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On 13/10/10 09:43, Henry Bremridge wrote:
Any opinions on which is cheaper for a non cutting edge desktop running Windows 7 and MS Office (mainly for office work but with some old games). I would like to dual boot but doubt I will be allowed to: - Buying a complete PC: if so any stores that people recommend?
Well you could try Dell, their machines aren't too bad, the Vostro range are reasonably cheap. If you're running old games you may be able to get away with Intel onboard video (which would mean you'd be looking at some sort of Intel CPU), or maybe an AMD CPU and ATI onboard graphics (which is better than Intel onboard graphics for games) although this would most probably at least at the moment require the ATI proprietary driver on Linux.
Someone I know bought a couple of HP desktops with Phenom II X3 CPUs, 1TB hard drives and 3GB Ram complete with 19" LCD screens for about £400 from PC World about 6 months ago.
- Buying parts and making it yourself. If so any recommended parts / suppliers
I'd suggest Aria or eBuyer. Also Dabs, Novatech, Scan.
My only feeling is that 4Gb of Ram and 500 Gb harddrive , but no idea on what processor / graphics card to go for.
If you're go for an AMD system I'd suggest getting an AM3 motherboard and DDR3 memory, it's not much more expensive and it gives a bit more future proofing (although an AM3 CPU will usually work in an AM2+ motherboard with DDR2 memory).
If you're going for an Intel system I'd maybe suggest going for a socket LGA1156 motherboard, DDR3 memory and either a Pentium Dual-Core G6950, Core i3, i5 or if you've got lots of money to spend, a Core i7.
You'll find that the Intel LGA1156 CPUs have on-chip graphics, okay it's Intel video but it's better than nowt. The cheaper range of AMD boards tend to have some onboard graphics, usually ATI or NVidia (both will need proprietary drivers more than likely).
Looking at AMD I came across http://products.amd.com/en-us/comparison/DesktopCPU.aspx which leads me to a AMD Athlon X2 or the Intel equivalent
I'd suggest an Athlon II X2 or higher rather than the older Athlon X2.
Finally: I am having trouble getting an Nvidia graphics card to work under Debian. Ubuntu works with restricted drivers. Any recommendations for a debian friendly graphics card? The only list I have seen is: http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/index_html/video
Not sure on that one, I found this... http://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers Looks a bit complicated, although probably easy enough to follow. Rob -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq