Sarissi

Then there is the 4 Way Opteron mobo that I saw in the lastest Linux Journal (next month's): 4 Opterons, 8 GB RAM per CPU (32 GB total). Each cpu has its own RAM bank of 4 DDR (4 x 2GB) slots. No AGP, builtin 8 MB video. Well, it is a server board. I saw that and immediately thought: Render Node! /me drools uncontrollably all over mandrakeusers.org :D

Bvc, I agree. Generally speaking 5,400s are fine. They also run cooler. Urza, ATX cases are all standard, IF they are not part of an OEM system. Same with Power supplies. If that is an older Compaq, you won't be able to use the RAM in a NON Compaq system. Some of the proprietary crap that OEMs pull on consumers. (not to mention substandard parts) Another place to check is www.internetishop.com . I do business with them on occasion and they are reliable. A good example of how you can luck out on eBay, is the RAM I am using right now. I was looking for 4 DDR modules, and I didn't care if they were only 128 MB each. I needed to test all 4 DDR sockets on the mobo I just got (also on eBay - the Chaintech). I happened to run across one with 4 x 256 MB DDR333, dutch auction. The seller had upgraded to 4 x 512 MB and no longer needed them. I happened to be the only bidder and got all of them for less than $25 with shipping and handling! That's 1 GB of DDR333 for less than $25 and all modules are perfect. There is also a ton of video cards and other stuff on eBay. In any case, the first thing to do in getting a system together, is deciding on the components. Take your time to make the decisions.

Null, if you are thinking in terms of a newer distro, maybe an Athlon 64?? SuSE 9.1 Pro comes with both 32 bit and 64 bit, though you will need a DVD drive to install the 64 bit version (64 bit is on one double sided DVDROM).

The mobo I am currently using, is a Gigabyte GA-7N400-L. Middle of the K7 Triton series. This replaced my Chaintech 7VJL Deluxe Apogee (which I am still going to use), only for the reason that it did not like my ND-2500A all in one DVD burner (at least as an internal eide). Interestingly, I have no problems with the nforce2 Gigabyte mobo and mandrake 10.0 CE powerpack. I didn't have any problems with Via chipset mobos, either. Mobo brands I have used: Epox (super socket 7 only) Tyan (ss7 and slot A) Gigabyte (socket A) Chaintech (socket A) ASRock (socket A)

Gee, I don't find 5,400 RPM hdds as dogs. They work just fine for me. :lol:

If you are going to do it right, you will need mobo, cpu, ram, case, vid card, etc. You don't need to get an expensive Pentium 4, where the Athlon XP will do just fine. However, with Windows, the main things that will slow your computer down are: Failure to Defrag! Not having the swap file in a separate partition and of fixed size. (1 GB is fine for this). When you leave the swap file on drive C:, it is fragmented all over the drive, and the heads spend alot of time thrashing about. I wouldn't waste my time or money with an OEM system, unless it was a notebook. I find alot of good stuff on eBay.

The way it reads to me, is that Netraverse will be providing the win4lin kernels for mandrake 10.0.

I use Partition Commander with System Commander Personal Edition for this very reason. I have mandy put lilo/grub in the first sector of the root partition and SCPE finds it with no problem. I use Partition Commander for my partitioning needs.

Get System Commander or Partition Commander, which comes with System Commander Personal Edition. Then install the Linux Boot Loader into the first sector of the Root partition. Then, if you have to re-install Windows, just install SC or SCPE again, and you are all set. SC/SCPE does not require a special partition (unlike Boot Magic. at least the one that came with Partition Magic 3.0). SCPE cannot boot from a Logical partion in an extended partition, while SC can. Both, in the current version, can boot from ext2, ext3, and ReiserFS. I use Partition Commander to handle my partitioning, and use SCPE as my boot manager. I have no problems, and no worries about the MBR getting screwed.

The only thing I know of is Mojo World, which is for entire planets. Landscape wise, there is Bryce. Unfortunately, neither is for linux. Those are the only 2 that I know of, and I am not sure either can be used for games.

I would say a low level format, but, notebooks have special partitions on them. The Low level format utility is from the manufacturer of the HDD. It writes ASCII Zeroes to the entire HDD, and you will lose all data. The bigger the HDD, the longer it will take. This is a last resort to attempt to restore your HDD(s) to functionality.

Before you go moving the Cable connection to the NIC: Turn OFF the Cable Modem and leave it off for at least 5 minutes. This will Clear the MAC in the cable modem. I learned this one the hard way. Called the cable ISP and asked.

All Windows versions, and, I think MS-DOS, overwrite the MBR. I install lilo/grub to the root superblock (first sector of root partition aka /boot). I use System Commander Personal Edition (comes with Partition Commander) as my boot manager. This way I have no problems after re-installing Windows. Fortunately, I don't have XP.

I don't think I was root trying to run hdparm.... DUH! Anyways, what I did, works like a charm. This system is now purring like a kitten.

