Slashdot Mirror

It's still like that.

512MB Memory upgrade

Apple (1.33 GHz) 17" Powerbook - $139.99
Apple (1.50 GHz) 17" Powerbook - $95.99

Fortunately I did some digging before I ordered to figure out that the two machines use the exact same memory and ordered the cheaper of the two. How many people don't realize that they are paying $44 more than they need to?

I can understand using different 'external' part numbers for statistical tracking purposes, but they should all come out to the same 'internal' part number and price in the end.

On the Apple forums, several people have described random kernel panics and general operating unpleasantness after going with cheap RAM.

If that happens, then your RAM is defective. Assuming you bought memory with a lifetime warranty (can you even find memory that doesn't have one?), then get it replaced.

The only place I would get Mac RAM from would be Crucial.com, and they're more or less the price of the Apple RAM, though the 1GB is a hundred less. Crucial is a division of Micron and thoroughly tests their RAM.

I'll never buy from Crucial, and here's why. I was shopping for a memory upgrade for my PowerBook when I came across this product on their site:

http://www.crucial.com/store/MPartspecs.Asp?mtbpoi d=5DC2B0BFA5CA7304

It's a 1GB memory module for my model of PowerBook. It's $480. I thought this price was a little high, but Crucial is generally kind of expensive. Then I found this page:

http://www.crucial.com/store/PartSpecs.asp?imodule =CT12864X335&cat=RAM

It's an identical 1GB module, but for $340.

What's going on here? I e-mailed them and asked what the difference was. Here are some quotes from their reply:

Thank you for your e-mail. At Crucial we offer different "flavors" of the same memory, some that work in specific systems and some that work in general systems.

If you placed the general use module into a PowerBook the system would become unstable and even lock up at sporadic times.

Part number CT12864X335 is not compatible.

I'm not sure what's going on here. It's obvious that this e-mail is at extreme odds with the truth. One explanation is that they've caught on to the idea that Mac owners have more money, and they decided to cash in. Another explanation is that their customer support is incompetent. Either way, I see no reason to buy from them and every reason to avoid them.

On the Apple forums, several people have described random kernel panics and general operating unpleasantness after going with cheap RAM.

If that happens, then your RAM is defective. Assuming you bought memory with a lifetime warranty (can you even find memory that doesn't have one?), then get it replaced.

The only place I would get Mac RAM from would be Crucial.com, and they're more or less the price of the Apple RAM, though the 1GB is a hundred less. Crucial is a division of Micron and thoroughly tests their RAM.

I'll never buy from Crucial, and here's why. I was shopping for a memory upgrade for my PowerBook when I came across this product on their site:

http://www.crucial.com/store/MPartspecs.Asp?mtbpoi d=5DC2B0BFA5CA7304

It's a 1GB memory module for my model of PowerBook. It's $480. I thought this price was a little high, but Crucial is generally kind of expensive. Then I found this page:

http://www.crucial.com/store/PartSpecs.asp?imodule =CT12864X335&cat=RAM

It's an identical 1GB module, but for $340.

What's going on here? I e-mailed them and asked what the difference was. Here are some quotes from their reply:

Thank you for your e-mail. At Crucial we offer different "flavors" of the same memory, some that work in specific systems and some that work in general systems.

If you placed the general use module into a PowerBook the system would become unstable and even lock up at sporadic times.

Part number CT12864X335 is not compatible.

I'm not sure what's going on here. It's obvious that this e-mail is at extreme odds with the truth. One explanation is that they've caught on to the idea that Mac owners have more money, and they decided to cash in. Another explanation is that their customer support is incompetent. Either way, I see no reason to buy from them and every reason to avoid them.

Have you checked the right page for Mini-compatible modules?

They use PC2700 modules; $325 is still an almost-50% markup from retail for other vendors, and you can be sure it costs apple far less than Crucial will be selling it to you for, nevermind their savings in not including the standard 256 MB module.

Checked the price of name-brand 1GB DDR SODIMMs lately? $350 isn't that bad a price.

Checked the price of name-brand 1GB DDR SODIMMs lately? $350 isn't that bad a price.

Checked the price of name-brand 1GB DDR SODIMMs lately? $350 isn't that bad a price.

