[clue-tech] Suggestion for upcoming presentation - build you own PC

[Maxwell Spangler]

On Sat, 2010-11-06 at 11:42 -0500, Collins Richey wrote:

> What I'm looking for is a good virtual base to make it easy to tinker
> with various OS, so there would be plenty of ram, fast CPU with
> virtual assist, large drives (maybe RAID). I'm not interested in one
> of the giant gaming cases with flashing lights, but rather a medium
> sized box (either mid tower or one of the newer cube shapes) with
> quiet fans and lots of usb connectors since almost everything plugs
> into USB these days. Probably a quad-core cpu with something like 8G
> memory. Many of the available standard boxes from the big hitter
> manufacturers have disabled virtual assist, so their boxes are
> worthless for my wants and needs. There must be 100K or greater
> options for this type of equipment, and how does an amateur/idiot go
> about selecting select the right thing?

Four months ago I indulged for about 7 days of meticulous research to
learn contemporary x86 technology and purchase a desktop system capable
of working as a Linux host for virtualization training.

I ended up finding that to meet my goals I didn't need to build a system
but could get everything I needed at Microcenter for $750.  Other
options that could have done the job were in the $500 range and more
powerful systems went up to around $1250.

I bought an HP desktop model HPE-204f.  In so many ways it is typical of
what you can get from any mainstream computer vendor so I'll describe it
here.  I expect if you shop around you'll find similar shapes and sizes
for pretty much the same price from all major system manufacturers.

It has a basic mini-tower chasis that's been sexed up with some nice
design and an HP logo to look attractive but it really doesn't offer any
innovation over any other metal and plastic case.  Inside is a quality
but basic desktop motherboard with an AMD Phenom II model 945 CPU on it.

I like this CPU because it offers me four full cores at 3.0Ghz with a
hefty 6 megabytes of L3 cache to speed up highly threaded Linux
environments or environments mixing virtual machine work with Linux
applications.  It's excellent at handling those workloads, btw.  This
CPU, motherboard and BIOS support virtualization at the chip level and
can be enabled/disabled in the BIOS.  I run Virtualbox and KVM on it
with much success.

While the motherboard chipset/cpu has integrated Radeon 4300 graphics
built in, this model also offers a PCIe 16 lane Radeon 5450 card with
DVI and HDMI outputs.

The usual suspects is present: gigabit ethernet, lots of USB ports,
firewire/IEEE-1394, memory card readers, 6 SATA ports, etc.  It has a
wireless PCIe card that is currently working under Windows only.

Included is a 750G 7200 RPM Seagate hard drive (SATA, of course) and a
DVD-RW drive.  Another 5.25 bay and two 3.5" bays are available for
expansion.

The system has a generic 300W power supply (with one fan) and two
additional large fans that are system controlled and spin slow and quiet
as long as the computer is not overheating.  Most of the time the system
is graceful and quiet and probably quieter than any system I'd build
myself and I appreciate that.

Similar models that cost $500 use a CPU that has no L3 cache which is
great for consumers running Windows and Internet explorer but not great
for virtualization users like myself.  Those $500 systems also wouldn't
have the upgraded video card.  I'm not playing games on this but running
compiz for a 3D desktop is a real pleasure to look at AND interact with.

More expensive models offer higher capacity SATA drives, blue ray
players and more memory.  Things I didn't need and/or can easily add
later.

Again, I think this is typical of whats available in the market right
now so one might consider the systems out there you can find and post
queries to this list regarding what people see as pro/con about it
before buying.

> * how to select cases, power supplies, motherboards, etc.
> * best sources for equipment
> * techniques for building
> * gotchas

Gotchas:

This is a consumer oriented PC produced in high volume by a really big
company that wants to make as much profit off your sale as possible.
Because of that support is not based in this country, is only for
Windows users and the level of customer service is very scripted, cold
and lacking.

But you're using Linux, so you know that, right?  The system comes with
Windows 7, so keep resize that partition down before installing Linux,
keep it available and be ready to use it when calling in support for
warranty related issues.  Be prepared to be patient when working with
technical support.

Overall I really like my desktop computer.  Linux is a pleasure to use
on it and I'm happy with my purchase.

But I'm also in the middle of getting a failed hard drive replaced and
that process could be a hell of a lot better.. I traded having no
support with a self-built system for support, but I have to be very
patient while trying to get it.

-- 
Maxwell Spangler
========================================================================
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        http://www.maxwellspangler.com