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Building a $200 Linux PC
WesternActor writes "Computers are getting cheaper to buy every year, but there are still sometimes advantages to building them yourself. ExtremeTech has a story about how they sought out the parts for a $200 computer that (of course) runs Linux as a way of breaking the budget barrier. They even test it against a commercially available eMachines nettop to see how it compares in terms of performance. This probably isn't something everyone will want to do, but it's an interesting example of something you can do on the cheap if you put your mind to it."
Since Windows 7 Home Premium retains for $199.99 it obviously has to run Linux otherwise it would be a $400 PC. It seems that thanks to falling hardware prices and rising prices from Microsoft we've now hit the point where the operating system can be 50% of the cost of the PC.
The AMD Acer Aspire notebook with 15" screen, Radeon 4250 graphics and 64 Bit Win 7 Home Premium is $300 at Walmart.com
Someday, the geek may fathom the mysteries of volume licensing, wholesale versus retail pricing, and the OEM system bundle.
That day can't come too soon, IMHO.
- They wanted to build a $200 PC... that runs linux
- They wanted to have at least the slowest dual core because it runs better than a single core. I'm no expert (obviously), But I'm fairly confident my P4 3ghz with HT can beat the slowest of dual cores... ESPECIALLY when the programs don't run more than 1 thread.
- System has to be upgradeable. I don't know what system you build wouldn't be upgradeable. This is sort of a given when building your own no?
- Not doing windows? Why, because you don't want to have to pay/steal a copy of it? I want to see a $200 "PC" so I can play battlefield 2142. This is starting to seem like non-news to me and a waste of time.Oh yeah, and they're "going with linux" because the price point for software is "free." No, it's not "FREE" because many people have spent countless hours to produce some bad ass shit and for you to say it's free (without cost or effort to you) doesn't make it so.
- It only needs basic functions? Why not run *nix in console? You can have IRC, FTP, network drives, mail programs, document editing, compiling!, even a web browser! Am I missing something here? Even my PHONE can do all this.
- So, they talk about thinking of the future and upgrade-ability, so they go with foxxcon & AMD???????? Yes, since they're known for their uber high quality components, yah! I avoided them when building my bsd atom server for MANY reasons I found. Lowest cost FTW!
- Even with the low cost in mind, making it a useful device by limiting its HDD is ridiculous, especially considering their price point now. Its not even even able to save a small % of your music collection!
- They're concerned about quality so they end up with a rosewill case/ps. Here's a tip for you gang, if you're worried about upgrading and cost, don't buy a pos PS which is one of the most expensive components you'll have to regularly have to be replacing. I don't know about all of you, but I stay away from rosewill. Look at their reviews - for any product. They might win cust award, but that isn't because they're good products, but rather because they're cheap. I just never had a good feeling for their products. Recently though, I did buy a sata dock for $14 shipped! It is rosewill, and I am not surprised. The power button and ejector feel like trash, and I do wonder if my unit will go out like many others have. It is literally the only thing I've bought from new egg in many years that I think won't last more than a few weeks. Nothing other than power supplies have gone out on me, and i have built manyyyyyy computers for both myself and others with new egg parts. Never got a DOA from them, so I choose wisely (so far!) But I'm confident rosewill will hold true to its QC
- They skimp on the OS and CD drive????????? This makes NO SENSE TO ME! I guess you better add "Not able to rip music from the 2000 cds I own" to the list of things you can't do (#4). Why ubuntu? Because it's trendy? Because it works? Because there's so many 'flavors' of it? Why not throw fbsd on it? I promise it'll be more useful! Ok I can't promise that, as it really depends on the user. (That was my obligatory shout out to BSD). Oh yeah, and everybody has an ubuntu image bootable from usb stick!
- $192.95. That's is their estimate? What about shipping? Shoot, my server cost less than that then since I waited for the deals I wanted to pop up!
Check out what I did:
- My "rational": I need to get a server up. longggg story short, 5, to 3, to 1 computer that did all my things finally died. I was overseas and a buddy took over all hosting for me. I finally decide to stop mooching and throw it back on my box... but I will colo my box with a buddy who has fast inet. That means it has to be great in the power consumption area - don't want him to have the huge bills I did. I dig around the AVN forum because they're great! Check out their lists on builds.
My abilities are only limited by my imagination
Schools aren't there to promote your agenda.
They are not there to promote one type of business over another.
They are there to educate and prepare our children for the real world.
Your child, having used Windows in school, has a skill that will be useful at pretty much any business in the known world.
Should your child be brought up on Linux, they'd have a skill thats useful if they are a sysadmin, or happen to work for google or redhat, outside of that, its practical value to someone who isn't a computer geek is less than 0.
Fortunately, people like you with such ignorant view points aren't making such policy decisions.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Rage much?