You can still get a gig of ram for these (PC2700, DDR333) for $226 (unbuffered non-ecc) or $299 (registered ecc) from Crucial. Given the price and comparing with their usual upgrade markups, I'm guessing the Apple upgrade is the former, not the latter. Still, compared to the usual markup, this is pretty good.

I build and maintain computers from scratch
Wow, you must be crazy smart, I hear CPU's are real hard to make from scratch.

Just messin.. $825 is a pretty good deal for a mac tho. If I had the extra cash, I think I'd be all over it. Where did you find a gig ram for $125? Best mini stuff i could find was here.

Crucial: USD$226.99
Apple: USD$329


So yes. It still is...however, there's also this. Apparently this is 'ECC' RAM instead of 'non-ECC' like the $226, and it's also 'Registered' instead of 'Unbuffered,' and '128meg x 72' instead of '128 meg x 64'.

Anybody care to explain the difference? It seems Apple's markup of $29 is reasonable considering they install it, if indeed this stick is what you'd get over the $329 one and those extra stuff make it better.

Crucial: USD$226.99
Apple: USD$329


So yes. It still is...however, there's also this. Apparently this is 'ECC' RAM instead of 'non-ECC' like the $226, and it's also 'Registered' instead of 'Unbuffered,' and '128meg x 72' instead of '128 meg x 64'.

Anybody care to explain the difference? It seems Apple's markup of $29 is reasonable considering they install it, if indeed this stick is what you'd get over the $329 one and those extra stuff make it better.

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?Mfr%2BP roductline=Apple%2BMac+mini&mfr=Apple&cat=RAM&mode l=Mac+mini+(G4+-+1.25GHz)&submit=Go

Crucial is selling 1gb for the mini at $265 with free shipping. Just use their memory configurator and they guarantee compatibility.

The trick is going to be opening the case on the mini -- it has about 15 little plastic fingers that need to be released.

Chip H.

Upgrading to 512 megabytes of RAM, you still come out ahead if you'rte willing to buy generic. And if you wanted to upgrade to 1 gigabyte (for which apple charges $425!) you can come in at more than $100 cheaper, buying name brand (stick of Crucial for $299). And if you do the upgrade yourself, you've got a shiny new 256 megabyte stick for free. Don't get my wrong, the Mac Mini is a great deal, but the OEM RAM isn't.

I am in the market for a new desktop Mac (my 1999 vintage lime iMac DV just isn't as snappy as it used to be :-). I priced a Mac mini configured with Airport Extreme, Bluetooth, a wireless keyboard/mouse, 1GB RAM and 80GB HD. With AppleCare and a 20" Cinema Display it came to $2500.

I also priced a 20" iMac G5 similarly configured (I didn't go to 2GB of RAM, though I usually max out my RAM, and the smallest HD I could configure was 160GB HD). With AppleCare it came to $2400.

I've decided to go with a maxed out 20" iMac G5 (faster, newer generation processor, more RAM, bigger HD), but with RAM from Crucial (from Apple 2GB = $925, from Crucial it's around $500).

I was seriously looking at building a Shuttle, but let's compare it to the Mac Mini

For the Shuttle, you can either buy a complete system from them and spend twice as much or build a system. Don't forget the CPU. And the RAM, and the hard drive, and the DVD drive. At this point, it's about the same cost as a base Mac Mini.

Even if you add the Mac Mini DVD burner, larger hard drive and extra RAM, you're still not saving much with the Shuttle. I'm not even going to mention the operating system and having to set it all up...

Please don't counter with a el cheapo price quote from some other scum dealer either, just Newegg... If you counter, make sure it has the same features also...

Or buy the Mac Mini, with the OS installed, plug it in, and have it up and running.

The mini has a DVI output for an HDTV monitor and Firewire for either DV or cable box (MPEG-TS) input. I personally think the Mini price is great for what you get. Especially if you want it in your living room next to your HDTV as a Media Center...

I have to say after reading the rumors, I was suspect that the Mac Mini would be underpowered, but after completing a web-app dev project on a 1Ghz iMac with 768MB ram, I find the possibility of developing with this 1.25 Ghz sub-$650 workstation (when you factor in a good KVM from the likes of Belkin and some more Ram) to be awesome.

