Build system from scratch?

[Dustin Decker]

On Thu, 17 Jan 2002, Lance Feagan wrote:

> Sure, I personally would love to help you out in getting a good config.  I
> am sure enough users on this list have used the hardware that is fairly
> mainstream to know what does and does not work.  It is quite true that you
> will avoid the "Microsoft Tax" by building on your own.  Besides, you will
> get exactly what you want.

Count me in on helping out as well.  I for one am particularly fond of
one of the local hardware vendors here in Overland Park that you may/may
not have heard of - Telectronics.  (www.telectronics.com)

They're located in old Overland Park off of Santa Fe at about 80th
street.  Sam Dein is the proprietor there, and his family which help out
are a joy to work with.  I'll warn you in advance that they aren't
native to America, and the language barrier can seem difficult to deal
with at first - but if you're patient you can reap the rewards.  Sam
and company get the majority of their hardware direct from the pac rim,
so they aren't getting middled.  (I.E. you get a better price most of
the time.)

> When looking for prices, I suggest www.pricewatch.com.  There are a couple
> of vendors that I might recommend too, as I have dealt with them personally
> a number of times.  Mwave [www.mwave.com] and Atacom [www.atacom.com].  They
> don't always have THE lowest price, they are usually about third or fourth
> lowest, but they are that way on every component, so, when you start
> thinking abotu shipping, they usually beat out whatever else you can come up
> with from other vendors.  Note:  This may not always be true, it merely
> represents my experience.

I certainly like to get the best price possible on stuff, and I wouldn't
disagree with Lance on this...  my experience with Internet purchases
howevever has the same negative that a lot of folks experience right
after Christmas - returns are a genuine pain in the arse.  With this in
mind, I tend to stay local if I can.  You can beat the shipping issues
this way (read cost savings) and more importantly, there is a human
being within strangulation distance if things don't work out for you.

> Building a nice linux box for friends has long been a favorite past time.
> It is just nice to see someone get off on the right foot with hardware.

Indeed.  The only thing more frustrating than watching someone else
(particularly newbies) fight with hardware is fighting with it myself.

> P.S. So, you really want a DVD-R drive so you can burn DVDs that play in a
> set-top box, right?  And you also want to edit video...how serious are you
> about editing video?  [i.e. do we mean professional level video and sound
> mixing/editing/effects, etc?]

Wish I could help out with this... truth is, I haven't done a great deal
with video stuff beyond capturing an ultrasound of my son with my ATI
All-In-Wonder card.  [Used that _other_ OS to do that :( ]  Although I
captured to mpeg, I found that the codec used makes playback available
only on an ATI All-In-Wonder card.  I'd study up on this sort of thing
in advance if you intend to delve deeper.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like some information on
particular hardware items.  If I've used them, I'd be happy to let you
know if I liked it, it worked well, or was junk.

Dustin

-- 
A man always needs to remember one thing about a beautiful woman.
Somewhere, somebody's tired of her.