I would like to upgrade my system to a 64 bit machine. I'd like to find a bare bones platform to build on. I'm not looking to spend a lot of money on this as it is a home system. I looked on the CentOS sponsor page but only saw hosting services. I haven't kept up with hardware in years so I'm dumber than dirt on what's out there. I would prefer a desktop so I can stack it. Don't think I need to do the Xeon as that would be overkill for a home user. This would be replacing my 'server' so I need PCI slots for an additional NIC and a 32 bit video capture card used for zoneminder. Not sure what PCI express is or if my cards would work in those slots. Yep, I'm running 8 yrs old machines, IBM NetVistas. :-( Any help or referal to a sponsor would be greatly appreciated. TIA, Eddie
> -----Original Message----- > From: centos-bounces at centos.org > [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Dukes > Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 8:18 PM > To: centos at centos.org > Subject: [CentOS] OT: Hardware upgrade help > > I would like to upgrade my system to a 64 bit machine. I'd > like to find a bare bones platform to build on. I'm not > looking to spend a lot of money on this as it is a home > system. I looked on the CentOS sponsor page but only saw > hosting services. > > I haven't kept up with hardware in years so I'm dumber than > dirt on what's out there. I would prefer a desktop so I can > stack it. Don't think I need to do the Xeon as that would be > overkill for a home user. > > This would be replacing my 'server' so I need PCI slots for > an additional NIC and a 32 bit video capture card used for > zoneminder. Not sure what PCI express is or if my cards would > work in those slots. Yep, I'm running 8 yrs old machines, IBM > NetVistas. :-( > > Any help or referal to a sponsor would be greatly appreciated. > > TIA, > > EddiePS If any of youu have any 2 or 3 yr old machines for sale, let me know as well. Thanks!!
On 08/23/11 5:17 PM, Thomas Dukes wrote:> I would like to upgrade my system to a 64 bit machine. I'd like to find a > bare bones platform to build on. I'm not looking to spend a lot of money on > this as it is a home system. I looked on the CentOS sponsor page but only > saw hosting services. > > I haven't kept up with hardware in years so I'm dumber than dirt on what's > out there. I would prefer a desktop so I can stack it. Don't think I need to > do the Xeon as that would be overkill for a home user.any Intel Core 2 or newer, or AMD Opteron processor from about 3-4 years ago or newer would suit you just fine. the newest ones have 4+ cores.> This would be replacing my 'server' so I need PCI slots for an additional > NIC and a 32 bit video capture card used for zoneminder. Not sure what PCI > express is or if my cards would work in those slots. Yep, I'm running 8 yrs > old machines, IBM NetVistas. :-(parallel 32bit PCI is becoming obsolete, although many motherboards have both PCI-E and legacy PCI slots... PCI-Express is not physically or electrically compatible. ISA is totally history, you won't find an ISA slot on anything made in the past few years. Most newer NICs are PCI-Express anyways. I do wish more desktop motherboards had 2 ethernet ports, and more servers had 4 standard. -- john r pierce N 37, W 122 santa cruz ca mid-left coast
On Tuesday 23 August 2011 20:17, Thomas Dukes wrote:> I haven't kept up with hardware in years so I'm dumber than dirt on > what's out there. I would prefer a desktop so I can stack it. Don't > think I need to do the Xeon as that would be overkill for a home > user.I suggest looking at the system guides at Tech Report, even though they don't deal with servers specifically: http://techreport.com/articles.x/21462 Ars Technica also has system guides, but less frequently, and they're not as useful, im my opinion: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/guides/2011/03/ars-system-guide-march-2011-edition.ars These guides do assume that you'll be doing a fair amount of Windows gaming, so you may want to spend less on a graphics card than they suggest. Yves -- Yves Bellefeuille <yan at storm.ca> "La Esperanta Civito ne rifuzas anticipe la kunlaboron de erarintoj, se ili konscias pri sia eraro." -- Heroldo Komunikas, n-ro 473.
On Tuesday, August 23, 2011 10:38:30 PM Drew wrote:> > The older ISA (now called PATA = Parallel ATA) has been replaced by SATA > > (Serial ATA). SATA has 3 speeds. Most new disks are either SATA 2 or > > SATA 3 speed. > > IDE I assume you meant. :) ISA was the old bus PCI replaced.Yes, but, technically PATA is a souped-up ISA bus with address decode already done for all but the lower few bits. Old 16-bit ISA IDE cards were often referred to as paddleboards because the only thing on the card was a small address decoder/buffer chip and the rest of the lines went virtually straight through from the ISA bus to the drive. So saying ISA is only partially incorrect. :-)
On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 6:17 PM, Thomas Dukes <tdukes at sc.rr.com> wrote:> I would like to upgrade my system to a 64 bit machine. I'd like to find a > bare bones platform to build on. I'm not looking to spend a lot of money on > this as it is a home system. I looked on the CentOS sponsor page but only > saw hosting services. > > I haven't kept up with hardware in years so I'm dumber than dirt on what's > out there. I would prefer a desktop so I can stack it. Don't think I need to > do the Xeon as that would be overkill for a home user. > > This would be replacing my 'server' so I need PCI slots for an additional > NIC and a 32 bit video capture card used for zoneminder. Not sure what PCI > express is or if my cards would work in those slots. Yep, I'm running 8 yrs > old machines, IBM NetVistas. :-(If all the jargon is new to you, you might be better off getting a pre-built system. System integration can be hit or miss until one acquires experience the hard way. My current home "server" is an off-lease business-class HP desktop. It's built from commodity parts, so it's upgradable. Look at the service manual before you buy. And the HP runs CentOS beautifully. Jim
--On Tuesday, August 23, 2011 9:17 PM -0400 Thomas Dukes <tdukes at sc.rr.com> wrote:> I need PCI slots for an additional NIC and a 32 bit video capture card > used for zoneminder.Check with the zoneminder people to see what video capture options you can get today that will work with their code. Fewer and fewer machines come with PCI slots, which are incompatible with PCI-E. Some include a single PCI slot. Possibilities include an "IP camera" or a USB camera.