1.25 Ghz Mac Mini - $499
Belkin 2 port KVM - $38
512 MB Ram (for 1.25 iMac) - $93

What blows my mind even more is that the $650 our company would spend just on Office and Visual Studio _licensing_ gets all the software (Xcode) for developing as well as OS X and, oh yeah, the computer!

memtest86 is free and in beer and speech, and is operating system independent. You just write the binary on to a floppy disk and boot the machine off of it.

I've cured several machines of mysterious problems by identifying bad RAM with memtest86. It was always cheap, unbranded RAM that was the problem. I get all my RAM from Crucial nowadays and I never have a problem with it. (I am not affiliated with Crucial or memtest86).

Yeah, my other computer is Linux too. So what?

The several hours to install all that stuff included a lot of time wandering away from the computer while it took forever to do who knows what and download various updates (and sit like a brick waiting for user input). 25MB of updates just for the preinstalled Norton software and it made me reboot no less than six (6) times during that process, so every time you go back to the computer it's sitting there like a lump waiting for you to click "reboot". Just because you aren't around doesn't make the time go any faster. It usually makes the whole process slower since you aren't there to click every unnecessary dialog that pops up.

The time also included Spybot S&D, Adaware, Spyware Blaster, Norton's firewall, and configuration of the various options in each application to make them actually do what they needed to do without user intervention, which the owners were not capable of. Plus configuration of three different desktops for the people who would be using the computer, so they can keep all their files and settings separate. The 3-5 minute login/logout/reboot processes must have ended up adding an hour or more to my time. After the RAM upgrade it logs in/out in like 20-30 seconds. Still slower than a Mac at less than one quarter the "speed".

Instant on? Any fool knows desktop computers aren't instant on. No need to be facetious or sarcastic. But when someone buys a brand new 2.8GHz computer with 256MB RAM and it boots up and switches between users slower than an old 333MHz with 32MB I have at home, I find it upsetting and ridiculous. A 2.8GHz computer should be fast, especially when it's not running anything. The extra 512 made a lot of the problem go away, but it shouldn't have been necessary, and it added to the base cost of the computer. Before the RAM upgrade it was not "perfectly usable", it was dog slow, like their 5-year-old PC which runs Win98 and is basically dying. For further comparison I've also seen an ancient 350MHz iMac running Mac OS X and it is perfectly usable and was even before we upgraded its memory. Booting up and logging in and out are all reasonably quick, and that computer was new in 1999.

Remember what they say about assumptions. I said "we" there because "we" as a group decided that she should invest another $100 with Crucial.com and get another 512MB stick of RAM. It turned out to be a good decision, since it made the computer "perfectly usable". Before that it was not "ok", which was the whole point. It was so slow it made me and the owners think that a lot of cash had just been wasted on a piece of junk.

I don't buy PCs. The next computer I do buy will be a Mac. Also, you can almost always get cheaper RAM upgrades from someplace like Crucial.com rather than buying from the OEM. Yes, you can even get RAM upgrades for Macs there, you don't have to buy everything from Apple.

Then use Linux. I wasn't talking about 'the total cost of ownership', just the initial cost of purchasing one from Dell and Gateway vs. other PC manufactures.

I was just making a comment that I didn't think base cost was the whole story. It wasn't aimed directly at you, but at anyone who might read it as they browse the comments attached to this story. I raised a separate issue for consideration by others. Ask yourself if it was really necessary to respond by talking to me like I'm an idiot.

You may also want to read that link about Dell's customer service that you gave me, funny thing is I see a lot of hardware problems being discussed. Hard drives dying after a week, things like that.

Yeah, my other computer is Linux too. So what?

The several hours to install all that stuff included a lot of time wandering away from the computer while it took forever to do who knows what and download various updates (and sit like a brick waiting for user input). 25MB of updates just for the preinstalled Norton software and it made me reboot no less than six (6) times during that process, so every time you go back to the computer it's sitting there like a lump waiting for you to click "reboot". Just because you aren't around doesn't make the time go any faster. It usually makes the whole process slower since you aren't there to click every unnecessary dialog that pops up.

The time also included Spybot S&D, Adaware, Spyware Blaster, Norton's firewall, and configuration of the various options in each application to make them actually do what they needed to do without user intervention, which the owners were not capable of. Plus configuration of three different desktops for the people who would be using the computer, so they can keep all their files and settings separate. The 3-5 minute login/logout/reboot processes must have ended up adding an hour or more to my time. After the RAM upgrade it logs in/out in like 20-30 seconds. Still slower than a Mac at less than one quarter the "speed".

