Looks like my current PC has some weird hardware problem that's behind
the problems I've been moaning about with my graphics resolution. (I
tried a brand new ATI card and the PC wouldn't even POST-beep; took it
back to Novatech who said it worked fine on their rig. Coupled with other
strangeness I think it's new PC time.)
Novatech have a variety of 'bare bones' units (just add HDD and DVD) from
about £120 up, and ebuyer, dabs and Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all are in
the market too; and there's a bewildering variety of kit to choose from.
One thing I'm wondering is if it's worth going for a machine with a lot
of RAM - which AIUI requires a 64 bit CPU to access if it's over
2^mumble bytes - and running some sort of virtualisation s/w so I can
run different OSes or versions of an OS simultaneously rather than multi-
booting. That way I can try out a new distro or version of my current
distro without sawing off the branch I'm currently sitting on. Am I right
in thinking xen is the virtualisation code du jour for Linux distros? (I
can live without running windoze on this machine.) So would an AMD64 be
the CPU to go for?
In terms of tin and copper, I'd like a machine that can house at least 3
HDDs (as well as a DVD drive, natch), and that runs quietly and uses as
little power as possible (since the machine will run 24*7). I gather the
ones with variable-speed fans in the PSUs are quieter (when not running
at full load, presumably).
My typical use of the machine is
* web browsing (currently I have several dozen pages open in different
windows and tabs in firefox/iceweasel and usually have a dozen or so more
in chrome)
* office (OOo) apps - about half a dozen docs open
* maybe a few PDFs
* some images in a viewer (gwenview)
* file browsing - say a dozen konqueror/dolphin windows/tabs
* text file editing - few dozen files open in kate, some in kwrite
* jpilot, xsane, gimp, maybe a music player and other odds & sods
So altogether a lot of apps eating up memory. Maybe another reason for
loadsa RAM and 64bits?
And occasionally I'll do some video or audio file conversion e.g. editing
and then converting a DV video to H264 or FLV; or suchlike.
Graphics-wise I've a 19" CRT which I like to cram as much onto as
possible and within the life of the machine I expect to replace it with a
similar-sized or larger LCD. So I want some high-resolution modes. And I
watch and edit videos, but I don't do gaming, so I guess I don't need
fancy 3-D acceleration or whatever.
On that basis I'm thinking this one from Novatech might be OK
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...BB-6404GA.html
I note that it can do 8G RAM but only comes with 2, as 2*2G modules using
up both slots, so if I wanted more I'd have to see if they'd do it at
time of sale otherwise I'd be throwing away the existing 2G modules to
install 4G ones.
Comments? Especially from a Linux perspective?
--
John Stumbles