I forgot where I saw the hdparm thing, so I am posting this here. I attempted to run hdparm and it could not be found, even though it is installed. I got looking around and found a text file in /etc/sysconfig called harddisks or hardisks. This contains the things for tuning your HDDs. If you find that your HDDs are running on the slow side, like in Enterprise Kernel, all you need to do is uncomment 2 lines to get things running much faster: The line for DMA access and the line for 32 bit access. Save and reboot. You do have to be root to do this. When you reboot, mandrake will set the parameters for all of your hard disks. Edit: moved from Hardware by spinynorman

I have the same make and model of DVD burner as you do. However, I have no problems. Then again, I don't play UT. However, not all mobos like this burner. My Chaintech 7VJL Deluxe Apogee refused to give a video signal, let alone POST with the ND-2500A installed (at least internally). It is solid and reliable with my Gigabyte GA-7N400-L nforce2 mobo. Are you using an 80 wire/40 pin cable on this drive??? If not, the do so. If you use Windows also, do you encounter the same problem in Windows?

I run Linux for all of my Internet. That includes email. What I do in Windows, there is no Linux equivalent for. Poser from Curious Labs is a very good example of this. See www.curiouslabs.com for more information on this program. Sure there are 3D CGI Modeling apps for Linux. Wings 3D is a good one. Then there are the Studio Grade 3D CGI apps like Maya 5 (Complete and Unlimited), Houdini, and a few others. However, those are hugely expensive. Unless there is something like Poser for Linux, I am basically stuck in Windows for that. Windows games, I will play in Windows. Unlike many, My Win98SE is totally stable. It helps to run it on good hardware. I guess the same is true for any OS and/or software.

Turned based AD&D RPG, and Fallout 1 and 2. Hey, I am glad that Fallout 3 is back on the schedule, such as it is at the moment. Those old SSI Gold Box AD&D games are still some of my favorites. When I bought Baldur's Gate, it came with this game called Fallout. I tried it out, and was hooked. The old Rogue style games are also great, and some are still in active development!

That's over in Europe. The USA is another matter entirely, which will be decided in federal court. Maybe even to the supreme court.

Well, we do need to acknowledge Hollerith for the Inventions that led to the creation of International Business Machines, which in due time set forth the speifications of what would be known as the IBM Personal Computer (though never intended for personal use). Bill Gates did provide the Operating System, and consequently had a great deal of influence on things for many years to come. Along comes an upstart named Linus Torvalds, who slips by Microsoft's Threat notice, until it is too late for MS to stop Linux. Linus is having as much, if not more influence on things, than Bill Gates, though in a much different way (much to the dismay of Mr. Gates).

Doesn't the EU realize that Billy Gates is the Absolute Ruler of The Earth?? (thinking from the MSFT position) Microsoft can be SO clueless.

Well, it really depends on what you want to do. These consumer cards are one thing. If you are into gaming, fine. If you are into 3D CGI, then you will need a Workstation card and those can be very expensive. In this area, Nvidia seems to be the make of choice for the Studios.

Sure looks like it. That Halloween X document is the reason the Microsoft is now under investigation by the SEC. In other words, MS is using SCOG as a stalking horse in its war against Linux. If the Royal Bank of Canada demands to pull out, then SCOG is screwed. I wonder if MS thinks it is licensing the rights to linux, when it bought a UnixWare license from SCOG?????? That would not surprise me one teeny bit.

I don't care for being called a Saracen. My name is my Spiritual Name and not of Earth. Please be careful about twisting names, as some can be insulted by such action. Now, on topic: I think you will have to flash your bios, since the last BIOS version on that mobo is F3. Here is the link to your motherboard. Click on BIOS and see for yourself.

Since I am beta testing Daz Studio (windows) and it does not like my old ATI Xpert 2000 Pro AGP card, I had to try it with my eVGA Nvidia GeForce4 MX440SE Lite Edition. Yeah, I know this is a cruddy card, but, I bought it for some hardware troubleshooting and not for 3D CGI or gaming. So I went cheap. We all know the 'fun' with the 10.0 CE public ISOs, right? That is the only distro I have downloaded, but, I had to, to test it on my nforce2 motherboard. I knew this one did not come with the Nvidia kernels and glx. I also knew that the 10.0 CE powerpack did come with those. So, while I was browsing eBay, I came across a listing for the 10.0 CE Powepack CDs. All 5 of them. I went for it, and waited until I was forced to use my Nvidia card, cause Daz Studio was locking up Win98Se, with my ATI card installed. Now we come to the meat of this post: installing the powerpack. I prefer to do a clean install, plus i had to rework mount points (I hate the way mandy labels the windows partitions). I don't format /home, so I don't lose anything in there. I put CD1 in the drive and rebooted, fully expecting to have to go to CD2 to boot. What a pleasant surprise to see mandy install boot from CD1!!!!! It gets much better: Mandrake install detected my card and installed the nvidia kernels and GLX!!! The config file has 'nvidia' in it, but nothing for GLX. Any ideas? So, those of us with Nvidia cards would be best served to get the Official Powerpack Edition. MOD Note: moved from installing to here by scoopy