Instant on? Any fool knows desktop computers aren't instant on. No need to be facetious or sarcastic. But when someone buys a brand new 2.8GHz computer with 256MB RAM and it boots up and switches between users slower than an old 333MHz with 32MB I have at home, I find it upsetting and ridiculous. A 2.8GHz computer should be fast, especially when it's not running anything. The extra 512 made a lot of the problem go away, but it shouldn't have been necessary, and it added to the base cost of the computer. Before the RAM upgrade it was not "perfectly usable", it was dog slow, like their 5-year-old PC which runs Win98 and is basically dying. For further comparison I've also seen an ancient 350MHz iMac running Mac OS X and it is perfectly usable and was even before we upgraded its memory. Booting up and logging in and out are all reasonably quick, and that computer was new in 1999.

Remember what they say about assumptions. I said "we" there because "we" as a group decided that she should invest another $100 with Crucial.com and get another 512MB stick of RAM. It turned out to be a good decision, since it made the computer "perfectly usable". Before that it was not "ok", which was the whole point. It was so slow it made me and the owners think that a lot of cash had just been wasted on a piece of junk.

I don't buy PCs. The next computer I do buy will be a Mac. Also, you can almost always get cheaper RAM upgrades from someplace like Crucial.com rather than buying from the OEM. Yes, you can even get RAM upgrades for Macs there, you don't have to buy everything from Apple.

Then use Linux. I wasn't talking about 'the total cost of ownership', just the initial cost of purchasing one from Dell and Gateway vs. other PC manufactures.

I was just making a comment that I didn't think base cost was the whole story. It wasn't aimed directly at you, but at anyone who might read it as they browse the comments attached to this story. I raised a separate issue for consideration by others. Ask yourself if it was really necessary to respond by talking to me like I'm an idiot.

You may also want to read that link about Dell's customer service that you gave me, funny thing is I see a lot of hardware problems being discussed. Hard drives dying after a week, things like that.

Problems with your estimate in order

1. Will that memory work on a i810e chipset? Crucial lists only 256meg simms being as low as $79.99 per 256meg pc133. Other sites reccomends "8x8, 16x8 DRAM Chips Only" Chances are you won't find this in your grab bag.
2. Does this actually include shipping, just because pricewatch says it does doesn't mean it is so. Notice the little "NEW. BUY 1 FOR $4.63" for your NIC. I also notice that they "reccomend" double package protection for $1.99. They also have a 99cent handeling fee. In other words $4.99

$31.07 CPU $22 + $9.07 {www.arsenalpc.com}
$24.95 motherboard {justdeals.com}
$158.00 2-256mb low density pc100 (2*$79) www.1stchoicememory.com
$4.99 NIC (www.shopampm.com)
$29.99 compusa ATX case in store + tax
$8.99 sync/fan $2.00+$6.99
---
Grand total=257.99
Without taking the memory into account (2 sticks your price)
$157.99
*hard drive not included*
*keyboard/mouse/speakers not included*
*cd-rom not included*

Page one machine on www.pricewatch.com

$116 Celeron 1.7ghz 128mb CD-rom keyboard $104 + $12 shipping

Bit of advice to ya. When trying to save money, keep in mind that legacy machines sometimes need legacy parts. In your case the cost of the ram for your machine is equal to the cost of a replacement machine. That is simply unacceptable. Chances are if you go with something that will take slow pc-2100 DDR memory you're going to save a hell of alot more money than you ever would going with anything that takes pc100/pc133.

Laptop battery, about $100 (depending)

144-pin sodimms $113.99/256 (costs may be higher for EDO or propriority memory)

16bit PC card ethernet adapter $30

WIFI to Ethernet Bridge $93 (in case you can't do cardbus)

Laptop DVD rom drive $50 on ebay.

Cost to make that laptop modern $386.99

Knowing you can from Walmart for $598 + tax with all that crap already, priceless.

Sure you can frankentop, just so long as you don't cross the bottom line.

I totally agree about memory. I ordered it with the discount on final cut express, which requires 512Mb, so I'm going to order a 1Gb DIMM when the system ships (looking at a 4 week wait) to replace the 256MB module. One of my coworkers is a hardware geek, he strongly recommends crucial for their quality and service.

