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From: somsky@dirac.phys.washington.edu (William R. Somsky)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: FreeBSD system specification
Date: 1 Jul 1996 11:51:42 GMT
Organization: University of Washington
Lines: 895
Message-ID: <4r8e4e$m2@nntp5.u.washington.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: dirac.phys.washington.edu
Well, I'm just about to have a new FreeBSD/Win95 system custom built
for myself (probably in a week or so), and thought I'd run my specs by
people here for any comments they might have, just to check for any
problems that other people have run into w/ similar systems, and to
help me decide on the items I'm still not quite sure of. Any comments
on my specs would be appreciated.
My intended use of the system is for Un*x programming, computing,
and "messing about", since that's the computing environment I'm most
comfortable in (~11 years experience), and for DOS/Win/Win95 game
playing, since there are just too many interesting games out there to
resist. I'm an amateur musician/singer, so I'd like to try some work
w/ music composition & MIDI software, and my training is as a
theoretical particle physicist, so I might be tempted to try some
"serious" computations at some time.
Since I use workstation-class Unix machines at work (SGI Indy's, Sun
Sparc's, etc.), I'd like to have something at home that feels roughly
comparable once you factor in the fact that it'll be the sole user
instead of sharing it w/ 10+ others at a time. It's probably a bit
more that I need, but heck, having any computer at all is more than I
really _need_.
In most places in my spec, I've listed two or more variants that I
am/have considered, with general, order-of-magnitude prices. I've
indicated my current choice with an asterisk (*) if I'm fairly sure
what I want, and a question-mark (?) if I'm still undecided. I've also
added comments about why I'm considering what I'm considering, and why
I've made my "current choice" choices as I have.
*Please*, _no_ comments about the price-estimates unless they're _way_
off, i.e. by 30% or more -- they are _only_ for giving a rough estimate
of prices in order to decide things like "Do I really want to spend
around $250 to upgrade from a 133MHz Pentium to a 166MHz?" or "Is this
all going to be way over my budget?" I have _intentionally_ done very
gross rounding of general prices that I've seen. They are in no way
meant to be indicative of any specific prices or quotes I have seen.
Again: *** DON'T COMMENT ON THE PRICES UNLESS THEY'RE *WAY* OFF! ***
(OK, who wants to take bets on how many people will ignore this and
tell me, "Oh, you can get that for $5 cheaper over _here_"?)
And now to the list:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
CPU:
* [$250] Pentium 133MHz w/ ball-bearing fan
[$500] Pentium 166MHz w/ ball-bearing fan
The "sweet" spot for CPU's seems to be at the 133MHz Pentia these
days, with them going for roughly $250, and with about another $250
needed to upgrade to the 166's. So the 133MHz looks like the way
I'll go, although if prices come down on the 166, I just may go for
it -- I'll check prices the day I order this beast.
With the "n*33MHz" chips, the memory and PCI clocks are kept up at
66MHz and 33MHz respectively -- there just doesn't seem to be any
real reason to consider the "n*30MHz" chips (120MHz, 150MHz).
I'm staying with the Intel Pentia chips rather than trying any of the
alternates (AMD/Cyrix/etc), because I want to maintain the
floating-point performance and because I'm just not brave enough here
to break away from the masses in the mainstream.
Motherboard:
* [$200] ASUS P55T2P4 [430HX] 512K PB Cache w/ PS2 mouse connector
[$210] ASUS XP55T2P4 [430HX] 512K PB Cache [ATX form-factor]
--NO-- ASUS P55TVP4 [430VX]
I've heard good things about the ASUS boards, and they seem to be
popular with and work well for the FreeBSD crowd. Several people
have said that they are successfully using and are happy with the
P55T2P4 in their FreeBSD boxen.
The 430HX chipset leaves the decision of whether or not to use parity
or ECC as _my_ choice rather than Intel's (see "RAM" below). The
430VX chipset will do neither ECC nor parity, however, as it's meant
for use in entry level systems, so the VX chipset is out.
With the upgrade from 256K to 512K cache costing around $30, there
doesn't seem to be any reason _not_ to go ahead and do it, unless one
is really pinching pennies.
An ATX board seems like it would be nice, but ATX cases are still a
bit hard to come by, so I'll use the standard board as the baseline,
and upgrade if a good ATX case can be had (see "cases" below).
USB support would be nice, if that's been fixed by the time I buy the
board, but since there really aren't any USB-capable devices
available yet, it's lack is far from critical. (Besides, I've put
this off far too long as it is... If I keep waiting for the next
improvement, I'll _never_ get my system.)
RAM:
[$175] 16MB: 2 of 2Mx36b (8MB) 60ns FPM, true parity
* [$350] 32MB: 2 of 4Mx36b (16MB) 60ns FPM, true parity
[$700] 64MB: 2 of 8Mx36b (32MB) 60ns FPM, true parity
First off, there's been a lot of heat generated about whether
parity/ECC is necessary, useful or completely superfluous. I'd feel
better with parity/ECC checks on the memory in my system, but if you
don't think it's necessary, I'd never force you to use it in _your_
system. I think it really comes down to just a personal choice here,
and I choose to have parity. 'Nuff said.
