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Dual-Core Processor E2140 1.6GHz 800FSB 1MB good for Linux ?

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 10:52 am
by anjanesh
Hi

I want to get a new PC for linux as I dont want to mess up my current HP branded XP Pro OEM pre-installed one.

So I called up Dell for a available config that doesnt come with OEM Windows pre-installed.
And the sales rep mailed this config (~$750) as the only available one (for now) as most (99%) of their PCs are Windows pre-installed.
Q241022V - Dell Vostro 200 Slim Tower Desktop (n-series)
-Intel(R) Pentium(TM) Dual-Core Processor E2140
-(1.6GHz, 800FSB, 1MB)
-1GB (2X512MB) NECC Dual Channel DDR2 667MHz SDRAM Memory
-160GB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive with Native Command Queuing
-DOS Factory Installed (English)
-16X DVD+/-RW with Dual Layer Write Capabilities
-Integrated Fast Ethernet 10/100
-Integrated Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator X3 100
-System Drive DVD kit for N-series
-Integrated 7.1 Audio
-No Speaker
-19" Entry Wide Screen Flat Panel LCD Monitor (Analog & DVI Only)
-1 Year CompleteCover
My current PC is Pentium IV 915G 3.0GHz 800FSB, 1MB Cache, HT (which I bought 3 yrs ago) and I feel that going from 3.0GHz to 1.6GHz is not a good idea. I would atleast want 3.0GHz right ?
I was thinking like I would need a E6850 which has 4MB cache rather than the E2140 which has just 1MB cache that was mentioned in the spec, right ?

I can always upgrade the RAM to 2 or 4GB, but processor wise, is it just too low ?

I want to install Fedora Core 7 and a whole lot of services like Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Tomcat, Oracle etc etc.

Thanks

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 11:07 am
by RobertGonzalez
You know (and I know you said Fedora 7) but Dells do come with Ubuntu preinstalled.

Or you could just get a power house system with XP/Vista on it and wipe it clean with a fresh install of Fedora.

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 11:24 am
by anjanesh
Yes, Im aware of Dell & Ubuntu, but so far its not yet arrived here in India.
You think its worth the wait ?

Moreover, I feel Ubuntu is like Vista with all those fancy aero-like features.
Im less interested in the 3D GUI & more interested in the development aspects.

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 11:37 am
by Kieran Huggins
You could do much better building it yourself.

One thing to consider is that clock speeds don't indicate the same performance from chip to chip. The core-duo and core-2-duo chips give you more bang per clock cycle than the last generation of processors. Also, having those extra cores lets you load down your machine just that much more, which is nice.

I built a core2quad 2.4 GHz system about 2 months ago to replace an old dual-2 GHz system, and it's definitely more than a 20% speed increase.

Where you really want to spend as much money as you can afford is on RAM. The more the better... and it's cheap right now! You can get 2Gb of RAM for $60 these days... at that price there's no reason not to drop 4Gb in.

Also, monitors are more important than most people give them credit for, and this is where Dell shines. You can get a sexy 22" 1680x1050 for $269, right from Dell. maybe cheaper if you shop around online! That's one hell of a decent price-per-pixel, and Dell monitors are widely considered among the very best.

I'd also recommend getting a motherboard with good reviews and a ton of stuff on board. Gigabit ethernet, sound (with optical), lots of USB ports and a decent video chip (even with dual monitor support: VGA *and* HDMI!) One can be had for $115-ish: check out the Abit AN-M2HD - it's even microATX!

Ok, now I'm just getting myself all excited. Maybe I should build myself a new media PC in one of those sexy little enclosures :-)

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 11:48 am
by RobertGonzalez
Fedora 7 is a lot like Ubuntu in my opinion. I use it as a dual boot at work and it just looks all fancy and stuff.

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 1:13 pm
by anjanesh
You could do much better building it yourself.
I such at h/w big-time - actually, anything to do with assembling stuff. Hence I rely on tech-support incase of a mishap. But this is something I got to try very soon.
You can get a sexy 22" 1680x1050 for $269, right from Dell. maybe cheaper if you shop around online!
Its $350 here if bought online. Price outside US is always higher because of import charges. Thats why Nokia & BWM have built manufacturing units here - to target the asian market at the same price range as in the US.
I'd also recommend getting a motherboard with good reviews and a ton of stuff on board. Gigabit ethernet, sound (with optical), lots of USB ports and a decent video chip (even with dual monitor support: VGA *and* HDMI!)
These days, everything is coming on-board.
Fedora 7 is a lot like Ubuntu in my opinion. I use it as a dual boot at work and it just looks all fancy and stuff.
Intend on doing the exact same thing - Ubuntu and FC7 dual boot.

If the dell+ubuntu mix doest come here by this year end, I'll go for something like the above mentioned and just fill the entire RAM slots.

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 1:14 pm
by feyd
I'd wait a couple months for the 1600FSB chips to be released...

