| Revision History | ||
|---|---|---|
| Revision 4.2 | 2010-04-11 | esr |
| DVD region-locking firmware is no longer an issue, | ||
| Revision 4.1 | 2009-07-01 | esr |
| DTX failed. Finally deprecate SCSI. 32-bit is dead. Avoiding the printer-consumables trap. Invasion of the netbooks. | ||
| Revision 4.0 | 2007-11-02 | esr |
| Major revisions by Jonathan Marsden on SATA, bus standards, DVDs and other topics, followed by a cleanup pass from me. | ||
| Revision 3.3 | 2007-18-13 | esr |
| Updated for 2007 conditions. CRTs are dead. BTX is dead. CD-ROMs are competely generic now. USB modems are recommended. | ||
| Revision 3.2 | 2004-10-28 | esr |
| Fix and remove bad links. | ||
| Revision 3.1 | 2004-08-03 | esr |
| Sound cards don't matter any more. | ||
| Revision 3.0 | 2004-02-21 | esr |
| Power-protection stuff moved to UPS HOWTO. DIMM memory is gone. Tape drives don't make sense any more. Lots of the theory from my "Ultimate Linux Box" articles now lives here. | ||
| Revision 2.4 | 2003-02-22 | esr |
| URL fixes. | ||
| Revision 2.3 | 2002-08-06 | esr |
| Buying at the low end isn't a lose anymore. I recommend Athlons. Nuked the section on video standards, EDID takes care of all that now. Also removed the section on older memory types. And keyboards, as the "ergonomic" ones all vanished along with the 1990s carpal-tunnel scare. | ||
| Revision 2.2 | 2002-08-05 | esr |
| New section on DVD drives. | ||
| Revision 2.1 | 2002-07-08 | esr |
| Corrected Kingston URL. Various small updates for the last year. This HOWTO is much more stable than it used to be. | ||
| Revision 2.0 | 2001-08-09 | esr |
| Major update. Revisions based on Ultimate Linux Box experience. Caches are on-chip now. DDS4 tape drives are here. 486 machines, CD caddies, and most non-DDS backup technologies are gone. | ||
| Revision 1.1 | 2001-06-13 | esr |
| Mid-2001 update. | ||
| Revision 1.0 | 2001-02-06 | esr |
| Initial revision; but see the history in the introduction. | ||
Abstract
This is your one-stop resource for information about how to buy and configure generic PC hardware for cheap, powerful Unix systems.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Overview of the Market
- 3. Buying the Basics
- 3.1. Things to Not Care About
- 3.2. How To Pick Your Processor
- 3.3. One Disk or Two?
- 3.4. Getting Down to Cases
- 3.5. Power Supplies and Fans
- 3.6. Motherboards
- 3.7. Monitor and Video
- 3.8. DVD Drives
- 3.9. Sound Cards and Speakers
- 3.10. Modems
- 3.11. Printers
- 3.12. Power Protection
- 3.13. Radio Frequency Interference
- 4. What To Optimize
- 5. But What If I'm Economizing?
- 6. Noise Control and Heat Dissipation
- 7. Special Considerations When Buying Laptops and Netbboks
- 8. How to Buy
- 9. Questions You Should Always Ask Your Vendor
- 10. Things to Check when Buying
- 11. After You Take Delivery
- 12. Software to go with your hardware
- 13. Other Resources on Building Linux PCs