How To Find A Computer With GNU/Linux Pre-Installed

I cannot remember the last time I bought a PC. Honestly. It must have been more than 15 years ago. I just want to know what is under the hood and I want value for the money I spend. I do not like to pay for features I will not use, including that other OS.

It is not hard. There is a learning curve. It might take fifteen hours of research and three hours of building the first time, but the next one will take an hour or so and you will automatically keep abreast of hardware developments so the total time will be an hour or two for shopping and building.

I start with the motherboard and case. For a server, I want a case that is well ventilated and easy to service. I like 120 mm fans and air filters. Sometimes I want a big case to hold lots of drives, but it is amazing what you can put into a really cheap, small case. I consider size, noise, and power/heat handling. For a server I almost always pick out a separate heavy-duty or redundant power supply. For a desktop, a mid-price case with the necessary features and a good supply will do very well.

I look at bandwidth on the motherboard. For surfing, anything made in the last ten years will do. For a server providing lots of storage to lots of folks on the network, I consider how many gigabytes/s I can move from memory to cpu to storage to the network. It is amazing what the new 64 bit boards will do. You can keep the cpus, the drives and the NICs all busy. Some can handle several gigabit/s NICs at a good rate and you can get lots of performance from boards starting at about a hundred dollars and going all the way to a thousand dollars. Read the spec sheets, board layout pix and data, and pay attention to data paths on the board. Lots of 32 bit boards will use a single 32 bit PCI bus for everything. Lots of the 64 bit boards will have enough bandwidth for 8 drives and four NICs and it is mind boggling what a single box can do.

For the processor, I now know the package, because it has to fit the motherboard and I usually get the low-end or mid-range chips because they give more bang for the dollar. You can divide benchmark/$ if you want. Usually, the low end prices scale. A 10 % increase in performance costs 10-20% more, but the last 10% on a series may cost 50% more. You are better off with dual core or dual socket or dual system than buying a top end chip. You get 100% more performance for 100% more money.

One buys drives with 3 to 5 year guarantees with low $/gigabyte prices that are plug compatible with your motherboard. Check that your motherboard comes with the cables you need or know that you need to buy some. I prefer SATA, but PATA/IDE are good, too. If you have lots of RAM with Linux, the speed of the drives does not matter too much because frequently used files will be cached in RAM. For a server, you may want multiple drives in RAID to increase performance/reliability seeking and transferring data.

I could go on for hours. I like this stuff. If you do, build your next machine. It will cost your time but you will gain confidence in maintenance, getting your money's worth, and knowing in detail what your system can do. Most surfers are using about 3% of a good system, by the way. That's why I like to share and have several users simultaneously using the cpu over the network or on multiple video cards/mice and keyboards.

Shop at sales. The AMD v Intel price war has knocked the price of good 64bit systems way down. I have one supplier who has specials on 6 days a week and beats everyone. This is much more fun than buying what some manufacturer may assemble out of low bids.

I know the headline was about Lenovo laptops. I happen to like bigger boxes, but a keyboard/mouse/LCD/thin client can be almost as small as a laptop and easier to use except for transportation...

jimf wrote: "I agree with this, but, the truth is, not everyone is capable of it."

That is true. Many lack the motivation and attentiveness to detail required. In my role as computer teacher, I often invite students/parents to bring in equipment that is not working and I take the opportunity to show them how to clean out dust bunnies, and even to change/add parts. My philosophy is a phillips screwdriver and common sense can go a long way. Most have no problem with the concepts once shown and given some moral support.

The last time I did this, a parent and daughter brought in a PC that had quit working after three years without cleaning. I showed them how to turn off power/open case/remove lint build up. It was impressive, about 4mm of lint on the slots of the power supply inside the case. I explained that this thing was a slow vacuum cleaner and they were sucking in all the lint from their carpet, on which the box had been sitting. They came away with an appreciation of maintenance cycles, and better siting of the box.

Another came in with a corrupted hard drive. We installed Linux in a few minutes and they were good to go, the student having used Linux at school.

In my courses I regularly introduce the nitty-gritty of the "IBM compatible/ATX" PC along with the introduction to software and operating systems so they are not afraid and can do reasonable things with any home PC. I regularly introduce spreadsheets with the task of making up a PC order for compatible parts. My course management system display images, links to suppliers and technical specs so they become informed consumers. I do the same for Linux, with all kinds of articles from the web like we find here. Choosing a distro, finding an app, and understanding jargon, are all little extensions I give to the curriculum which usually has some vague expression like "students will be able to install an operating system or application". Whoa! Try doing that with the terms of the EULA!

Given this kind of exposure, ordinary students become capable of assembling/repairing/recycling/installing a PC. I plant the seed. Perhaps 20% of the time, it grows immediately. Eventually it will likely pay off for all. It certainly makes my job more interesting.