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Date:	Mon, 17 Jan 2005 21:37:07 PST8
From:	"Steven Levine" <steve53@earthlink.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: [Fwd: Upcoming Dell PC Purchase]

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In <41EC6BA3.7080906@adelphia.net>, on 01/17/05
at 05:51 PM, Colin Campbell said:

>I tried to send the following note to Steven directly, but I don't know
>if it ever got there, so I'm trying to go through the Help e-mail
>address.

It did, but I've been busy. IAC, I prefer if stuff that does not need to
be private gets posted to the lists. That way others can benefit and the
information gets archived.

>Just as a refresher, the PC is a Pentium 4, with 1GB memory, an 80GB hard
>drive, a 3.5 floppy drive, a DVD reader (16x DVD-ROM) and a DVD writer
>(16x DVD +/-RW w/dbl layer write capability), and a free 19" Flat Panel
>display. Price is $1199, although I'm considering buying a longer
>warranty. It comes with WinXP Home, and some other Windows side
>software, which is of little concern to me. I can still use my older
>PC's Win2K Pro and full MS Office suite if I need to.

This is all reasonable. I would check that Dell will support the box with
W2K installed. This is only an issue if you need hardware support from
them.

>I remember that you said I should check at SciTech that the ATI Radeon
>X300SE video card would be supported by SNAP, and I found "ATI Radeon 300
>Series" mentioned under supported cards.

That's probably close enough. If you are concerned, you might want to ask
Scitech.

>The sound card is listed as "Integrated 5.1 Channel Audio", and I wrote
>down a question mark beside that. How should I go about finding out more
>about the sound situation? Do I need to ask Dell what chipset is used?

That's the best way. Hopefully, it will be easy to extract this info from
them. You might check on the Linux lists for references to the specific
Dell model.

>And, if this proves to be some kind of problem, could I just buy a
>separate sound card (and if so, which one(s) would you suggest)?

SBLive and CMedia are both well supported. You'll need 3rd party midi
support for almost anything you get. Timidity is good for this.

>I think you mentioned that I should find out about the PCI card / slots -
>what is the right question to ask? Is this about "original", "wide",
>"fast/wide", and the like, or are there other factors to consider?

Just the quantity is important. I doubt very much that this box with have
64-bit PCI slots.

>And I said I was wondering about USB - how many ports, where they are
>located, etc.

Front mounted ports are good, but running a hub from the back is really
not that much of a problem.

>Do you expect that the network interface ("Integrated Gigabit Ethernet")
>will work with eCS?

You have to find out the part number. The popular Intel and Broadcom
chipsets seem to be supported.

> If it proves problematic, I can just get another
>Intel card, as you suggested to me back in 2003 for my current PC, right?

Sure, as long as you don't run out of slots. :-)

>occasionally, and may do some programming in the future? Are there other
>hardware components that you would consider if you were buying a good,
>new PC today?

This seems to be a reasonable box in terms of power and capacity. Your
questions illustrate one of the benefits of building your own box. You
can purchase known working components and be done with it. Also, since
you don't want XP, why purchase it?

Steven

--
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"Steven Levine" MR2/ICE 2.60b #10183 Warp4/FP15/14.100c_W4
www.scoug.com irc.fyrelizard.com #scoug (Wed 7pm PST)
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