Date: Sun, 3 Oct 1999 20:42:53 -0600 From: "K. Gunderson" <kgun@iacan.org> To: Brad Chapman <bradchapman@earthlink.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Need Advice on New PC for FreeBSD Message-ID: <19991003204253.C7304@mark.iacan.org> In-Reply-To: <37F7C2B0.A01DC28A@earthlink.net>; from Brad Chapman on Sun, Oct 03, 1999 at 05:01:30PM -0400 References: <37F7C2B0.A01DC28A@earthlink.net>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Sun, Oct 03, 1999 at 05:01:30PM -0400, Brad Chapman wrote: > Hello; > I am putting together a new computer from scratch to run FreeBSD and > a database (MySQL) backed web server (under Apache). Although I am > familiar with the FreeBSD OS and other stuff, I'm a newbie in terms of > assembling computers. Does anyone have recommendations for components to > build a good system? ie. if you could build your own computer, what > would you put on it? Just trying to collect info and I would appreciate > any advice anyone could give me. Thanks. I have built a few boxes from scratch and brought FreBSD up on. I've sort of settled on a config that I like, here's the makeup of the last 4 boxes: ABIT BX6r2 motherboard Celeron 300a (overclocked to 450 MHz) Micron PC100 ECC Ram (ouch! just got *really* expensive) IBM Deskstar HD, 10.2 gig Trident AGP graphics card, 4MB (I don't do xwindows) Netgear 310 TX 10/100 NIC Now I know that somefolks have had trouble with the Netgear cards, but they have worked well for me and are half the cost of the Intel cards. I also got lucky and scored about 6 300a's that overclock like a dream to 450 Mhz. Given that you don't have any slot 1 cpu's on hand, I'd look real hard at a socket 370 CPU/MB combo. I personally love the ABIT boards because of their softmenu that lets me configure them to my hearts desire w/o having to muck around with jumpers. These boards are an overclocker's dream. That said, I suggest you stay away from overclocking unless you've really done your homework. In addition to the ABIT, you might want to consider ASUS, AOpen, and Chaintech, in that order. I used to like Tyan, but would stay away from their present offerings. (Note: I've only brought FreeBSD up on ASUS and ABIT, so am unaware of any issues the others may have.) Most of the boxes I build end up being servers and I don't bother with a cd-rom drive. Same goes for modems. On the ones I do, I like the Toshiba drives and USR/3Com (obviously stay away from Winmodems). I've used around 8 or so IBM Deskstars of various models from 4 gig to 10 gig and never had one fail. I don't care for WD or Quantum drives. I've known people who've had difficulties with the 18 gig IBM drives though. These comments apply to IDE drives only, as I'm too cheap to have the ducats to spare for SCSI. If I did, I'd grab an IBM or Seagate. I personally don't think the dual CPU route is cost effective for FreeBSD. If you need more brute force than the current generation of Intel/AMD offerings can provide, you might as well just build a second box. If you've got the extra ducats to spare for a second CPU, you're probably better off spending it on more RAM, or upgrading from IDE to SCSI, etc. Hope this helps you out some. -- Ciao--Ken http://www.y2know.org/safari Failure is not an option, it comes bundled with your Microsoft product. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?19991003204253.C7304>