For 66MHz memory clocks, the 60ns memory chips are recommended, and
this doesn't seem like the place to push the limits.
As they say, you can never get enough. However, from what I've
heard, people generally do quite well with 32MB, and with RAM prices
in the neighborhood or $10 per megabyte or so, a bit more for parity,
and with a possible premium on the higher density chips, 32MB seems
like a comfortable figure in terms of both performance and price.
Besides, unlike many of the other choices here, the RAM can easily be
upgraded later without having to throw out what one already has.
But, if the final quote comes in under budget when I order the
system, I just may spring for the larger memory.
Case and Power Supply:
* [$200] Shin-G GT-300(?) 300W tower, toolless, 4+3 5" bays, 2nd fan
[$90] Enlight 6680 250W med-tower, toolless, 4 5", 1+6 3" bays, 2nd fan
[$75] Generic 250W tower/mid-tower, 4+2 bays, 2nd fan [ATX?]
[$80] PC Power & Cooling Standard 230W tower power supply
[$150] PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 300W tower power supply
For what I'm planning to be putting into this system, I'm going to
need a mid- or full-tower case w/ at least four exposed bays and one
enclosed disk bay, plus an extra if I want to leave any room for
expansion, and probably a 250W power supply. A second cooling fan
would also probably be a good idea.
ATX cases, power supplies and motherboards seem to be the
up-and-coming thing, but I'm not sure how generally available they
are now, and whether the computer shops have sufficient experience
with them. I haven't really heard much about good-quality ATX cases
and power supplies yet, nor have I actually _seen_ any ATX cases
around of any grade.
The difficulty with cases are that there are so many of them, ranging
from cheap and flimsy to well-made and sturdy, and most often all you
have to go on is a tiny picture in a magazine ad. It's an item you'd
really like to see in person before you commit yourself.
One case I've seen that looked pretty good was, I believe, a Shin-G
GT-300. (Can anyone check me on this part number? I'm not completely
certain if this is right. I tried to find more info on Shin-G on the
net/web, but came up blank.) It was quite a nice case w/ toolless
entry, a 300W power supply, butterfly side-opening panels, 4 exposed
and 3 internal 5.25" bays w/ slide-in rails, and a second fan.
Anybody have/seen one of these? How good is the power supply in
this? Any other comments, anyone?
The other case I've heard about, but never seen, is the Enlight
6680/6688 case, another toolless entry case. There are people on the
net who seem to be quite happy with them, but I've heard that the
internal 3.5" bays are designed for inch-high drives, and half-height
drives need to be mounted upside down. Isn't that a bit odd?
Then, of course, are whatever generic cases the vendor usually uses.
These can range from quite good to abysmal. The question is, is it
really important enough an issue that I want to go to the bother of
spec'ing out a specific case, esp. when I'm not exactly sure of what
I want anyway, or should I just go with what the vendor usually uses?
Hopefully I can check out the vendor's "standard" cases before I make
a final decision.
As far as power supplies go, I've heard that PC Power and Cooling
power supplies are among the best in the business -- some people
won't have anything else. But most cases already come with a power
supply, I believe. Is it a good idea to specify a specific power
supply like this, or will it be more hassle than it's worth? And if
I were to go w/ a PC P&C power supply, is the upgrade from the
Standard to the Turbo-Cool worth it?
Floppy Drive:
[$30] Teac 3.5" 1.44M
[$40] Teac 5.25" 1.2M
? [$80] Teac Dual 3.5"/5.25"
I've got a few old games on 5.25" disks, so I'd kind of like a 5.25"
floppy drive, and the dual drive is more efficient in terms of bay
conservation than separate 3.5" and 5.25" drives. However, I may
just decide to have a friend copy the old 5.25" disks over to 3.5"
disks and forget the 5.25" drive altogether.
From what I hear, Teac has long been _the_ quality manufacturer of
floppy drives. This is a low enough budget item that it doesn't seem
to make much difference/sense to scrimp here.
SCSI Controller:
[$200] Adaptec 2940 PCI
? [$260] Adaptec 2940 PCI Kit
[$310] Adaptec 2940UW PCI Kit
This is going to be an all SCSI system -- none of this messing about
with IDE/EIDE -- so I need a good SCSI controller. The Adaptec 2940
is a known good performer and well supported by FreeBSD.
What I'm uncertain about is just what's included in the "kit" form
vs. the "bare" card. I doubt that any of extra software would be
useful for running FreeBSD (or is it?), but remember that I'm also
planning on using the system for DOS/Win/Win95 gaming, and although
Win95 supposedly has all the necessary drivers builtin, I believe
separate drivers are needed for running the CDROM, etc in DOS mode.
Do all the proper drivers come with the "bare" card, or is it a
_really_ "bare" card w/ no software whatsoever. And even if the
necessary drivers are all there with the "bare" card, is there
anything in the "kit" package that would be worth having? Can anyone
who's dealt with this give me some info here?