I've read that memory throughput is better when paired with identical memory, so I'm curious if the performance would be better with just the one 1Gb DIMM over the 1Gb and 256Mb DIMMs filling both slots.

Check with the maker of your PC to see what type of memory it requires. Prices varies depending on the source and type, but use $50 per 128 MB as a benchmark.

Now if I'd use my computer to control a nuclear power plant or medical equipment, I'd certainly use ECC-RAM only. But then, I'd probably use more reliable components all over the place.

Well, I do use my PC for software development, and I surely don't want to be shipping buggy software to customers because I saved $2 buying non-ECC RAM. Really--$2. That's all the price difference is these days. Check out Crucial or NewEgg. There's no reason to go non-ECC. ECC isn't any slower (paranoid folks will tell you it is; not true--266 MHz is 266 MHz, and CAS 2 is CAS 2), and the reliability is tops.

It's funny you mention things like a "corrupt file system" being a larger risk--most modern operating systems (including Windows and Linux) use a large amount (often most, if you have a lot) of your RAM as a disk cache. If a bit flips in one of those areas, you are very likely to end up with corrupt data on your drive, such as a corrupt inode. Where do you think such errors come from? They don't come from the drives themselves, which rely extensively on Reed Solomon ECC.

For anyone who's buying from them, stay away from the accessories. Mice are universal, PS/2 or USB. Laptop hard drives are universal, and the only thing you might need to worry about is height (9.5mm or smaller?). Laptop memory may not be completely universal, but it's pretty easy to find compatible stuff. All or virtually all external USB storage devices are compatible with Linux.

Another reason IE will stay in dominance is because of sites like www.crucial.com/systemscanner Which REQUIER IE (try it if you don't believe me).
All it takes in some cases is one page that requites IE and a user has a chance of switching back to it

Pretty much supply and demand. Here is a good explanation

Those in Northern Ireland will know that the biggest problem for us is pp charges. To help with this i've compiled a wee list of shops and charges usually for something small and light like an ethernet card. Sorry if any of it is wrong - if so please contact the site and let them know that they need to make it clearer.

• CCL Computers Online 10 extra. 3.95 for small order 7.50 large all + VAT
• Insight Direct 19.99
• MicroWarehouse claim they don't ship outside uk mainland
• SavaStore 15 + VAT extra
• Scan Computers UK citylink so expensive - they quote 7 + VAT for non-NI will contact you for exact pricing
• Simply Computers 12.95 + VAT
• Overclockers UK 3.48 + VAT 2nd class recorded
• ebuyer 15 surcharge on NI p&p
• Komplett.co.uk approx 10 p&p
• aria .co. uk 11.95 + VAT for under 8KG
• Novatech 15 extra p&p
• Kustom PCs
• Tekheads.co.uk RM Recorded from 2.85
• mini-itx.com 8 - 12 +VAT
• LinITX.com 2.39 recorded or 6.05 next day special (+ VAT i think)
• TheCoolingShop.com free delivery on orders over 4 but under 2KG - over 2KG = 20
• PC Nextday 17.61 inc. VAT next day
• Leapfrog Computers Ltd 6.90 + VAT
• Chillblast 1.18 inc VAT recorded 5.29 special
• Stuff-uk.net under 100g 3.75, under 500g 4.05, under 1KG 5.25, under 3KG 6.60, large over 1KG 10.50, all + VAT
• CaseTech.co.uk from 2.95 based on weight for 3-4 day courier. guess + VAT
• Crucial UK over 25 free p&p. under 25 2.95
• Over-Clock UK from 1.42 2nd class post to 4.59 citylink
• Micro Direct Ltd. 17.63 inc. VAT
• Carrera SSC 64 for complete system
• MESH Computers 20 inc. VAT
• dabs.com 5.88 inc. VAT extra

there is no standard 4GB dimm out

Actually there is. You can get them from Crucial, but so far they're only available in PC2100 speeds, while many boards require PC2700. Not to mention the fact that they're rediculously expensive.

And here's a great place to get them:

Crucial.com

I enjoy hacking systems as much as the next guy, but when I can get something much better for much less and it's more reliable (no bubble wrap), I don't see the point.

