On Wednesday 27 June 2001 17:38, Terrence Smith wrote:
> I'm still a relatively new 'newbie' but making steady progress!
>
> I value the list, am delighted to be learning a new way to compute
> (back to my roots so to speak), etc., etc.
>
> I've got a brain-damaged Compaq box at home that barely manages to
> run LM 8.0 and so have been looking about for a 'genuwine' linux
> box.
>
> The motherboard/chipset discussion is most valuable and I thank the
> list and especially Civileme for their advice.
>
> I'm currently looking at a box put together by an outfit called
> Cyclox (www.cyclox.com).
>
> They have a 'workstation' model thus:
>
> Asus Mobo (must be the A7A266 AliMAGiK 1 DDR) although they don't
> say so. It has
> the AliM1647 Northbridge and ALIM1535D+ SouthBridge controllers
> 266 mhz FSB
> 2 DIMSS for DDR SDRAM
> 3 DIMMS for PC133 DDRAM
> C-media CMI-8738 audio chip (onboard)
> AGP Pro slot with AGP 4X support
> 5 PCI, up to 6 USB, 2 ser, 1 par
> Dual channel bus master w/ ATA-33/66/100 support
> ATX form
>
> My two questions:
>
> Does this mobo/chipset set have the problems with linux
> performance/stability that we've been hearing about?
Nope. It is a hot box right on the bleeding edge. Equip it properly
and clock conservatively and you should have good service. Been a
while since I saw an ALi chipset, but they were very good in
everything but Acer Compuers, and those folks made enough money to
buy Texas Instruments. I haven't seen the TI/Acer Notebooks lately
either, but then I am living in France.
Civileme
>
> Anybody dealt with this company?
No, but I would be concerned about something in their Ads. They are
selling VULNERABLE IBM Notebooks with RH installed. RH installs
lm_utils by default and anyone who uses them to check battery power
on most IBM Laptops will be sending it back to the factory for a new
Motherboard. George Staikos of kde.org provided information to us
and to RH about the threat to certain models of IBM notebooks. Our
lm_utils are excluded by default. You have to hunt them down.
Anyway, cyclox is selling those notebooks with RH and may find itself
in financial difficulties with warranty matters. Other than that,
their page seems a bit on the glitzy side, but more intelligent than
most "sell-a-brick-and-call-it-an-ATA-733-brick" operations.
>
> TIA.
>
> Terry Smith
> Woods Hole, MA-
