Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1996 19:20:27 +0100 From: mark@linus.demon.co.uk (Mark Valentine) To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Cc: kmc@gnd.com Subject: FreeBSD hardware in the UK Message-ID: <199606081820.TAA18675@linus.demon.co.uk>
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Someone asked a little while ago about where to get hardware in the UK which will run FreeBSD well. I recently bought a couple of systems from GND, ASUStek's UK distributor, and have been quite impressed with the quality of the systems and their friendly service. Their prices are also very competitive (prices are on-line at http://www.gnd.com/). What's more, they now advertise systems with FreeBSD installed and tested. Their pre-built systems come complete with on-site warranty, or you can just get components to build your own system. Some details of the systems I bought (to my own specification), for those interested: both 133MHz Pentium, one with the P/I-P55TP4N motherboard (Triton) and a pair of 60ns 16MB EDO SIMMS, the other with the P/I-P55T2P4 (Triton II) and a pair of 60ns 16MB parity SIMMS; ASUS SC-200 (NCR810) SCSI controllers; 4GB Hawk SCSI disks; quad-speed Panasonic SCSI CD-ROM; Diamond Stealth 64 video (S3 Trio64) with 1MB DRAM; one system with AOC 14" SVGA monitor (the only poor component, but I wasn't looking for anything more), the other with 17" Idek Iiyama Vision Master Pro (GND don't normally sell these, but they went out of their way to source one for me at not too much over the odds); 3.5" floppy; Keytronics "Windows 95" keyboard (actually my favourite KT-2000 keyboard with extra Meta and Compose keys with funny little graphical icons on them ;-) - unfortunately UK layout only, which I tend to replace by US layout sourced from Ceratech); midi tower case. The case and build quality deserve special mention; these cases are solid and look well designed, with separate cooling fan in addition to the one in the PSU. The wiring in these pre-built systems was immaculate! I put my own SMC EtherPower cards in these, but GND will sell you a (cheaper) ASUS card also based on the same DEC chipset supported by the `de' driver (I don't have any information on whether these just work, though). FreeBSD 2.1R installed effortlessly on both of these systems, and I also installed Windows 95 and QNX on the Triton II system with no problems (I've mostly been using QNX on it so far). I haven't done any performance testing on either system yet. No relation, just a happy punter, etc... Cheers, Mark. -- Mark Valentine at Home <mailto:mv@pobox.com> <http://www.pobox.com/~mv/>;
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