Dual Core Linux Box -- Update

Its been 4 years since I bought my current computer (HP Kayak XU800 Pentium III; 256 Mb RAM -- which I upgraded to 512). I originally loaded RH 7.2 or thereabouts and about a year ago went to RH 9. The Kayak came with a 9.1 Gb SCSI hardrive and I added a 36 Gb 10k Seagate SCSI. I also added an old IDE Quantum Fireball that I had from my previous linux box. The upgrade to RH 9 and M$ XP was a pain (dual boot using GRUB) but since then (about 1 1/2 years ago) this system has been un-believably stable (I rarely run XP). I have been really happy with it. However, I want a new faster machine with more memory and more speed and I have decided to go dual core. This post will be a diary of the process and progress.

If your like me (running a linux distribution) then you need to know which hardware works with linux. A good source of information on that topic is Linux Hardware.

On the topic of building a pc from components, the following two links (Tom's Hardware) are incredibly good.

• Part 1
• Part 2.
  

My list of Components

• Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (2x1Mb L2 Cache) -- I'm choosing this because of the cost/performance trade-off. Its not the absolutely latest but its not that old and it is very competitive in performance.


• Motherboard: Asus A8N 32-SLI-Deluxe NVIDIA Socket 939 ATX Motherboard -- This is "socket 939" that will apparently be going away in the not so distant future. However, the board is considered to be very good.


• Memory: CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory


• Video Card: GIGABYTE GV-NX73T256P-RH GeForce 7300GT 256MB GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card
  


• Sound Card: on motherboard


• Network: on motherboard -- Gigabit Ethernet


• Hard Drives: 2xWestern Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB Serial ATA 10,000RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer -- I'll be running Raid 1


• Case: Lian Li V COOL PC-V1000 Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower


• Power Supply: Enermax EG485P-VHB SFMA Coolergiant 480W

• DVD/CD Burner: dual layer unit

• Back-Up Mechanism: Although I am planning on mirroring (Hardware implemented Raid 1) I also plan to back-up to an external drive through a USB port.
  

As of the original posting date (January 2006) this machine would have cost about 2K. However, prices have dropped.