[Ham-Computers] Hardware suggestions for Linux system in the ham shack

Ken Sprouse / WA3GKG wa3fkg at arrl.net
Tue Dec 14 08:33:16 EST 2004


I purchased SuSe 9.1 Professional about three months ago and installed it on 
an older Dell laptop with less than 256 megs of RAM.  I wanted to try Linux 
and see if it could serve as the "main" computer in my station.  

Well I have been very pleased with the results other than it being a bit 
"sluggish" which I contribute to the lack of RAM.  This system has been "up" 
for over 90 days now without having to be powered off or rebooted.  I have 
decided it is time to us this computer as a test bed for other distributions 
and install SuSe on a "real" computer which leads to my question.

I want to do the things that most people do with desk top computers these day 
meaning email, surf the web, office applications and some graphics editing.  
The graphics stuff will be light duty mostly resizing pictures for web pages 
and creating small projects ilke business and post cards.  I also would like 
to use the machine for packet and PSK31.

Given all of that what would you reccomend in the way of a mother board and 
processor for this new computer?  I would like to stay under $200 for the 
cost of the board, processor and initial memory so I am currently thinking 
about AMD Athlon somewhere between 1.2 and 2.0 gHz with 256 megs of RAM.  I 
know what a dramatic difference video boards can make on system performance 
so would you go with on board video or invest in a separate AGP video card?  
Same basic question about sound cards.  Any suggestions will be appreciated.

-- 
Ken Sprouse / WA3FKG    John 3:16
Member of the American Radio Relay League
Pittsburgh Area Scanner Net on Sunday evenings 9:00PM on 147.09 mHz
Glock - The ultimate point and click user interface. (c)


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