So please, someone explain why the Qube is so great compared to Mini-ITX systems because I fail to see the advantages.

The Belkin Nostromo is a keypad with throttle wheel and D-pad all designed to sit under your left hand.

Or, for a joystick, the Saitek Cyborg Evo is a completely ambidexterous joystick. With the use of thumbscrews, you can adjust a huge amount, even down to the tilt of the top buttons so they're tilted for left handed, not right handed orientation.

The philosophy of Mac OS X (and quite a few other operating systems, especially Unix-like ones) is that you should use as much RAM as you can.

This is a great philosophy until, of course, you've used as much RAM as you can and then you decide you want to load something new.

A much more realistic case is that I'm using my memory loading web pages in Safari, I've got email going, itunes has been loading and playing mp3s for the past few weeks, etc., and then I decide I want to play a game. None of the game's data is cached, because it hasn't run recently. So the VM now has to scramble to find 200 MB of pages.

Another complication of this is that it's pretty easy to fill up your root partition with swapfiles. Incidentally, this is terrible for disk performance.

One probably-related issue that comes to mind is that freeing memory seems to really take a long ass time even if you don't need it. The most glaring example of this is quitting Safari. Safari tends to "leak" memory (I don't know that it really does or if it actually has a legitimate use for tons of memory) over time/page loads, and occasionally I decide to quit it. Quitting Safari tends to stall my entire system for 10-30 seconds.

What about my freedom to write my own applications without requiring Apple to approve it?

Perhaps you've never heard of VersionTracker.

What about my freedom to use my own hardware, instead of being forcing to use Apple's mouse,

What, you mean like the Microsoft IntelliMouse that Apple sold me at the time of purchase?

Apple's memory,

Nobody buys Apple's memory. You go to Crucial.com and buy what you need.

Apple's monitor (with boat anchor attachment on the top),

Apple hasn't sold CRTs in over a year. Their LCDs are the best in the industry. If you disagree, you have the freedom to buy your system with no monitor and purchase one of your choice.

Apple's video card, etc.?

Apple doesn't make video cards. They certainly didn't make the NVidia card that shipped inside my computer.

Twin Falls, Idaho is a technoplogy SINKHOLE! in fact, it might be a good idea to avoid Idaho completely, unless you're interested in Micron, the company behind Crucial Memory, which is in Boise, Idaho. but stay AWAY from Twin Falls! there's nothing but HICKS here!

This is a case of a company hoping a user will just be too lazy to do the work themselves, considering a vast majority of the hardware and software has counterparts available to the consumer.

• EPIA-M10000 NEHEMIAH - RTL$178.00
• 256MB DDR PC2700 CL=2.5 Unbuffered Non-parity 6ns 2.5V 32Meg x 64$45.99
• Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM Hard Drive 8MB Model # 6Y080P0 $94.00

Find your favorite brand CD-RW drive or DVD drive:

CD/DVD R/RW drivesrange from $35 - $359

Find your favorite case:

mini-itx cases max $112

Rounded IDE cablesmax $10 each

Get your favorite Linux ISO:

List of Linux ISO

Do you want/need a wireless keyboard and remote? Those kits are available too. You can use various handheld devices, learning remotes or dedicated programable remotes. You can also use a wired keyboard and mouse.

Yeah, there are bits and bobbles I have left out. Yeah, you need to install Linux and one of the PVR programs available out there. Yeah, it will suck your time, but you'll know a lot more about your machine, you'll have a machine you can upgrade, change, etc at will. You'll have full controll of the software without any need for hacking, for a lot less.

That is a faster machine, likely a faster HDD, probably higher quality RAM, better cables, your choice of cases and whatever else you want. You could throw in a a 1 or 2 slot PCI riser, a Sigma Designs XCard and Remote and whatever else you want.

It's still $550, you still need to pay s/h and taxes where applicable. However, you can decide to save some money on the ram, the case, or any other part.

