[ale] Do people still roll their own Linux desktops?

Wed Mar 17 09:04:17 EDT 2010

Thanks Aaron,

Micro Magic sounds like the perfect compromise between build and buy!

On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 8:41 AM, m-aaron-r <aaron at pd.org> wrote:
> About a year back I was looking to update the sound studio
> system at Railroad Earth. Had a few special customizing
> criteria for UBER quiet case and fans, lots of drive space,
> many gigs of memory and as much CPU Power as possible
> on the cheaper side of bleeding edge.
>
> After pricing out components to build it myself I also looked
> at a couple mix and match assembly places.  I ended up
> buying from Micro Magic after using their smart, compatibility
> aware web tools to experiment with building and comparing
> a couple custom systems. I ended up having them put together
> a fairly impressive Quad Core AMD box on an ASUS mobo
> that's been rocking pretty well for us:
>    AMD Phenom 9850+ (Quad Core) AM2+ 4MB Cache
>    Scythe Katana 2 AMD EXTRA QUIET
>         Vertical HeatPipe Copper fan
>    ASUS M3N72-D ,Onboard Video, HDMI, SLI PCI-EX,
>          GB LAN, iEEE
>    4GB (2x2GB) PC6400 DDR2 800 Dual Channel
>    (2 ea) 500.0GB Western Digital 7200RPM SATA2
>           UDMA 300 16m cache
>     Antec Sonata III Black Ultra Quiet Case front USB & eSATA
>     Dual Case Fans 120 mm Extra Quiet DC fan (two fans)
>     Antec TruePower 650w Extra Quiet ATX Power Supply
>     Logitech Wireless Keyboard & Optical mouse combo
>
> <http://magicmicro.com/>
>
> With their system I was able to leave out the bits we didn't need
> (e.g., we already had decent CD/DVD burner and we didn't
> need an OS License or anything special for graphics beyond
> what came on the mobo).
>
> Final $950 price with shipping was about the same as hunting
> web bargains on all the individual parts, but without the time
> and labor of the hunt and the elbow grease and bleeding finger
> investments in assembling them.  Of course, I missed the fun of
> the build a bit, but this path was certainly simpler and faster
> for picking and choosing the parts, AND the finished build
> system came with a 3yr warranty!
>
> A tiny  annoyance was that they didn't include the mobo header
> to 15pin VGA adapter we were counting on using to feed our
> ancient (but beautiful) 22" Silicon Graphics Flat Screen CRT.
> They apologized with the excuse that sometimes they came
> in the mobo box and sometimes they didn't, but they hunted
> one down and sent it along ASAP no charge.  Also, one of the
> hard drives failed after about 8 months, but it was replaced
> under warranty.
>
> Right now it looks like you could have Micro Magic put together
> a pretty screaming custom desktop box for $400 to $500, with
> the bonus that nobody wasted a single dime of that on the
> Mafia$oft extortion tax!
>
> peace
> aaron
>
> On 2010/03/16, at 22:45 , Brandon Checketts wrote:
>> I recently built my own system with parts from newegg.  My reasoning
>> was to
>> ensure that I get good quality parts.  I don't trust the extremely
>> cheap
>> systems.  I also wanted to make sure that I got a pair of hard
>> drives with a 5
>> year warranty as they always seems to be one of the first components
>> to go.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Brandon Checketts
>>
>> Jim Kinney wrote:
>>> The newer systems are far poorer quality. Those <$500 systems are 2
>>> year
>>> throwaways. Mobos have really taken a beating in the low end.
>>> Those $50
>>> specials are really crap.
>>> A pretty nice system can be built for $800 unless you want top end
>>> graphics cards. Add an extra $150 for a good mid-level nvidia.
>>>
>>>> On Mar 16, 2010 7:53 PM, "Björn Gustafsson" <bg-ale at bjorng.net
>>>> <mailto:bg-ale at bjorng.net>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I'm in the market for a new desktop Linux system, and I've never
>>>> bought a consumer unit before.  This time though I'm sorely
>>>> tempted by
>>>> deals I see in the $350-$450 range on discount desktops, which are
>>>> sometimes even quad-core systems.
>>>> http://www.buy.com/prod/hp-pavilion-p6203w-desktop-athlonll-x2-r-215-2-7-ghz-4gb-500gb/q/loc/101/213720391.html
>>>> for example is $370 for an older model dual-core desktop.
>>>>
>>>> My 5+ year old case is feeling creaky, and I'm probably due for a
>>>> new
>>>> power supply, so I don't think I can build a comparable system
>>>> myself
>>>> for under $450, and I worry about durability with such cheap parts.
>>>> My main requirements are a dual or quad-core processor and at
>>>> least 4
>>>> GB of RAM, with a decent video card.  If I look at pricewatch.com
>>>> <http://pricewatch.com> and
>>>> similar sites the components add up to $500 or more. (Not
>>>> including a
>>>> monitor, which I don't need.)
>>>>
>>>> Does anyone have suggestions on a low-budget alternative to pre-
>>>> built
>>>> systems, or am I wasting time even thinking about that?  For
>>>> example,
>>>> are the "no OS systems" that Ascendtech sells any good?
>>>> http://www.ascendtech.us/customkititems.asp?kc=DTPCC2DE8400912
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Björn Gustafsson
>
>
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-- 
Björn Gustafsson