Now from the general prices I've seen there doesn't seem to be too
much of a price increase from the 2940 kit to the 2940UW kit, but
since this system isn't going to be performing any heavy-duty file
service, there seems to be little need for the SCSI ultra and/or wide
options, and I'm a little uncertain about whether having a wide bus
would present any complications in connecting to narrow/normal
components. (I know it can be done, but then you get into narrow vs
wide connector issues, etc.) Can anyone confirm/deny my feeling that
there really wouldn't be any noticeable benefit in going to the 2940UW
for this system?
Hard Disk:
* [$500] 2GB 3.5" 5400 rpm Fast SCSI-2 Seagate Hawk ST32430N
[$700] 2GB 3.5" 7200 rpm Fast SCSI-2 Seagate Barracuda ST32550N
A 2GB disk seems like it should be pretty comfy for a personal Un*x
and game machine: 400MB for Win95/games/etc, 600MB for FreeBSD w/
sources, 500MB for myself and 500MB extra. 1GB would probably be a
bit tight, and I'm not planning on working with bulk audio, video or
images on the disk, so 4GB would be overkill. And as was the case
with RAM, this is easy to add on to without discarding my original
investment.
We've had good luck w/ Seagate disks at work, and they're a well
known brand, so I've more-or-less arbitrarily decided to get a
Seagate drive -- unless someone has a significant reason why I
shouldn't. This isn't to say anything against any other drive
manufacturers; it's mostly just a means to cut down on the too-wide
array of possibilities here.
As mentioned above in the SCSI controller section, there doesn't seem
to be any need for an ultra and/or wide disk on a personal system.
Anyone have any reason I should think otherwise?
At this point, it leaves us with the choice of the 5400 rpm Hawk
or the 7200 rpm Barracuda drive. (Actually, from what I hear, there
are a couple variants of the Hawk drive, but they should all be
interchangeable for our purposes here, shouldn't they?) So, is the
extra speed of the Barracuda worth the extra $200 or so? Would
the speed difference be noticeable in the system I'm building here?
I'm tempted to get slickest, hottest drive here, but would I just
be paying for the bragging rights to say I have a 7200 rpm drive?
And speaking of hot, are there any heat difficulties w/ the 2GB
Barracuda drives? I know you have to be a bit careful w/ the airflow
around the 4GB version, or it'll overheat, but I haven't heard about
the 2GB version. Does it have the same problem? Is the normal
airflow pattern inside a PC case sufficient or does one have to be
extra careful with these?
CDROM Drive:
? [$280] NEC Multispin 6Xi SCSI
[$260] Toshiba 3701B 6.7x SCSI
[$340] Toshiba ????? 8x SCSI ??? -- is there such a thing?
For use under FreeBSD, where the CDROM will be used for loading
source/data files in a non-realtime fashion, the performance of the
drive isn't really a major factor. What's more important is getting
a good quality drive. I've hear people say good things about their
Toshiba drives, and I believe the NEC's are well made as well.
(Anybody confirm/deny this?)
For use under DOS/Win95, however, where the CDROM will be used for
gameplay, which often uses realtime audio and/or video, performance
is more relevant. A 6x drive, however, seems like is should be more
than adequate for all current and near-future uses, and much after
that, we'll all be replacing our current drives w/ new DVD drives.
From what I've heard, some people have had problems with the
idle-timeout on the Toshiba drives, which cause the disk to spin-down
after only 30 seconds or so of inactivity, leading to choppy
performance in some realtime display situations. (Confirm/deny
anyone?) On the other hand, I've gotten the impression (it's been a
while, perhaps I'm mistaken?) that the NEC's performance is rather
lackluster and that it's not a "hot performer". (Again, confirm/deny
anyone?) Anyone have any good advice here?
In talking to one vendor, he looked at my spec for the Toshiba 6.7x
and said, "Oh, there's a new, faster one available", but didn't have
the model number. Now, I've seen mention of a Toshiba 8x IDE drive,
but not of a SCSI version. Is there such a beast available? And if
so, has anyone had any experience with it?
Tray or caddy? Sometimes I think I'd prefer one, and sometimes I
think I'd prefer the other. As long as they're well-made, study
mechanisms, I think either a tray or caddy would be acceptable, and
isn't really a deciding point for me.
Video Card:
* [$300] #9 Motion 771 2MB VRAM PCI w/ 220 MHz IBM RAMDAC
[$450] #9 Motion 771 4MB VRAM PCI w/ 220 MHz IBM RAMDAC
From what I hear, the Number Nine Motion 771 is a good, solid
performer and well supported by XFree86. I don't want to have to get
a commercial X server to support a Matrox, and I don't really get a
warm, fuzzy feeling about the Diamond cards.
With 2MB I believe the 771 can do 16 bits per pixel at 1152x864, but
only 8 bits at 1280x1024 or 1600x1200. This seems like a reasonable
behavior for me, since I'm going to be using a 17" monitor (see
"monitor" below) and am not planning on doing anything like full-page,
full-color layouts.
And about the RAMDAC: I've heard there are both 170MHz and 220MHz
versions of the board, yes? Is this an OEM vs retail difference?
