Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 07:47:52 -0600 From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: Hanif Ladha <hanif@ladha.com> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Some h/w recommendations please... Message-ID: <15347.51080.806828.40364@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <110215719@toto.iv>
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Hanif Ladha <hanif@ladha.com> types: > Indeed this such questions have been asked before. Alas, an archive > search did not give quite what I need, so here goes... As you've already noted, everyone has a slightly different opinion. So here's mine. > CPU: P4's have come down in price: a 1.5Ghz is around CAD$230. Of course > a P3 is much cheaper and a Celeron is even more so. I agree with those recommending the Athlons. Again, CPU speed usually isn't bottleneck. I was doing development work on a 500MHz AMD K6-2 recently because my main workstation died. While I noticed the dropoff in speed, it wasn't like it would have killed me. I wouldn't have liked building the entire world, but that you don't have to do very often. If you plot the price/performance curve for a processor family, you'll find a definite "knee" in the curve, where the cost goes up dramatically for extra performance. Don't bother buying beyond the knee, unless you have lots of money or an incurable urge to have the newest and fanciest. > RAM: I can definitely afford 256Mb and possibly 512Mb, I think going to > a 1Gb would be a stretch. 256MB should be more than sufficient for most things. I ran that on a dual CPU box for years with two copies of setiathome, and practically never swapped. About the only time I notice the lack of RAM was doing image processing work on large (~30MB images). > Motherboard: not at all sure here: have heard good things about ASUS Others have mentioned the execrable reputation of SiS. What they didn't mention is that the last few Sis chipsets - the SiS735 being the better of the two have gotten very good reviews, being as stable as other options, while managing to be faster and much cheaper. The downside is that it's newer technology, so long-term stability is unknown. Also, the onboard hardware isn't supported. If you search the lists for SiS735, *that's* the questions you find. Nobody using them is reporting hardwaare problems or incompatabilities, just that they can't get the onboard LAN and Audio to work. Try to buy a motherboard that you can put the latest & greatest thing in. In a few years, it'll be available cheap, so you can ugprade inexpensively as well. > Video: again not sure here Unless you're going to be doing games or video editing, I contend that it isn't all that critical. Check the supported harware list, and buy something that gives you as much resolution as you can get. > Monitor: I have heard good reviews about some Samsung models, again not > sure Others have mentioned Sony, and they are incredible monitors. If you go to the really large ones, you get some artifacting from the wires inside the tube that help it maintain shape; this annoys some people no end, while others have to hunt to see it at all. The only things comparable that I've run into are the Nokia's, but those are hard to find in the states. ViewSonic has a good reputation, and I like mine. It's not as good as a Sony or a Nokia, but it's close enough that I don't mind using it for 8 hours a day, and it costs considerably less. > So, if you have a few moments I would appreciate your input. I want to > limit my spending to around CAD$1500, maybe maxing out to CAD$2000 with > a large monitor, etc. Those seem like perfectly reasonable target sums. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Q: How do you make the gods laugh? A: Tell them your plans. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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