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 1:36 pm
by anjanesh
I'd wait a couple months for the 1600FSB chips to be released...
It'll be an entire year before its released here.

Im also looking at HP Compaq dc7800 Ultra Slim Desktop PC in order to save room space.
Processor : Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6850
Operating system : FreeDOS
Chipset : Intel® Q35 Express
Memory type : 2GB DDR2-Synch DRAM PC2-5300 non-ECC
Hard disk drive : 160 GB SATA 3.0 Gb/s
Optical drive : PATA DVD+/-RW (DL/DF) LightScribe Slim Drive

But this itself may cost over $1000, so I may have to opt for Dell instead, after all, it comes with a LCD monitor.

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 6:14 pm
by Kieran Huggins
If you're not comfortable building it yourself you could try a local computer shop, but be careful what parts they're including.

If you do go with a "brand name" system, Dell would be my first choice. A good rule of thumb is to buy as little RAM as you can from them, since it's always marked up beyond belief. After market RAM is cheap and easy to install. I'd also seriously consider the upgrade to a larger monitor, as the jump from 1440x900 to 1680x1050 is more significant than the numbers lead you to believe.

Have you considered a budget laptop with an external monitor and keyboard/mouse? Laptops can be quite reasonable these days, and you'd gain portability. A Dell catalog I received the other day had some decent deals, and you could add the larger monitor as your budget allows.

Re: Dual-Core Processor E2140 1.6GHz 800FSB 1MB good for Lin

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:53 am
by onion2k
anjanesh wrote:I want to get a new PC for linux as I dont want to mess up my current HP branded XP Pro OEM pre-installed one.
What will you be doing with it? Developing? Learning linux? Just want to play with it?

I'd start out with a Live CD .. http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php .. You download one, burn it to a CD, and then when you boot your computer with the CD in the drive it runs Linux without changing anything on the harddisc. It's a bit like having a dual boot system but without any of the hassle of installing two operating systems.

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 3:35 am
by anjanesh
Have you considered a budget laptop with an external monitor and keyboard/mouse? Laptops can be quite reasonable these days, and you'd gain portability. A Dell catalog I received the other day had some decent deals, and you could add the larger monitor as your budget allows.
I prorably wait for a laptop until much later - when I get enough money to buy a powerful one instead of the budget ones that are too slow for me.
I would want something like this which is equla to a desktop's power but this itself costs almost $5000 !!!
What will you be doing with it? Developing? Learning linux? Just want to play with it?
Primary reason is this :
So far I've been getting shared hosting accounts for my websites and depending 100% on my hosting companies for setups. Linux, PHP, MySQL, Apache, Python etc etc.
Problem is that updates dont take place frequently with other issues by hosting companies tending to all customers needs in general. So I've decide to go for a dedicated or VPS (with root) in the near future to do what ever I want. Small sites with extremely low traffic, but need lots of other stuff like Java, Python, PostgreSQL, Oracle (which is now free - yes it'll take a lot of resources, but so far traffic is almost 0, will think of traffic much later) etc etc with latest the versions.
Now-a-days I prefer to have a much more customized setup than a pre-defined one. Wanted this for a long time, but realized this couldnt be done unless I actually sit in front of a linux machine and start experimenting myself. Experimenting on a VPS over Putty is too damn slow for me and moreover, restarting & shutdding down often isnt pratical (need to send ticket blah blah).

Moreover, once I get the hang od this, I can move all my domains/sites to a single VPS which would be more economical.

I would also be using it for development stuff - PHP, Python, (Java?) etc.

4 yrs ago, I tried using OpenOffice on FC4 on a PIII 1GHz 128MB RAM PC and it took almost 20 mins to load. Hence the reason for a very powerful system for linux, contrary to what others say that linux can run on the lowest config PC - probably refering to FreeBSD or shell-only based Linux. Im even thinking of getting a total of 4GB RAM for this new PC.

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:13 am
by Kieran Huggins
You could also use VMware as a sandbox. That's definitely the cheapest way to go.

I say buy yourself a couple of gigs of RAM for $60 and maul a few VM images inside your current OS.

I always do dry runs of server installs / upgrades on a VM - it's saved me years of headaches.

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 6:59 am
by anjanesh
How abt Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 ?
Can VMs run on a separate hard-disk ? I wouldnt mind buying a separate 250GB SATA2 hard-disk and additional 2GB RAM for this purpose.
This is something I can try checking out on another PC which is not mine :D

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:04 am
by DaveTheAve
Linux will run on ANYTHING including microwaves, cars, toys, cell-phones, ps2, xbox, iphones, ipods.... you get the idea.

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:08 am
by anjanesh
DaveTheAve wrote:Linux will run on ANYTHING including microwaves, cars, toys, cell-phones, ps2, xbox, iphones, ipods.... you get the idea.
I was referring to Kieran's suggestion of using a VM on my current Windows OS to install Linux. I was wondering if I have Windows on one hard-disk, would it be possible to install a VM on a separate hard-disk which would also contain Linux.