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Thread: $50 bounty for best hardware list for a new Ubuntu desktop

  1. #21
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    Re: $50 bounty for best hardware list for a new Ubuntu desktop

    Hey cascade9, did you catch up on your sleep?

    I am ready to order the parts whenever you get a chance to recommend fans and a CPU heatsink. Those are important parts for a silent system (as they can make or break the silence

    Let me know where to send the bounty also.

    Thanks a lot for your recommendations!
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    Re: $50 bounty for best hardware list for a new Ubuntu desktop

    I eventually caught up on my sleep...after getting sick. Nearly 22hrs straight sleep and I feel a lot better.

    BTW, the 2 'tricks' for not needing as much sleep are
    1- work afternoon/nightshift for a few years.
    2- Mind over matter. (my mind is tired, but it really doesnt matter LOL)

    After people (sort of) getting back to me, I'm guess than you should be fine with the antec 3 power switches on the cases fans, and the standard NHU-12P setup. According to the guy with the NHU-12P, he cant hear it runnign at all, and the antec fans are pretty quiet.

    I'd give that a try, and if its still noisy, either get a fan controller and/or some more quiet fans.

    I actually guess that even the stock AMD cooler should be fine, but if its not then yuo need to remove teh motherboard to fit the NHU-12P, which is a major PITA, so it makes sense to start with that already installed.

    BTW, one thing I didnt actually think off- what is your inteneded use for the system?

    There are quite a few AMD CPUs, but in general there are Athlon II (X2 and X4) and Phemon II (X2, X4 and X6).

    Athlon II - lower heat output, slightly slower (due to smaller cache).

    Phenom II- higer heat output, slightly faster, and some are 'unlockable' (a X2 can normally unlock to X4, and I've heard rumours that some of the new X4s unlock to X6). Persoanlly, I run a Phenom II X2 550 as a dualcore normally, but if I'm goign to do some video ripping, I reboot, unlock the 2 extra cores, then restart.

    There are even special 'low power' AMD CPUs. example- The normal Athlon II X2 240 is a 65watt TDP part, then 240e runs at exactly the same speed as a 'standard' 240, but is only a 45watt part.

    All the 'e' series Athlon II CPUs are 45watt TDP parts, and here are also 'e' series Phenom IIs (all 65watt parts).

    If your just going to be doing light web browsing, soem media playing, etc, and not really 'pushing' the system that hard then you probably wont notice much difference between an Athlon II and a Phenom II. Phenom IIs really show the extra power on things like audo and video encoding, very heavy multitasking, VMbox use, and some games.

    I would guess that since you've speced 6GB+ of RAM, something you will be doing likes RAM, and almost everythign that likes RAM likes Phenom II CPUs (that 6MB of L3 cache really works)

    Just something else to keep in mind before your final order.

    As far as any bounty- temping, but see how the system works 1st at least If your happy with the system, I'll think about it more.

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    Re: $50 bounty for best hardware list for a new Ubuntu desktop

    Quote Originally Posted by cascade9 View Post
    I eventually caught up on my sleep...after getting sick. Nearly 22hrs straight sleep and I feel a lot better.

    BTW, the 2 'tricks' for not needing as much sleep are
    1- work afternoon/nightshift for a few years.
    2- Mind over matter. (my mind is tired, but it really doesnt matter LOL)
    That's what happens to me every time I skip a night or two of sleep. And now that I'm older, I think those nights of missed sleep in prior years were not good for me at all! I was looking for the secret for how to not sleep and also not suffer any negative consequences... but I think that may be impossible (except maybe for a monk/advanced meditator).


    Quote Originally Posted by cascade9 View Post
    As far as any bounty- temping, but see how the system works 1st at least If your happy with the system, I'll think about it more.
    Very generous of you! I'll let you know how I like it. As long as it is quiet and suspend/resume and hibernate work, I won't be upset. If it performs great too, I will be very happy!

    Quote Originally Posted by cascade9 View Post
    BTW, one thing I didnt actually think off- what is your inteneded use for the system?
    Here's what is important to me:

    I need good, crisp, clear text display (for software development and technical writing work). I will be driving two 23" widescreen monitors via DVI.

    This is a general purpose PC I also use for watching videos, browsing web and working with fairly large spreadsheets, etc.

    I usually have about 30 - 40 tabs open in Firefox. Every day I hit the limits of my current PC in terms of speed and memory because of the way I use Firefox. My current PC has 4 GB of RAM and it scores pretty low on browser benchmarks. I'd like something that will be near the top of the browser benchmark charts and that won't run out of memory when I have a lot of tabs open.

    You seem to be an AMD fan, and I am too. But I'm wondering if Intel wouldn't be a better choice right now... what do you think?
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    Re: $50 bounty for best hardware list for a new Ubuntu desktop

    A 1920 x 1200 fanless video card on dual monitors? Are you planning a house fire?