• Pentium 4 2.8GHz with HyperThreading (2 CPUs in 1): $266.00
• Asus P4C800 motherboard & 800MHz frontside bus: $190
• 512MB 5ns RAM: $89.99
• Enlight case: $59.00
• ATI Radeon 9600 AGP 8x 128MB video: $178.00
• Western Digital 120GB 7200RPM hard drive: $108.00
• Generic DVD drive: ~$30
• Can of metallic blue spray-paint to personalise the case: $5
• FreeBSD 5.1: $free

Because Micron has an actual fab in this country and Micron's subsidiary Crucial has given me good prices, I would like to say "Buy American". Unfortunately, I know that the Dells and Gateways of the world are always looking for the cheapest parts and that many IT Managers would rather get new computers when the service contract runs out than upgrade the older machines. Its common lingo today to even refer to getting an entirely new computer as an upgrade. Micron is out of the bidding process for these suck-ass companies unless they want move the fabs to another country to lower their costs (including labor). As for my office, we don't have a huge budget for brand new computers every couple of years, so I upgrade them with Micron memory.

Steve's Digicams

Epinions

Digital Camera Resource Page

Digital Photography Review

CNet User Reviews

Google Search

Erm, there are actually a few programs out there called "memtest86." I promise you that if you're using this one then if that stick fails consistently (erratic RAM failure is pretty much unheard of outside of unusual operating environments) then memtest86 will find the problem.

This is the same program that Crucial uses to determine whether they should resell memory that's been sent back as bad.

I've build five machines (for myself and friends) and I've never had a bad stick of RAM. Repeat - NEVER. That could be because I usually just buy from Crucial and they're a premium brand.

Plus I always run with surge supressors on all power lines and equipment (including the phone line that carries the DSL signal), and a UPS on my main computer. This must have surely helped. I actually know of one case where a DSL modem was fried by an electric clothes drying machine with a ground fault (my friend was always kicked offline and the modem reset whenever he did laundry - it wasn't until it permanently failed and had to get it replaced that he figured out what the hell was going on).

The oddest memory issue I've ever had was when I was upgrading my old dual Pentium 233 about five years ago - it would only boot with the RAM in a specific configuration - swap the sticks around and it worked (smaller sticks in lower numbered banks), switch em back (larger sticks in the lower numbered banks) and it refuses to boot. Once I got that memory working, it's still going strong to this day (the machine is now running FreeBSD). I believe it had something to do with slightly different memory timings, but proves that sometimes you just need to try things just a little differently to get them to work.

A LaserJet 1200 is a great printer. I have one and I love it.

That RAM expansion slot is pretty standard. You can go to crucial.com and get a 64MB expansion for a LaserJet 1200 for about $30, which is a lot cheaper than an official HP expansion. I know because I did it.

steveha

Windowmaker should run on a 486 as well. It is only slightly more resource hungy then fvwm if any. As long as you have 16 megs of ram you are set. If not then save up $25 and buy a 64meg fpram stick from crucial.Make sure its 30-pin fast page or fpram which is the only one that will work with your 486 laptop. 72 pin is for the desktops and 30 is for laptops.

You will notice a tremendous speed improvement with a simple ram upgrade and windowmaker will probably without it can run fvwm. The requirments are similiar. Look at the screenshots.Its also easy to add programs and menu's unlike fvwm.

Windowmaker is just a simple window manager like fvwm and not a desktop.

1. don't buy an Itanic, if you're going with Opteron for its ultra-fast RAM ( compared with Itanic ) and drastic cost-effectiveness ( ditto ), an Itanic won't show you whether Opteron'd be a good match: the architectures are totally different.

2. RAID storage: don't buy Promise 'raid' cards ( and DON'T do 'raid' 0/1, do RAID-5 ).

Why? ..
1. it ISN'T possible to use S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics in your drives with the Promise ones, at least ( you'll crash the PCI-bus, hanging, fatally, the machine, using Promise chips .. don't know about Highpoint or Adaptec ), and...
2. they oppose Open Source drivers, and coders, for their own products.

Highpoint has only SuSE 7.3-8.0/Redhat-whatever ( IIRC ) drivers for their fast 1520 cards, but if you want compute performance, you want Gentoo... ( and SuSE's been at 8.1 for ages, now... )

Adaptec? I don't know if their cards have the same issues as the Promise/Highpoint, but their cards compete with Promise's, and so probably cut corners in similar ways ( I'd love to see hard data on that point, though )...

3ware are the only cheap ( compared with SCSI ) RAID controllers I know-of, that offer bootable, real, actual, S.M.A.R.T.able RAID on ATA drives.

