Re: please critique these two Athlon X2 3800+ configs

On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 10:19:49 -0800, greg wrote:

> Me again. I'm getting close to buy a machine.
> Hope somebody can give me some input on the two configs below. They are
> from different stores, Config 2 is from a store that's usually more
> expensive. I'm a heavy user (scientific number crunching), but
> clueless about hardware. Graphics not that critical for my needs.
>
> Are these performing systems? Will they run OK run under Linux (Suse
> 10.1)? Which one is better? Is there any change I could make to save a
> buck, or to improve the systems? Thanks a lot.
>
> Config1
> -----------
> CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 939 Dual Core
> mobo: ASUS A8NSLI DELUXE NFORCE 4 SAT 2
> graphics: GeCube ATI X700PRO 512Mb DDR3 PClex16
> RAM: 1024 Mb DDR400 (2x512) Kingston CL3
> HD: SATA 250Gb 16MB Buffer 7200rpm Maxtor
> power supply 350W
> 870 Euro
>
>
> Config2
> ---------
> CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+(2.0GHz) 64bit
> mobo: Foxconn NF4UK8AA-8EKRS Sk939 FSB2000
> RAM: Kingston 1024Mb PC400 DDR
> Disk: Seagate 200Gb SATA 7200rpm
> graphics: AOpen Aeolus 6200TC DV128/256 PCI-E 128MbDDR
> 350W (775)
> 1100 Euro

Some general comments,

1) Avoid Maxtor drives, they're incredibly unreliable. I always buy
Seagates. Eventually they'll be the same because Seagate has bought Maxtor
but for now buy Seagate drives.

2) I'd pick the ASUS motherboards over the Foxconn. ASUS is a top tier
producer. MSI and ABIT are fine also. However you don't need SLI, get a
non-SLI Nforce4 motherboard.

3) Make sure you get an Nvidia graphics card. Nvidia has much better Linux
support then ATI.

4) Power supply. 350W is not enough. Get at least 450W and make sure it's
a name brand supply like Enermax or Antec.

5) 1G of RAM is on the low side. Get 2G if you are planning on doing any
serious computing.

.