And will it really make a difference for the uses I'm planning? I
know it limits the refresh rate at higher display sizes, but the
card specs list 110Hz as the refresh rate for 1280x1024 and 83Hz for
1600x1200, which I guess are for the 220MHz chip, so I guess they
would translate to 17/22 of that for the 170MHz, or 85Hz for
1280x1024 and 64Hz for 1600x1200, and since I doubt that with a 17"
monitor there's much point in running at 1600x1200, it doesn't sound
like much of a difficulty. Are they any other significant
differences between the chips other than their speed? Quality,
stability, etc? Will a higher chip bandwidth make a difference even
when not trying to run near it's limit? I'm going to ask for the
220MHz anyway, but it doesn't sound like too much of a difference for
my situation. True? False?
Monitor:
[$800] Viewsonic 17PS .25mm
? [$1000] Sony Multiscan 17SE-2T .25mm
[$1000] Nanao Flexscan F2-17EX .26mm
[$1025] Nanao Flexscan T2-17 .26mm [not T2-17TS]
17" seems like the most popular size nowadays, and since I'm used to
16" and 17" monitors at work, I think I'd be disappointed in a mere
15 incher. I'm not even considering 20", since I'm not going to be
doing CAD or page-layout tasks (except for maybe just playing
around), I don't want to spend the $2000 necessary for a 20", and I
really don't care to have my monitor to take over my entire desk.
(Even the 17" monitors are too bulky for my tastes, but I guess I'll
have to live with it there. Too bad flat screen monitors aren't
cheap enough and out in force yet.)
And since I do want to be able to run up in the 1024x860 and
1280x1024 ranges, I'm keeping with the fine pitch, higher quality
models that will handle these with good resolution and refresh
rates. Also, a high quality monitor should last for quite a while,
through several system upgrades and changes.
Choosing between monitors is a hard, since the monitor is quite
literally in-your-face all the time, and you can't really tell much
from the specs alone. I'm limiting my choices to monitors where I've
had a chance to inspect either the model in question or a close
variant that I feel should be equivalent (e.g., a Sony 17SE for a
Sony 17SE2). But if someone tells me about a hot monitor that I've
just gotta see, well, I'll see if I can go out and see it.
Aperture grill or shadow mask? I've heard the former is brighter,
with better color saturation for images, but the latter is a bit
sharper for line graphics and fine text. Gameplaying will rely
mostly on images, while FreeBSDing will rely mostly on text. Since I
will be spending hours looking at text in FreeBSD, and don't want to
limit myself to a single 80 character wide xterm, I think I want to
have good performance w/ fine text. However, that "wet paint" look
of the trinitrons is very tempting.
Now, some of our Sonys at work (17SE's OEM'ed to SGI for use with
their Indy workstations) are a bit fuzzy on fine text, while others
do quite well -- would this be an indication that the fuzziness I'm
seeing is from focus, convergence, etc, rather than inherent to the
trinitron tube? Incidentally, having worked some with the
trinitrons, I don't believe the shadows of the A.G. stabilization
wires will make much of a difference for me.
As I said, we have OEM Sony 17SE's at work, and they look pretty
good, perhaps a bit fuzzy on the fine text at times. (I believe the
only significant difference between the 17SE's and 17SE2's is that
the SE2's add on-screen feedback for the user controls.) Sony's a
well respected name and I've heard that there's a service center here
in Seattle, so in case I have trouble and it needs service work, I
can have it repaired locally instead of having to send it all the way
to Kalamazoo or Timbuktu. So a sony looks like it could be a good
choice.
I haven't seen a Viewsonic 17Ps, per se, but some of our NEC
X-terminals have OEM monitors that look identical in design and very
similar in terms of specs, so I believe it's probably an OEM version
of just about the same thing. I spent some time with one of these
terminals and it looked pretty good. Not quite as bright as the
Sony, but nice clear text. Now that was only one data point --
perhaps it was an exceptionally good instance of the breed -- and I'm
not sure exactly how this unspecified OEM model compares with the
retail 17PS, but it looked pretty good. And with a price somewhat
lower than the Sony or Nanao, it sounds like it could be a good
choice, too.
I've seen a Nanao F2-17FX in a computer superstore, and it looked
pretty good, nice clean design and controls, but it wasn't displaying
any images that I could use to really check out the fine image
quality. A professor at work has just gotten a new T2-17, however,
and I'm going to be taking a closer look at that this week. The F2
and T2 models seem to be _very_ similar: are there any significant
differences other than the tube type? From what I've heard, Nanao
builds very high quality monitors, but it's sometime rather hard to
get service on them if/when they need it. (Comments anyone?)
Now, as you can probably tell from the length I've gone on here about
monitors, I'm rather uncertain what to choose. And since I'm going
to be staring at the monitor quite a bit, I really want to get
something that I'll be happy with. Now, I've heard of people quite
happy with each of these brands/models on the net, but does anyone
have any direct, comparative experience with two or more of these,
that they could share with me to help me out here?
