Peter Salisbury wrote:
> Hi, we 'need' a new PC and the Tesco Ubuntu offering seems good value
> for money and saves building a machine myself. It also tells the
> market there's a call for Linux.
>
Hmm... on one level I agree, but on another I wonder if it's going to
frustrate a few punters into returning them for a PC with 'normal
Windows' on it? I can almost picture the kids trying to install Crysis
on their Ubuntu machines this Christmas...
> The more expensive one [1] has a DVD rewriter and more memory which
> probably make it worth the extra £50. It also has an AMD 3600 64 Dual
> Core processor. Can anyone comment on how well Ubuntu handles that,
> and whether you really do get any better throughput for normal
> operations? (The cheaper PC [2] has a 2.66 GHz Celeron).
>
I have run Ubuntu on both, and Dual Core is preferable to single core in
my opinion, and works seamlessly. More memory is good, and the DVD-RW
will ensure that you make those all important backups, eh? ;o)
That said the 2.66GHz Celeron D that had in my daughter's machine
before I bought Steve D's dual core CPU ran cooler and quieter than its
replacement - stands to reason I guess.
Both will run a 64-bit OS if that's your thing.
Personally, and being reasonably confident where building PCs is
concerned, I would be tempted to cobble something together myself from
eBuyer's catalogue. With free delivery I reckon you could get a nice
little micro-ATX machine together for that sort of money, if you can be
bothered. I spec'ed up the machine below without trying too hard or
spending too long, and you get a nice Antec case into the bargain.
However, there's always risks around hardware and software
incompatibility, dodgy components and busting stuff as you put it
together, so mileage is always a bit variable in that regard.
Sean
£ Component
45 Antec Case + PSU
33 Gigabyte Mobo (onboard vga and audio)
41 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ (2.1GHz) <http://www.ebuyer.com/product/133145>
15 Kingston 1GB DDR2 667MHz / PC2-530 <http://www.ebuyer.com/product/91121>
20 DVD RW
27 Maxtor SATA II 80GB HDD
8 Mouse and keyboard
0 Ubuntu!
189
