prophase_j wrote:

I would go with a x850.

Remember, this is Linux he is using - the short release cycle of kernels obsoletes a LOT of recent technologies. A x850 would not work for Compiz. It's ridiculous that you still have to aim high end just for the BASIC ACCELLERATION SUPPORT.

Am I right that this is all controlled by the Appearance settings in Ubuntu? Those three radio buttons. I thought I had "max fancy" running on a old Radeon 9600 on that "radeon" driver. But I might be mistaken. I really only use the middle "semi-pretty" setting. The more animations a GUI has the more I tend to get annoyed. 😀

leileilol wrote:

A x850 would not work for Compiz

From the compiz site: http://wiki.compiz.org/ATI%20with%20AIGLX

1For 1st-generation through 5th-generation Radeon cards, the open source 'ati' driver, in combination with AIGLX, is the recommended method for running Compiz. This range extends from the Radeon DDR/SDR/7000 through the X1950. 

I have had it working on x1650 for about 8 months.

Tetrium wrote:

Personally I'd go for a Northwood. If I really needed anything faster I'd just go Athlon XP or Athlon 64. Less heat and more powerful.

I wouldnt class a Athlon-xp 3200+ as better than a 3ghz northwood
the Athlon64 yes but the xp no

prophase_j wrote:

I have had it working on x1650 for about 8 months.

Yeah I think all you need on the ATI side is a card with D3D9-level features. That open source radeon driver is excellent.

I had a Radeon 7000 running Ubuntu earlier this year but I don't think I even tried to switch on the full 3D effects mode. I've also run a 9600 on it. Even the 7000 was surprisingly fast on the "normal effects" setting.

Davros wrote:

I wouldnt class a Athlon-xp 3200+ as better than a 3ghz northwood the Athlon64 yes but the xp no

I dunno. I think they would be rather indistinguishable in practice. Benchmarks would say the P4 is faster but it's not enough to be very noticeable. However, an HT P4 would be nicer for regular Windows multitasking and such.

I've been running Compiz (and Beryl) on Radeon 9600/9800 series cards for years, and it has always been a pain with the drivers.

On my "newest" machine (Athlon64, Radeon 9800XT) there are still problems: Everything using SDL and the flash player slow down to 1 FPS in fullscreen. 😒

My Radeon is automatically detected in Ubuntu, and it automatically installs the propietary driver.
I'm dual-booting Linux and Windows 7, actually, because Linux is virus-free 😀

The story is different with my (Northwood P4) notebook, though. Windows behaved oddly there - it is so slow, disk performance is only 3 MB/sec maximum. It doesn't matter which Windows is installed, whether fresh Windows XP from retail disk or the OEM (Restore Disc) version. But the harddrive works pretty fast in Linux. Don't know why.

swaaye wrote:

Davros wrote:

I wouldnt class a Athlon-xp 3200+ as better than a 3ghz northwood the Athlon64 yes but the xp no

I dunno. I think they would be rather indistinguishable in practice. Benchmarks would say the P4 is faster but it's not enough to be very noticeable. However, an HT P4 would be nicer for regular Windows multitasking and such.

That wasn't what I meant. I meant to say, either go for a faster Northwood (and not a Preshot) and if he can't find one speedy enough (I'd say the fastest Northwoods are quite expensive to get now, theres a good chance he won't be able to find a 533fsb 3Ghz part) he'd be better off using an Athlon XP (which burn less energy then Preshots + more overclock options with the more common mobiles, if he wants even more speed) or just go Athlon 64 right away for less energy burn and more speed.

I love Ubuntu... been using it since ver 7.10, and always with Compiz enabled, cube and all other useless graphical shit on max (hey, it makes me happy!). Radeon cards work but are pretty shitty driver wise. Yes, you can use compiz effects but games don't work too well. COD2 for instance looks like it's running in DX7 mode (yucks).

What you need is a nice 6000-7000 series card. 7900GT for an AGP system would be ace... for PCIe systems, anything goes...I used to use an 8800GT and that thing rocked in Ubuntu.

I play Sauerbraten online, only using Linux cause playing Sauerbraten on Windows seems noobish, and I currently use my socket 478 P4 matched with a 6800GS- just for kicks. Plays everything on max 1280x1024.

My current PC (Intel D945GCLF + soldered-in Atom 230 + builtin Intel 945, without PCIe and only 1 PCI slot) plays 2004 games (like NFSMW) really bad, even with all graphics setting at low and 640x480 resolution. This motherboard is an MiniITX motherboard which is actually designated for SFF (Wintel version of Mac Mini), hence it only had a PCI slot without any PCIe.

MatthewBrian wrote:

My current PC (Intel D945GCLF + soldered-in Atom 230 + builtin Intel 945, without PCIe and only 1 PCI slot) plays 2004 games (like NFSMW) really bad, even with all graphics setting at low and 640x480 resolution. This motherboard is an MiniITX motherboard which is actually designated for SFF (Wintel version of Mac Mini), hence it only had a PCI slot without any PCIe.

