600.00 computer, what do you think?

ETSA

ETSA

New Member
LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black ATAPI/E-IDE

Antec Solution SLK3000-B Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-400 ATX12V 400W Power Supply

G.SKILL 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5400)

ASUS P5L-MX Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 945G Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Pentium D 805 Smithfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 Dual Core,EM64T Processor Model

Microsoft Windows XP Home

I have an old x300 from a previous computer for him to handle small graphic loads.

My friend wanted to get a computer for internet/downloading, I know most people would say to get a C2D but unless you can work with the budget it's a no go, although the mobo does support it for a future upgrade. Let me know what you all think, suggestions and comments welcome.
 
ADE

ADE

banned
Its OK. I have a computer just like that and Internet and downloading really depends on you connection speed. But if you want a little extra power in Internet performance get a ethernet card with its own processor (only like, $20 or less, got mine for $2 on eBay!)
 
ETSA

ETSA

New Member
Yeah I know but I wanted to give him the most bang for his buck that comes in 5 dollars short of 600.00.
 
tlarkin

tlarkin

VIP Member
I am real partial to SUSE, especially suse 10.1 but there are several out there

Open SuSE

http://en.opensuse.org/Download

debian based Unbuntu (kunbuntu for KDE version)

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/

Here is an open source version of linspire

http://freespire.org/

I would recomend running KDE enviroment, since it is kind of like windows. In fact you can download KDE themese to make your linux rig look just like OS X or windows XP

Oh and if you are running a Pentium D, make sure you get the 64bit version of the OS!
 
ETSA

ETSA

New Member
Thanks, is it possible or are there any advantages to dual booting with windowsXP?
 
Last edited:
tlarkin

tlarkin

VIP Member
ETSA said:
Thanks, is it possible or are there any advantages to dual booting with windowsXP?
Click to expand...

Having both platforms. There is a plethora of open source software out there that is free, GIMP is a photoshop clone. Very powerfull grahpic design tool, and its free.

You can keep XP incase you get frusturated and want to go back. Plus you get to learn how to use a boot loader...
 
Flipper

Flipper

New Member
Not like with ubuntu it's a pain, install win xp(easy), install ubuntu on seperate partition and click yes to grub :)
 
X

xspwn

New Member
if you are using a bootloader, i would recommend acronis disk director
it has a really nice user interface and loads when you boot so you can select your OS
 
ETSA

ETSA

New Member
Wow guys thanks for the post but I don't know a lot about what you are talking about, some reference material would be appreciated. I have had some exposure to linux based systems in my work but mainly just as an operator. Thanks though!
 
Saurian

Saurian

Member
A boot loader...loads w hen you boot the computer. It is in the master boot sector of your hard disk. So the bios kicks everything on, then reads that master boot record on the hard disk (It KNOWS its going to be there), and this initiates the boot loader. The boot loader will load, and display which OS's it either detects or has been told where they are. Then you select them.

That said, it can be a Real PITA to get a bootloader working sometimes. I recommend that you install XP on a 100GB partition on that 250GB drive, then divide the remaining 150GB into 75GB partitions. Then, find a 20-40GB hard drive for a few bucks and install the Linux OS onto it. When you install Linux, pull the SATA and power connectors from your Windows hard drive so that it is unrecognizable. Then install the Linux os to the other smaller (likely ide) drive, and let it write the boot loader to the MBR of that disk. Then, set that disk to be booted first. After you plug the 250GB drive back in, the boot loader should see the windows install in the other drive and give you the alternative to boot from it.

Basically, I've let Linux take over the MBR of my primary drive, and I had to do a full redo to fix my newb mistake. This fixes this problem, keeps it from happening :).
 
tlarkin

tlarkin

VIP Member
saurian pretty much summed it up

a boot loader is a small app loaded in the boot sector, things like GRUB, LILO, etc are boot loaders. it is a menu that allows you to pick what OS you want to boot into. I dual boot my work laptop and desktop with XP SP2 and Suse 10.1 on both machines. I use GRUB

It is as easy as eating pancakes because you configure the boot loader during the install of linux. It is much like installing windows, you run through a wizard.

Don't be afraid

However, I dual boot OSes on the same drive with partition schemes. Also, some linux set ups/filesystems require a swap partition of a gig or two. The installation wizard will tell you all that stuff
 
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