Show off computer.

[FC_Tommy]

Hi

I work for a FreeCode Oslo, one of the Norwegian offices of the free software company FreeCode. We are about to invest in a longue area where customers can try out different linux systems, read about FOSS and such. For this I need some advice on what hardware to include in the demo computers.

Important things are:
* Linux compatability (naturally)
* Performance
* Noise level.
* Availability of components

For instance: Are ATI graphic cards the way to go as of now? Or is it a thing for the future when driver support is better?

The only things we need are the computer itself. We have keyboards, mice and monitors.

Thanks,

Tommy.

[lordmozilla]

are you looking for prebuilt systems or homemade? and what's the price range?

[colo]

If you're just going to demonstrate desktop effects (and not any games), you might want to opt for a decent Core 2 Duo system with an Intel-built mainboard with onboard (IGP) graphics.

I'd recommend somethink like the following:

• Intel Media Series DG33BUC Mainboard
• Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 CPU
• Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler
• 2*1024MB PC2-6400U DDR2-SDRAM
• Samsung S250 250GB SATA2 Harddisk
• SeaSonic S12II 330W ATX Power Supply Unit
• any generic SATA or EIDE DVD+-RW-Drive
• any generic case from Coolermaster or Lian Li (looks matter)

Cheers,
- colo

[FC_Tommy]

Price range

The demo system will simluate the home and office use, but probably no games.

The price range is somewhere between 2500-3500 USD pr. system, so I think we have the luxury of choosing some of the best components.

A pre-built system would be OK, but our course room is filled with HP systems which we are not very happy with. To build the system ourselves is probably what we are looking at.

Thanks for the replies so far

- Tommy

[givemesugarr]

If you're just going to demonstrate desktop effects (and not any games), you might want to opt for a decent Core 2 Duo system with an Intel-built mainboard with onboard (IGP) graphics.

I'd recommend somethink like the following:

• Intel Media Series DG33BUC Mainboard
• Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 CPU
• Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler
• 2*1024MB PC2-6400U DDR2-SDRAM
• Samsung S250 250GB SATA2 Harddisk
• SeaSonic S12II 330W ATX Power Supply Unit
• any generic SATA or EIDE DVD+-RW-Drive
• any generic case from Coolermaster or Lian Li (looks matter)

Cheers,
- colo

you've forgotten to mention a wireless card (now are available N compatible standard chipsets) with a ralink or atheros chipset included. they work very well with linux (a complete chipset list are available at the madwifi site - atheros, or at the ralink site - http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Hom...ort/Linux.html )
also i'd go up with the ram to at least 4gb (now the ram doesn't cost much). and i'd say that the best buy for hard drives in terms of cost per megabyte is with 500gb hd. a medium range raid controller might increase well the office stability (i'd suggest not to use the integrated low cost raid controllers).
as for data protection i'd suggest you to start from the following example as a partitioning scheme:

/ on primary reiser3 fs without tail, with r5 hash and 3.6 revision filesystem and with noatime mount option (usually is enough a 5gb root filesystem)
/boot on a 100megabyte partition with the same partitioning as the root, with the same mount options but without mounting it at boot
/var /usr /opt /home each on a lvm2 container with /home and /opt ciphered with dm. this would ensure the following:
1. resize volume if needed
2. security for personal data and non free software (which usually goes in /opt).

almost any linux distro is able to handle this configuration without any problems.

as for distros i'd advice you to chose among the following:
- kubuntu/ubuntu and opensuse
- novell linux enterprise desktop/red hat enterprise desktop

the first list would be for user that don't want a hardened system, but still very stable, simple and intuitive to use, while the second group is very good for enterprises.

as for the x-window environments i'd suggest kde for 2 reasons:
1. a very high presence of high quality applications integrated with kde
2. kde 3.5.9 has reached a very high quality level
3. i've found out kdevelop to be a very good developing suite
4. familiarity for windows users (it is more similar to windows desktops with respect of gnome)

of course this changes if the customer focuses on mono/.net developing, in which case gnome is more indicated. also if this is the case i'd also suggest opting for a novell release.

of course i'd advise you to make the choice after the 24th of april when hardy heron would be out (it should be a long term supported kubuntu/ubuntu). i'd try out both versions (don't use kde4 for now since it's not ready for enterprise use, but only for personal use) and decide for the one that fits more the company views.

[FC_Tommy]

Video card.

Thank you for all your answers.

Your recomendations, givemesugarr, where especially nice. We have however our own internal policy on distributions.

When it comes to video cards, intel cards are very well supported, but when it comes to resolutions up to 1920 x 1200, they just won't do. So what are my options?

I recon that ATI cards will be very well supported in the future, but we need this in place before june. Nvidia have always been 'OK', but are lagging behind. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Tommy

[Kano]

Nvidia is not really lagging behind. For current chips ATI offers no real 3d accelleration in free and basically every OSS driver misses features that would allow to run current games. Also ATI has absolutely no Crossfire support, but Nvidia has SLI and MultiGPU support in the drivers for years. Until you want to show of a very lowend graphics solution then Nvidia is the way to go. Midrange 9600 GT, better 8800 GTS 512 or 9800 GTX.