\\

Man sorry to say but that sucks...you need to keep that for surfing and torrenting only.

ITX boards are rather special purpose. Interesting little things.

Yep, they are rather sucks. Since I got that board from free from an broken Mini-ITX PC, I'll keep that.
I only play games about 1% of my whole computing time and it doesn't matter 😁

It also serves as a torrenting client and downloading client (I usually download things overnight because they are faster and if I download at afternoon, it consumes some bandwidth which makes my browsing worse, because the fastest DSL here is around 512Kbps which is not the fastest). Previously I kept an Pentium 133 to download it (it only consumes 24-25W), but this PC beat it (only 21W) 😁

Next to other (even older) machines, ATOM powered machines are quite the dogs 🤣

For torrent they are ideal though. I use a netbook and it's great for that. Silent and as you said it draws tiny amounts of power (and this will get even better with new models that use DDR3, SSD and smaller chips).

I wouldn't build an ATOM desktop though, as the portability of a netbook is really something. Great for surfing the internet late night in bed or as a magazine replacement for the toilet 🤣

I can't afford a laptop though, if I ever build myself a download server I'll probably just build an underclocked and undervolted Athlon XP or P3 or something

Tetrium wrote:

I can't afford a laptop though,

I can't afford a laptop too 😁 The only PC I bought was my Northwood. Back in 2002, it comes with NVidia Riva 32MB, 128MB DDR RAM, 20GB Maxtor HDD and 15" Samsung monitor for $700.

My Atom mini-ITX mobo comes from a heavily broken Small Form Factor PC (the harddrive and DDR was broken, the only thing I could harvest from it was only its motherboard and casing).

My 80286 also comes from the junk in one of my relatives' house which was nearly departed to the junkyard because it simply won't work. Replaced the AT PSU and it worked flawlessly until one day I accidentally put a big speaker beside it (and stupidly forgotten to move it away), and the whole harddrive gone.

My MMX PC (Pentium 200MMX) was came from one of my relatives which he gave me after they bought their new computer. I also got Jetway 531CF motherboard (discussed in other thread here) which I got for free along with its Pentium MMX processor, and a AT PC which is in the really bad condition (also discussed in other thread here) which I can only take the processor, from one of my friends.

My notebook is also free, because it was partially broken (bad memory chip and failed HDD), replaced those bad parts for $50 and it successfully works until today, which I wrote this post on it 😁

So does my cellphone (Nokia 9500). It's quite old but it has good keyboard. The old owner gave me simply because they think that this phone is slow compared with their new BlackBerry 8310 (and now 8310 are too slow compared with Nexus S 😁). Despite its age, this phone serves me realtime pushmail and always-on chat flawlessly.

Uhm, this post may be too off topic 😁

At least over here netbooks are quite cheap. Office Works had a special on a netbook (eMachine) with Windows 7 for ~ 250 bucks. There was also a cashback promotion.

I still have my very first generation Acer netbook though and it's going strong (apart from the battery). So I won't buy a new one before this one craps itself...

There are 2nd hand notebooks / netbooks as well. The think I like about notebooks / netbooks is that they are designed for low power from the get go and have a built in screen. I have also been a notebook consultant for a few years in the past, hence a bit of a personal bias towards these often underrated retro options 🤣

I don't like build-in screens though, and I never use the touchpad thingy, I always plug in a mouse anyway and I prefer my 32in tv/monitor and €2 keyboard 😀.

As for low power, that may be true. It is possible to use laptop parts in desktop computers though. My Barton 3200+ spare lan rig has a 100GB 2.5in drive in it (because I didn't have anything else floating around when I needed it quick, 🤣).
Also I like how I can easily repair desktops if a part breaks.

And anyhow, I don't have plans to actually build a little server from scrap parts at this time. Should the need arrive, I know I'll have the parts laying around 😀

I do miss having a laptop for one use, for reading in bed right before I shut my eyes. Right now I'll either have to go to the living room, turn on the pc and read or I need to print it. Would be much easier putting stuff I want to read on a stick and read it from my bed.
Anyhow, no money...maybe tomorrow I'll run into a laptop that fell off a truck or something 😜
You can never know 😀

Keep an eye out for used P3 notebooks. They have a good compromise between price, features and performance.

Regarding touchpad, I have this wireless media center keyboard (quite a cheap one) and it has a touchpad. It's the most useful thing ever. You can kick up your feet and relax and still control the more advanced features of your PC!

MatthewBrian wrote:

The story is different with my (Northwood P4) notebook, though. Windows behaved oddly there - it is so slow, disk performance is only 3 MB/sec maximum.

I had a similar problem with my p4 northwood pc
North Bridge: VIA PT880 PRO
South Bridge: VIA VT8237R

the solution install the raid driver, even though you dont use raid and only have 1 hdd

ps: not the press f6 to install a 3rd party raid driver from a floppy disc