Keyboard:
[$25] Generic cheap keyboard
* [$50] Generic good-quality 101/104 "bar-return" keyboard
[$??] IBM Professional keyboard
[$90] Northgate Omnikey 101P keyboard
The keyboard is another item that has a profound impact on your
interaction with your computer. Unless you're a dedicated mouser,
almost all your input to your computer is via the keyboard. If
you've got a keyboard you don't like, you're in general not going to
have a very enjoyable session with your computer. (For instance, the
keys on this older terminal I'm using to type this are a bit sticky
and have a slightly odd layout -- it's rather annoying...) It's also
another item where you can't rely on specs alone: you really need to
see and feel one for yourself.
In terms of my personal preferences, I like a more tactile, "clicky",
sort of keyboard, but am happy enough with a softer touch as long
as it isn't "mushy". The keys switches need to be smoothly
operating, high quality mechanisms. If I hit the shift or return
key near the edge, it needs to operate smoothly, not bind and stick.
It's a personal preference, but I like the plain "bar" return keys
rather than the "ell" shaped ones. Oh, and forget the split,
"ergonomic" keyboards altogether: I just don't think I like them.
It would be nice to have a proper Un*x style keyboard that has the
escape key in the upper left corner of the regular keyboard area
rather than up in the function row, and the control key just to the
left of the "A" key (where God intended it :-), but I've never heard
of any being available. Anyway, I've developed a key remapping that
I used to use on the IBM RS/6000's that brings all the necessary keys
down into more-or-less reasonable positions: BS -> BS, Shift-BS ->
tilde(~); grave(`) -> ESC, shift-grave -> grave(`); swap CTL and
CAPS. I've already got xmodmap files to accomplish this under X, and
I believe it should be possible to do this as an alternate keymapping
for plain-text mode in FreeBSD. Anybody know how to make custom
keymaps for DOS/Win95? The nice thing about the Northgate keyboards
is/was that you could swap the control and caps-lock keys _in
hardware_. If I end up with some other keyboard, I just may take a
soldering iron to the thing and try a few "field modifications" to
correct this deficiency.
What about these three new "windows" keys that Microsoft has
convinced everyone we need? Are they useful in W95? Can they be
used as meta/hyper/etc keys in FreeBSD/XFree86? I would have been
happier if Gates and Co. had kept it down to two new keys -- there
was an existing space between the control and alt keys on each side
of the space bar on the IBM standard keyboards. Too many of the
104-key keyboards are crowding the down spacebar into a narrow little
stub.
Now there are lots of keyboards around, but the ones you usually see
in stores/computer shops are the cheap to moderately good varieties,
with an over -mphasis on bells and whistles such as new ergonomic
variants and builtin pointing devices and speakers/microphones. The
really good varieties seem to be special order items.
Rather than worry about the details of spec'ing out a specific
keyboard, my inclination is to just get a good quality keyboard
from the ones the vendor usually deals with, and then get a
high-quality keyboard -- such as the IBM or Northgate, or even
an ergonomic keyboard if I feel daring -- later at my leisure
when I see something I really like. This is a low enough
budget item that I feel I can comfortably do this with it.
Mouse:
* [$50] Logitech Mouseman Combo Serial/PS2 3-button
[$70] Logitech Mouseman Cordless Serial/PS2 3-button
Three-buttons. No discussion about it, I gotta have three buttons.
I'm not going to mess about with any chording or meta-keys or
anything else for getting a middle-button click while running X.
Logitech is a good, solid name in the mouse industry, and there
doesn't seem to be much reason skimp here, especially since an
erratically functioning mouse is a real pain. The mouseman seems
like a solid, sturdy mouse, although I would have preferred the old
standard rectangular shape over the new ergonomic shape.
Anybody had any experience with the Logitech cordless mouse? Do
these work smoothly and well? How long do the batteries last in it?
I find the idea of getting rid of the mouse's "tail" dragging all
over my desk appealing, especially since I've got hutch on the top of
my desk which would force the mouse cord to be strung around,
forward, back and forward again to get the mouse and it's "tail" in
the proper position. I'm willing to pay the extra amount for it as
long as it will work well, and not need to have its batteries
replaced every other week.
Since the ASUS board has a PS/2 mouseport, I want a mouse that can
work both as a PS/2 or serial mouse, giving me the possibility of
freeing up the serial port for other things I might want to try
sometime such as a scanner or graphics tablet. How well does putting
the mouse on a PS/2 port work in practice? I know that the "psm"
device isn't compiled into the default FreeBSD kernel, since it can
cause conflicts on some systems, but does anyone have any ideas how
it would work for the sort of system I'm proposing? Are there any
other reasons one should or shouldn't use a PS/2 mouse?
Operating System:
* [$40] FreeBSD 2.1 (2.1.5?) CD [Walnut Creek]
* [$90] Microsoft Win95 [vendor installed] *** w/ CD media ***
* [$0] Power Toys & Service Pack 1 [download from MS]
* [$45] Microsoft Plus! CD
As I mentioned at the beginning, I'll be running FreeBSD for Un*x,
and Win95 for games. Since I will probably want to repartition my
disk sometime, I need to have the installation media for everything,
esp. the Win95. I *might* be able to get the vendor to partition the
disk to my specs for Win95 and FreeBSD, but I'd probably just change
my mind later anyway. (Besides I kind of like the the computer-macho
thrill of completely stripping down the system and reinstalling and
customizing it all from scratch.) I believe that you're supposed to
be able to (easily?) repartition the disk and reinstall Win95 from
scratch with just a boot floppy (with the required DOS-mode SCSI,
disk, and CD drivers) and the Win95 CD. (Confirm/deny anyone?)
