Help with computer decisions

[rpc64]

I have two questions. I'm looking in my local Fry's ad today and I see an IBM 40GB 7200rpm hard drive for $65. Now I don't know the whole story, but I remember reading about IBM hard drives dying a lot. So my first question is, should I try to go grab this hard drive or would it just suck and die on me?

I also see in the Fry's ad that they have an XP1800+ with an ECS K7S5A mobo for $119. I've been thinking about trying to build an extra system to learn Linux on and maybe set up a server. But I need a system that's going to be as inexpensive as possible yet be able to run current software/games for as long as possible. Considering that, my second question is is this CPU/Mobo combo a decent choice for a system that I can spend about $600 on?

Thanks

 

[rpc64]

bump

 

[cchen]

I wouldn't get the IBM drive - they are very prone to failure. You can look in the Hot Deals forum for some good deals on hard drives. As for your second question, you really don't need a computer that fast just to play around with linux. You could get a ~200 P2 computer and linux would run just fine on it.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Yup, avoid IBM, they were king but certainly suck big time now on the reliability side. In any case 60GB and 80GB drives cost VERY little more and you'd be pretty mad to save $10-20 even if you don't plan on needing the whole capacity. ATA100 vs ATA133 makes no diff and 7200rpm isn't HUGELY better than 5400rpm but since the price diffs are small you'd be mad to get 5400 anyway.

XP1800+ are VERY sweet CPUs and give you perf of a P4 2.0ghz rather than 1.8ghz which makes them exceptional value for money. If you quote the chipset of the mobo I can comment futher, ECS are not the best brand name but they certainly seem to be excellent value for money and very few people have any gripes at all with them. You should find a decent SktA mobo and XP1800+ will only cost you $130ish individually which will give you a lot more choice in brand and features for the extra $10.

 

[AnAndAustin]

If gaming is any priority at all then you NEED at least a GF3TI200 or Rad8500LE and pref a GF4TI4200. 128MB cards are well worth the extra cost.

Here's a great guide to diff card's perf on an XP2000+: TomsHW VGA Chart

Also check this out: AnAnd looking at diff gfx card's perf

And here's a great source outlining the benfits of 128MB over 64MB: AnAndTech 4200 roundup

 

[rpc64]

Thanks a lot for all the info. I actually have an XP1900+ in my current machine and I'm very happy with it. I guess what I was really wondering was whether the 1800+(which should have basically no difference in performance from my 1900) would do well for a budget machine that needs to last a decent amount of time. Sounds like it will. As far as video cards, we are on the same wavelength. I was planning on getting a GF4ti4200 128mb.