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    Re: $50 bounty for best hardware list for a new Ubuntu desktop

    @ Garandir- I've run dual monitors on this system, witha fanless card,a nd no housefires happened. Ammittedly, I wasnt pushing 1920x1200 x 2, I actually ran 1920x1080 (21.5'' LED) and 1920x1440 (17'' CRT)...and I didnt run the 17'' at 1920x1440 for long, as at that resolution a 17'' CRT is pretty much unreadable.

    Ah-ha, a fellow 'tab abuser' with firefox LOL. I've normally got way to many tabs open as well, and yeah, it doesnt really help FF work fast.

    I should install opera again, see if its any better. It used to be, but so far on this install I've been lazy and just using good ol FF.

    As far as intel vs AMD goes- Intel is faster, MHz for MHz than AMD, and there are some very fast i5/i7 CPUs around. In this case though, I'm not sure that I would move to intel.....its always an option though.

    The main issue with moving to an intel system is the extra cost. LGA 1366 is right out, the CPUs cost to much (minimum $290 on just the CPU, and LGA 1366 motherboards are more expensive as well). You would be loooking at pretty much the same motherboard cost for LGA 1166 (if your want dual gigabit lan, about $160+) and then to get a CPU that is faster in most cases than a X4 955 you would need a i5 750 (about $195).

    Comparing a AMD $200 CPU (X6 1055T) to the intel $200 CPU (i5 750), the intel will eb faster on single threaded programs (and actually, the X6 1055T is slower on single threaded programs than the X4 955, as its got less MHz) but then on multithreaded programs, the AMD goes back to being faster in general.

    So, just to spell it out- apart from the 'budget' end on CPUs, for any given amount of $$$, generally Intel= faster on single threaded programs, AMD= faster on multithreaded programs (and should be a better multitasker as well)

    Tough decision.

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    Re: $50 bounty for best hardware list for a new Ubuntu desktop

    Quote Originally Posted by Garandir View Post
    A 1920 x 1200 fanless video card on dual monitors? Are you planning a house fire?
    I've been running a 1920 x 1200 fanless video card on dual monitors for years. My current PC, although fairly obsolete now, runs cool and quiet. I'm sure the system cascade9 has recommended will be just as good in that department and up to date in terms of performance.
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    Re: $50 bounty for best hardware list for a new Ubuntu desktop

    Quote Originally Posted by cascade9 View Post
    Ah-ha, a fellow 'tab abuser' with firefox LOL. I've normally got way to many tabs open as well, and yeah, it doesnt really help FF work fast.
    Seems like we are pretty aligned in our computer needs. I really appreciate your recommendations. You know where I'm coming from.
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    Re: $50 bounty for best hardware list for a new Ubuntu desktop

    No problem at all.

    BTW, a the basis for that build (an antec P18X and seasonic X650) is stuff thats been on my 'if I had enough money' list for a while now. Though I have to admit I wouldnt get them unless I was building a whole new system, the antec solo + corsair HX520 in my current system is pretty good, its not worth the upgrade (even if I did have the money).

    I really hate loud computers.....most people dont seem to mind screaming fans, etc, but it drives me insane. Every time my sister and her pbf come over, he always comments about how quiet my system is...."how the hell do you know it is on when the monitor goes to standby" LOL.

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    Re: $50 bounty for best hardware list for a new Ubuntu desktop

    Fanless Video Cards:
    ZOTAC Nvidia GeForce GT240 ZONE Edition (1 GB DDR3 VGA/DVI/HDMI PCI-Express Graphic Card ZT-20404-20L)
    MSI GeForce GT240 (1GB 1024MB PCI Express 2.0 Graphic Card N240GT-MD1G)
    ASUS Nvidia GeForce GT240 (1 GB DDR3 VGA/DVI/HDMI PCI-Express Graphic Card ENGT240 SLIENT/DI/1GD3/A)
    Sparkle GeForce GTS 450 passive

    http://www.acousticpc.com/
    http://www.silentpcreview.com/

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    Re: $50 bounty for best hardware list for a new Ubuntu desktop

    Quote Originally Posted by cascade9 View Post
    No problem at all.

    BTW, a the basis for that build (an antec P18X and seasonic X650) is stuff thats been on my 'if I had enough money' list for a while now. Though I have to admit I wouldnt get them unless I was building a whole new system, the antec solo + corsair HX520 in my current system is pretty good, its not worth the upgrade (even if I did have the money).

    I really hate loud computers.....most people dont seem to mind screaming fans, etc, but it drives me insane. Every time my sister and her pbf come over, he always comments about how quiet my system is...."how the hell do you know it is on when the monitor goes to standby" LOL.
    Hey, here is the component list I ended up going with:
    http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=...9&postcount=48

    Some of the components are the same as you recommended. However, in the end I went with an Intel i5. It was a tough choice (and I'm not completely happy about deserting AMD).

    Your advice on video cards was extremely helpful. It was the best advice I received anywhere.

    Also, you might like to know that I found the Antec P183 case too large. I ended up ordering the case you have now - the Solo. (I'm going to sell the P183.)
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