I believe that one can / is supposed to get a CD copy of Win95 with a
vendor pre-installed version of Win95, (I'm going to check to make
sure), otherwise I'm going to have to resort to the $200 non-upgrade
version of Win95, which only comes on floppies, YUCK! (Microsoft,
why the h*ll did you do it this way? Couldn't you have done it with
a boot floppy or two and the rest on CD rather than a whole mess of
floppies?)
And, of course there's FreeBSD. No real question here. Oh, I could
just download it all, but a CD is _much_ handier and well worth the
cost. That's why Walnut Creek is able to make much/most/all(?) of
their stuff available online for free access, and still be able to
have a healthy CDROM publishing business. (At least I assume they're
healthy, I haven't heard of them having any problems.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok, that completes what I'm considering the base system: the parts that
are absolutely required before I can run anything, so let's look at the
rough-estimate subtotal cost up to this point.
Est. Subtotal: $3695
OK, not exactly cheap, but not a bank-breaker either. I think I can
live with this.
Now, let's go on to the "additional" components that I'm considering
adding to this system.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sound System:
* [$90] SB-16 value IDE w/ wave connector
? [$190] Roland SCD-15
[$170] Yamaha DB50XG
[$110] Roland MPU-401AT
[$15] Generic mini extension speakers
? [$100] Sony SRS PC50 5W
The SoundBlaster seems to be a de-facto standard for gameplay, and is
currently supported by FreeBSD, so a SB compatible card seems like a
good base to build off of. I'm rather uncertain about the fancier
cards, such as the GUS or AWE, in terms of game and FreeBSD
compatibility, so I've decided to just go with a SB-16.
Unfortunately, all the SB cards being made now are PnP (Plug and
Pray, I mean Play :-) versions, and I don't believe that any of the
free Un*xen handle PnP very well yet. I asked around at a few
places, and found that they no longer carry the non-PnP versions of
these cards. However, just as I was beginning to curse myself for
not snatching up a pre-PnP version of the SB-16 months ago, when I
had the first inklings that this might happen, I found a non-PnP SB-16
in a local "Babbages" store. So, I bought it. Hence the SB-16 is
a "done deal" for my system.
Since wavetable synthesis is now the standard, and since I plan on
trying some music composition on this system, I'd like to get a good
wavetable card. From what I hear, the Roland SCD-15 has long been
considered the standard, so I'm using it as my reference and current
choice. However, the Roland is somewhat older, and there are newer
cards out there w/ newer features, such as the Yamaha card, and I'm
going to want to look into it as well. However, since this isn't an
immediate need, I can decide this more at my leisure.
The Roland MPU-401AT? That's listed there mostly for reference, in
case the SB-16 doesn't perform up to snuff on MIDI. I've heard tales
of hung notes and imperfect 401 emulation by the SB-16. However, I
hope I won't have to resort to this.
The fanciest sound card in the world won't do much without a decent
pair of speakers. However, I'm unsure about exactly what I need
here. I've seen and heard a fair variety of different speakers in
the stores: most all of them sounded pretty good, some seemed _very_
nice; some sounded a bit weak, some had a powerful bass via a
separate subwoofer; some looked pretty good, some were downright
_ugly_; and many were "reasonably" priced, but some were definitely
expensive -- I don't know if I can justify spending more on speakers
for my computer speakers than I do on speakers for my stereo. The
one thing I noticed about almost all of them was that they took up a
non-trivial amount of desktop real-estate. The SRS-PC50's however,
have a nice, thin shell-shaped design that can be stood on the desktop
or hung on either side of the monitor, saving much desktop space.
Again, however, since this isn't an immediate need, I may just start
with a cheap pair of mini extension speakers, and get a better set
once I've had a chance to look around.
Backup Media:
[$700] HP [bare drive] C1534A 4mm DAT DDS-1 [2 GB] SCSI-2 internal
? [$800] HP Surestore 2000 C1525F 4mm DAT DDS-1 [2 GB] SCSI-2 internal
[$???] HP [bare drive] C1536A 4mm DAT DDS-DC [2-4GB] SCSI-2 internal
[$900] HP Surestore 2000 C1526F 4mm DAT DDS-DC [2-4GB] SCSI-2 internal
[$???] HP [bare drive] C1533A 4mm DAT DDS-2 [4-8GB] SCSI-2 internal
[$1000] HP Surestore 2000 C1528F 4mm DAT DDS-2 [4-8GB] SCSI-2 internal
I don't think I want to try running this system without any backup.
