ms more than a Prescott P4 3.6 GHz or whatever.

Thank you all for your insights, i will consider all of them since, as i have said Many, Many timnes, i am taking a while to build it. However, i want to Start NOW!!! lol, ne wway thanks again and Leftover, i need to expand my horizons with Linux, i have to start somewhere...

[Leftover]

No problems, Just hope it helped your decision, because it took me a hella long time to type at like 2AM .