At 11:29 AM 2/25/02 -0800, you wrote:
hi ya just for fun .. and yes..these are real $$$ .. for real parts.. c ya alvin
<snip deleted my stuff on component pricing when I realized that there are 2 HD's and 2 512MB dimms>
Why get SCSI? Are you building a server? Even then I might be tempted to set up a IDE RAID (mirroring) before spending the cash on SCSI (and this is from someone who really likes SCSI, it's just that I can no longer cost justify it for anything less than hot-swappable RAID systems). Yes this is an old argument and I've already seen plenty of replies, but unless you can justify needing SCSI (need lots of disks, hot-swapability, really need the last ounce of performance etc.) I wouldn't go for it. Just get a promise controller and put your Hd's on seperate channels and use the built in IDE for CDRW's, etc. You can put in an 80G ATA133-7200rpm drive and promise controller for `$200us. If you find you need SCSi in the future you can just add it, and have a very large scratch drive around (you can never have enough storage) Even if the SCSI subsystem is faster, how many people will even notice it? With my daily task load I am waiting on disk transfer for just seconds a full day, other than system startup and who turns their systems off? Save some money and buy the biggest/best monitor you can afford. People never listen to me and like to drool over performance numbers of CPU's and HD's, but in reality most systems probably aren't even utilized 2%-10% of the time, the rest is just sitting idle while I type or read or something. On the other hand you spend every second with the computer looking at your monitor. Also get your self a good chair. I'd rather have to wait for my computer for a couple of seconds but be comfortable the rest of the day. And in looking at teh Los Alamos site I see that the 3com is just a $30 upgrade. For that it may be worth the piece of mind, if you buy from them.
Pro's of building your own system- Choose what components you wantBuild on a budget, get a working base system and then add components later, ie. CDRW/soundcard etc. Save money??? Compared to the prices you've gotten yes I think you could save a bundle. For most people I tell them that they won't save any money, they will just build a better system for the same money Learning- there is nothing like knowing exactly what is in your system and how it all works together, one of the best reasons for a first timer to build their own system.
Con's of building your own system-Choosing what you want can cause hair loss, lack of sleep, nightmares of mother boards and memory.
Choosing where to buy it all from will cause even more heartache.Waiting for multiple deliveries from separate vendors- The mother board will be the last thing you get. I usually will pay a little more to just have to deal with one or two vendors when building a system, just to reduce the headache. Getting/ordering wrong components- It really sucks to have a processor that won't fit your MB, for this reason I suggest getting the MB/cpu from the same vendor. Destroying stuff on assembly- For instance if you have a case with little metal grounding fingers around the openings for the I/O connectors and one of the fingers get's caught in a USB port and shorts out, the USB controller will light up real nice for about 2 seconds (Hmm thats weird, an LED on the back of the MB, Doh. Yes I have the Tee shirt, although it is shrunken and faded by now, oh and that case is now living happily in a landfill somewhere) System incompatibilities- Will all the parts work together and under your chosen OS (Go Debian)
Some hints for building your own system-If you order online, don't be afraid to call the place up and talk to them. Get some questions answered and get a feel for hte level of service you can expect (if you buy from the lowest bidder, don't expect much. Then again even if you pay a lot, you may not get much in the ay of support)
Be patient and double check every thing when building your system. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Check into a local user groupSo my vote is to either find another vendor (and I hate steering business away from a company that supports linux, especially Debian, but if I can get those kind of prices I'm going into the system building business) or build your own system. Hell I'll build you a system for $500 over cost, burned in and tested with your distro of choice :-) My vote is for building your own system, but just know up front it will be a pain, but then again for $1000 savings I can take a lot.
Matt Wehland mwehland@webtripper.com
Computer Network Specialist
MCSE CCNA