Maybe for the first month or so, while I'm still trying it out and
before I've added much personal stuff to it, but not in the long
run. And the thought of swapping 2000 floppy disks for backing up a
2 GB disk is ludicrous. Even 20 zip disks doesn't sound very
appealing. So, I need something in the one-to-several GB range. I
haven't really got a very good feeling from what I've heard about the
various QIC and Travan drives (and I don't know if any of them are
SCSI), so the choices come down to 4mm DATs or 8mm Exabytes. The
Exabytes seem a bit overkill for this sort for a personal box, so
that leaves DATs, and from what I've heard, the standard for DAT
drives is HP, so let's go with an HP DAT drive.
The choice here is between DDS-1, DDS-DC, or DDS-2. As we go up the
chain, we gain the benefit of hardware compression and higher
recording densities. However, a DAT tape drive is already a fairly
expensive item, and a 2GB DDS-1 drive should work fine for backing up
a 2GB disk, since it will already be split into partitions of
somewhat smaller size, so I'm reluctant to spend a couple hundred
dollars more just to get a higher tape capacity.
The other question is whether to get the drive in its "package" form
w/ software and support from HP, or to just get a bare mechanism w/
support from the third-party vendor. Anybody have any suggestions?
Is there anything in the "full package" from HP that would be useful
for either FreeBSD or Win95 use? Or is it all just extras that I'd
probably not use anyway?
Archive & Exchange Media:
* [$200] Iomega Zip SCSI insider (100MB/disk, $15/disk)
Even with the projected extra 500MB on the disk that I guesstimated
above, there are going to be files (such as downloaded source
archives, old email and usenet articles, etc) that I'm going to want
to transfer to some sort of off-line archival storage.
The DAT drive is less than ideal for this, since it's a serial-access
device, and is best for handling things like tar files or dump sets.
The idea of doing a 20 minutes tar extraction or undump just to grab
a single 10K file is rather repulsive. Furthermore, tapes don't
handle replacement/modification of data very well. (For example, if
I download the latest version of emacs and want to update my achive
files.) What I really want here is a direct-access device that can be
mounted and have a real filesystem on it.
The various removable devices that have become available recently
seem to fill this bill: the Iomega Zip, Iomega Jaz, and Syquest
EZ-135. However, I'm a little leery of the durability of the EZ
disks, since, as I understand it, they're really more of a removable
hard disk platter than a floppy disk. And even though it has a
faster access time than the Zip, I'm really not planning on using it
for running programs directly off the disk, only for archival. The
Jaz seems similar, plus it's $100 1GB disk seems more than I need
here, and the drive's cost itself is significantly higher than for
the Zip.
In addition to archival use, it would be useful to have a media
format suitable for exchange with others: something where I could
just throw a file or several onto a (relatively) cheap disk, hand it
to someone, and say "OK, here it is". (I'd be a little reluctant to
hand over a $100 Jaz disk.) The Zip seems to have become fairly
popular -- several people have them around here have them so far --
so it would seem to fill this need as well.
The parallel version is, as they say, "right out". This going to be
a SCSI system, so I want a SCSI drive. The only choice remaining is
between an internal and external version. Although it might be nice
to be able to carry the drive into work, plug it in, load it up, and
transfer files to home that way, rather than via a dialup modem line,
it's unclear whether one could really write files onto the disk from
a SGI system and be able to read them from a FreeBSD system. And
writing files suitable for DOS/Win95 would probably be worse.
Furthermore, I've always detested having too many external boxes and
cords hanging about a system, so I've decided to go with the internal
version. If only it wasn't that strange blue color...
Modem:
* [$0] Best Data "Smart One" 14.4k, external [* I already have this *]
[$200] US Robotics Sportster Vi, external
[$350] US Robotics Courier V.34, external
? [$225] Motorola Power, external
[$325] Motorola Premier, external
Contrary to what I just said above about detesting extra boxes and
cords on a system, a modem is the one thing that I _want_ to be
external: I want to be able to see the status lights to tell what's
going on, and be able to reset/power-cycle it manually if it becomes
hung, without resetting my entire system.
I've currently got a Best Data 14.4k modem that will do for starters,
so I have some leisure in deciding exactly what I want in a modem, but
I'll fairly soon want to upgrade to a 28.8 or higher model.
At work, we've got a bank of Courier "V.34 everything" modems that
I'll be dialing into, so that suggests getting a similar USR Courier
for maximal compatibility. I believe that the Couriers can talk at
33.6k to each other -- if the lines are clean. However, I'm not sure
how clean my lines between home and work are, so I don't know if I'd
be able to make use of the full 33.6k. Furthermore, the Courier
isn't exactly cheap. If I can't make use of it's extra features, I'm
not sure I want to pay for them. (No, I'll take that back: I _am_
sure that I _don't_ want to pay for features I can't use.)
One of the professors at work has a Motorola Power modem at home
(although I hear tell that Motorola's new 33.6k modem is the
Premier), and he tells me that he's been pretty well pleased with it,
so that's what I'm considering for my "reference" choice, subject to
future modification as I find more info.
Printer:
* [$0] HP DeskJet 500 [* I already have this *]
[$350] HP DeskJet 660C [CYMK]
? [$310] HP DeskJet 680C [CYMK]
[$450] HP DeskJet 855C [CYMK]
I already have an HP DeskJet 500 from my previous system, and I'll
probably stick with it for a while, but I'll only be able to resist
the lure of upgrading to a better model for so long.
