Building a $200 Linux PC

HardOCP ^ | Sunday July 25, 2010 | John

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Ever find yourself in need of a cheap computer? Yeah, me neither. But if you do, here’s a writeup on the building of a $200 rig and testing it against a $300 eMachines.

We weren't expecting our sub-$200 computer to be an outstanding performer. But that doesn't mean we wanted it to be slow, either—building a computer yourself that can't do what you need well is a waste of time and money. We wanted to know exactly what we had so we'd know what we could expect from it. That meant benchmarking it—and comparing it to another, similar system.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

People have been trained that if their Windows box gets slow,...then it is time for a new one...and the Retailer gets rewarded....and microsoftie of course.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Just trying to be complete here,...there is another nice system based on Slackware ...

Slax - your pocket operating system

[calex59]

I thought Jim Rob had forbidden all tech articles.

[calex59]

Try Mint, it is an offshoot of Ubuntu and works better, IMO.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And:

Slax modules

Links below not fixed...including to just show variety...click on above link for working page complete with nice graphics....

Slax modules

artwork 120 items

graphics 148 items

education 79 items

games 133 items

editors 99 items

multimedia 239 items

network 396 items

security 103 items

system 381 items

develop 239 items

drivers 189 items

multilang 103 items

console 195 items

libraries 636 items

utilities 387 items

[FreedomGuru]

“I thought Jim Rob had forbidden all tech articles.”

Not the tech articles, just can’t disagree with anything, and no name calling.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I think Jim just wanted the Flame Wars to stop...to express differences of opinion is always likely to happen on technical threads.

[kitchen]

Would it run off a dvd/ram drive, or is that too slow?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Back on lucid Puppy....

Announcement and release notes for Lucid Puppy 5.0.1

Lucid Puppy 5.0.1 is built from a "Puppy builder" system named Woof (http://bkhome.org/woof), which can build a Puppy Linux distribution from the binary packages of any other distro. There are many "puppies" built with Woof, and this image gives an appreciation of some of them and how they fit into the Woof time-line:

Each "Puppy distro" built by Woof is a distinctive distribution in its own right, with unique features. You choose a puppy based on your particular needs, be it specific hardware, software, or access to and compatibility with the package repositories of a particular distro.

[tophat9000]

People have been trained that if their Windows box gets slow

I'm not sure if it "trained" but it sure it is the way people this...ever time some one tells me that ( My PC is getting slow... I need to get a new one) I look at them like their nuts...I tell the "Your PC is not getting slow your OS is just need to be clean up/restored"...

A PC (hardware) never "get slow", you do an OS restore, it's as fast is the day it came out of the box

Get a new PC for being slow is like getting a new car because you need to replace the air filter and get an oil change...

OS's need basis maintenance including occasional restore refresh depending how you use it... I restore my window box's about ever 6 mo.

[tophat9000]

People have been trained that if their Windows box gets slow

I'm not sure if it's "trained" but it sure is the way people think...ever time someone tells me that ( My PC is getting slow... I need to get a new one) I look at them like their nuts...I tell them "Your PC is not getting slow your OS is just need to be cleaned up/restored"...

A PC (hardware) never "get slow", you do an OS restore, it's as fast as the day it came out of the box

Getting a new PC for being slow is like getting a new car because you need to replace the air filter and get an oil change...

OS's need basis maintenance including occasional restore refresh depending how you use it... I restore my window box's about ever 6 mo.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And I know very very little about this distro:

Slitax

***************************EXCERPT********************************

Main page

Boot baby... boot!

SliTaz is a free operating system, working completely in RAM and booting from removable media such as a cdrom or USB key. SliTaz is distributed as a LiveCD, and weighs less than 30MB. The system is quick and responsive, clean and robust. SliTaz is simple and intuitive, providing a lightweight, elegant desktop, detailed documentation and easy to use configuration tools. More information...

[ShadowAce]

[raybbr]

Aren’t you gonna need a new PS if you want to put that in an old box?

[raybbr]

Comprehensive Anti-Static methods to protect PC hardware

Honestly, I have been working on PLC's, computer and PC boards for almost thirty years and have never used a strap. Never had any problems either. Am I lucky?

I always touch some sort of metal/ground before I pick any boards, etc.

[Big Giant Head]

and this, from todays Woot.com:

HP AMD Athlon II Quad Core Desktop Computer
$389.99

+ $5 shipping

Condition:
Refurbished
Product:
1 HP Pavilion p6310f Athlon II X4 2.8GHz, 6GB DDR3, 1TB SATA, DVDRW, Win 7 Home Prem 64-bit

I’m constantly seeing old P4 computers for $89 usually 2.8 or 3.0 with 512meg ram. Those make excellent Linux computers.

[Big Giant Head]

I always touch some sort of metal/ground before I pick any boards, etc.

I work barefoot.

[JerseyHighlander]

For those of us who don’t have Fry’s toystores nearby, Microcenter.com is running a similar deal:

AMD Athlon II X2 250 Dual Core Processor
Biostar A785G3 Socket AM3 785G mATX Motherboard
$72.99 - $10 mail in rebate.
http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/0720_AMDbundle.html

a $35 case w/300W PSU, PowerSpec TX366 mATX Case

$20 DVD-RW, Samsung 22x DVD±RW Burner with Dual/Double Layer Support OEM

$39HDD, Samsung Spinpoint S166 HD161HJ 160GB 7,200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5” Internal Hard Drive - OEM

$28 2GB DDR3 RAM, Crucial 1GB, 240-pin DIMM, DDR3 PC3-10600 memory module

$194 total before tax before $10 mail in rebate. Only 3.5% sales tax at my local Microcenter.

Could do it cheaper on case and get 2GB RAM if using microcenter’s open box/returns from my local store.

Only downside to the mATX motherboards is the 2 RAM slots, though the one I selected has a Radeon HD4200 integrated video card.

Crazy thing is, this PC would have SATA3 HDD, and DDR3-10600 RAM, both faster than my current PC.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This article is about a new build with an AM3 processor socket...

For the older machines that have entered the conversation.... Well it all depends...the newer mother boards have 24 pin power plugins...but older boards with 20 pin are available.

At the start of this article,...they choose a case that had a power supply included.

3rd page:

Case and Power Supply: Rosewill R424BK with 350-watt PSU ($29.99).

[raybbr]

For the older machines that have entered the conversation.... Well it all depends...the newer mother boards have 24 pin power plugins...but older boards with 20 pin are available.

Actually I was referring to the innards you speced in Post #7....