Thanks for the input. (Instead of emailing Topher directly, as he suggested, it seems to me like building a machine is of general interest to a unix users group, so I'm keeping this on the list. Feel free to cry out if you think I'm mistaken.)
On Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 11:57 PM, Topher Cullen <[email protected]> wrote: > The first step to finding a good processor is to determine what you > want/will do with the machine. > Really this will just be used for running a few things on Windows that I can't do through a browser on a linux device (like some music notation software, watching an occasional video on Amazon, and a few other things), and some small linux/android development for side projects. So, I don't need anything fancy, and on a grad student stipend, I pretty much just want the cheapest thing I can get that's reasonably modern. It looks like my best options are these: AMD Phenom II processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727 with ASUS AMD motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131758 or Intel i3 processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116775 with ASUS Intel motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131711 Does anyone have any feedback on those choices? Particularly I'm interested in how graphics works with those motherboards - both look like they have on board graphics; are linux drivers generally ok for them? It would be nice to have a machine that can do WebGL in linux, and I haven't had much luck with that using a recent ATI graphics card. Do recent on board Intel graphics do any better? "The machine's a Dell, but luckily enough the case looks like it'll fit a > standard micro ATX replacement motherboard just fine." - Don't be so sure > of this. Dell's are notorious for being completely incompatible with other > hardware, right down to the motherboard stand offs. That's what I'd heard, and so I thought I would have to get my own case. But looking at it, the screws seem to be in exactly the same place on the motherboards I linked above and the motherboard in my machine, and the general layout of the boards looks the same. (Which makes sense to me, because doesn't ASUS make Dell's machines now, anyway?) The case itself looks like it would be pretty easy to take the motherboard out and replace it with a new one. The power supply, on the other hand, seems to be custom and probably wouldn't be portable to another case or easily replaceable (judging purely by things I've read online about my model from Dell). So would a 250W power supply be enough to drive the motherboard and processor above?
-------------------- BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. ___________________________________________________________________ List Info (unsubscribe here): http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