( I'd stick scads of 120GB IBM 180GXPs on 'em, because they're cooler-running than the 180GB versions, and better than most other drives: fast, quiet, reliable-looking, etc .. quiet means, to me, that wear&tear isn't happening as much, though I wonder-at the No-Seagate rule expressed earlier... is it that fluid-bearings fail soon? or that Seagate has worthless support from our perspective? )

3. SuSE or Gentoo are really your only choice, that I can see.

Why? .. 1. Redhat's trying to microsoft linux, by ignoring standards and making its way law, and Mandrake's .. a flaky ( though fast ) variant originally based on Redhat... I'm fed-up with both, but YKMV ( metric, here )..
2. SuSE includes damn-near every program-capability one could imagine, and has excellent hardware support ( beyond any others' )..
3. Gentoo's compiled specifically for the hardware you are running, and with --buildpkg you get to build on one, then copy all the tbz2's built, to all of the other ( identical ) machines, and just install 'em, and voilá: ultra-performance.

Misc Links:

Chassis, suitable for lots-of-drives NAS type thing.. or this one for well-cooled system ( thick aluminum's a good conductor of heat, and that makes for a longer-living, less-downtime machine )

I'd use Athlons, but that's just me ( Intel's murdered/crippled WAY too many CPUs, and chipsets, for me to be loyal to them ), and would use these HSFs with Verax.de ( or Panasonic Panaflo ) fans on 'em, just because the noise machines make increase sick-time and reduce health/sanity/productivity so damn much.

Consider using P/Ss like these, remembering that 1. they're REALLY quiet only when running at about 50% load, and 2. the UPS-VA-rating you need for each one is DOUBLE the delivered-watts rating of the P/S.
Also, you want LINE-INTERACTIVE UPSs on all machines. ( NO data-corruption due to brown-outs or other glitches ).

I'd consider dual-CPU machines standard for the desktop, simply because even if a CPU was saturated, on that machine, the machine'd still respond, and I'd stuff as much quick RAM into it as I possibly could ( 3GB/desktop, for engineers ), and I'd ALWAYS use ECC RAM.

Consider this board as something to compare against, with Something Like This KVR266X72C25/1G or this times 3 of 'em, per motherboard.

Like the Marines: Capability-based, not capability-choked, right?

The best advice I've seen on this page is

1. get a GOOD admin ( character, more than anything, values, sanity, cultural-harmony-with-you: you CAN change someone's skillset, you CANNOT change their nature ), and

2. metrics, understanding precisely what 'success' means, what the context is, etc...

3. do it one unit at-a-time

Oh, yeah, here's an Opteron-board news link... ( I'm waiting for lots-of-SATAs-on-board )...

Finally, change the ferro-resonant ballasts in your flourescent lighting to RF ballasts, and switch to Phillips TL-930 4' fluorescent tubes ( Colour Rendition Index of 95, rather than the cheap-cool-white CRI 50!! ), and your health will improve, significantly ( you can then ask for a raise, for your increased effectiveness, see )... if you find the warm-white of the TL-930s ( 3000K ) not brilliant/awakening enough, then mix-in a couple of TL-950s ( 5000K, mid-day-sunshine/sky colour ), to punch-up your alertness.

More info here

There is a very simple way to avoid dealing the morons who work at Fry's....

I call it http://www.crucial.com.
Micron RAM, cheaper than OEM, free shipping.

Seriously, with so many first-rate retailers on the net, there's *no* reason to do business with crapholes like Fry's.

Yep, we never buy extra RAM with Dell computers. Just get it with the minimum and go to Crucial to buy more. Dell often uses Crucial RAM in their systems anyway. Might as well buy it from the source without the huge markup.

...your RAM now before this news gets out and the price gets jacked up. This is real bad news indeed. Fscktards. Oh yeah...my .SIG is a great ironic comment on this whole affair, considering that RAMBUS prolly bought this verdict by smokin' Duh!bya's johnson.

128MB Memory Stick: 58.73 UKP (not inc. VAT)
128MB Compact Flash: 30.27 UKP (not inc. VAT)

Both prices from Dabs. (Normally, I buy memory from Crucial, but they don't stock memory sticks.)

So: memory sticks are expensive, hard to get, and only work in Sony devices. That's a pretty fair reason not to use them in my book.

$500? crucial has 2x512MB PC2100 sticks for $260 total.