I've been very happy with my DJ 500, and while it might be nice to
have a 600 dpi laser printer, I'm more tempted by color, so I believe
I'll stay with an inkjet printer.
Now, there are several manufacturers of color inkjet printers out
there besides HP, including Epson and Canon, but, as I said, I've
been happy with my HP, I know HP's are well supported by both Windows
and ghostscript, and I just in general think the HP printer design
_looks_ cleaner, so I think I'll stick with the HP's.
The currently available HP color DeskJet models are the 600C, 660C,
680C, 820C and 855C. The 600C, however, is a color _or_ black
system, where you either put in a black ink cartridge for normal
printing, or a CYM ink cartridge for color printing & black (dark
purple actually) is made by mixing all three inks. That cartridge
swapping and no true black in color mode seems messy and inefficient,
so we'll skip the 600C. All the other printers use dual ink
cartridges, one black and one CYM, so you don't need to swap
cartridges, and you get true CYMK color printing.
The 820C seems only to be designed to work with windows, and would be
useless from FreeBSD, so it's out as well.
Between the 855C and the 660C/680C, the 855C is a faster printer that
uses larger capacity ink cartridges, but I'm unclear if I really need
the extra speed. It'd be nice, but I'm not really in all that much
of a rush in my home printing, and there is a noticeable price
gradient in moving to the 855C.
Between the 660C and the 680C, they have very similar specs. I
believe that the 680C is just the newer version of the 660C with a
few new features like a modified paper tray that can handle
continuous strips of fan-fold paper for printing banners and such, so
there doesn't seem to be much reason to choose one over the other.
Since the 680C is the newer model, and seems to be listed with a
somewhat lower price, I'll go with that one for now.
I'll review the situation again when I finally break down and decide
I need a new color printer.
UPS:
? [$400] Best Fortress LI660B
[$725] Best Ferrups FE500VA
[$800] Best Ferrups FE700VA
It's unclear whether a UPS for my system is anything more than a pure
frill. I don't know exactly how clean or dirty my power is, but
according to my VCR, I don't lose power all that often. I've no need
for any sort of high availability, it's just going to be a home
system. The most a UPS would be used for would be to ride through
minor power glitches and to to allow an orderly shutdown when the
power does go out. But are these systems really all that susceptible
to disk corruption on power failure? We've got 60+ Unix workstation
systems of various sorts at the department here, none of them on
UPS's, and although we end up with a couple unexpected power outages
a year, I don't believe we've ever lost anything due to them. I'm
not sure I really need anything more than a good surge protector, but
this is my dream system, so let's go ahead and add a UPS anyway.
From what I've heard, Best Power makes high quality UPS systems, and,
unlike APC, are willing to supply the information about the
communication protocol used by their UPS's to report power failures,
line voltages, etc. to a host computer, so someone can write (perhaps
already has written?) a FreeUn*x program that will talk to their
UPS's.
Their fancier, higher tier UPS's are the Ferrups series, but they're
a bit pricey, and probably more than I would need, so barring any
other considerations that someone might give me, I'll pick a model
from their Fortress series. The entry level model here seems to be
the LI660B, a 660 VA model, and that seems sufficient for a system of
this sort, so it sounds like a good choice for my dream system.
Again, since I have my doubts about whether I really need a UPS, I
may never get around to buying one, but this is my current best
choice (no pun intended) if I do decide to get one.
Other Goodies:
There are a few other "goodies" I might like to add to my system
someday, such as a scanner, a graphics tablet, or a MIDI keyboard,
but those are longer term items that really are extras, and not core
requirements, so we won't go into these. Besides, I'm sure I've
spent more than enough already.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So now with all the additional bells and whistles thrown in, let's see
what the grand total comes out to be:
Total: $6010
Woah! That's a lot of money! How's about for twenty-five cents you
let me come over and use your abacus? :-)
Well, actually, that's right at the top end of what I set as my
"willing to spend" limit, so it looks feasible. It's got a couple of
extra goodies like a UPS and a new printer that I may put off for a
while or never even get, so that softens the blow a little.
Furthermore, with a bit of searching and a little dickering I may be
able to get somewhat better prices than the rough estimates I used
above.
Six thousand dollars. I've got the budget to do this, but not to redo
any significant mistakes. So if I seem a bit paranoid in wanting to
have confirmation from the net that my choices are good ones, that's
why. As the dynamite swallower said: "It's a good trick, but I can
only do it _once_."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Whew! This was only meant to be a relatively short request for
information, but I've rambled on for over 850 lines.
If you're still with me, thanks for reading this far, and I'd
appreciate any comments & information you have that would help me make
my final decision and convince me that I'm not making any major
mistakes.
If there's an interest, perhaps I'll update this based on the answers I
get from all of you out there and post it as a web page on our server.
Thanks in advance,
Bill Somsky
________________________________________________________________________
William R. Somsky somsky@phys.washington.edu
Department of Physics, Box 351560 B432 Physics-Astro Bldg
Univ. of Washington, Seattle WA 98195-1560 206/616-2954