[ubuntu-uk] ubuntu-uk Digest, Vol 44, Issue 2

Andrew Nixon andrewnixon0 at gmail.com
Tue Dec 2 08:04:42 GMT 2008


On 12/2/08, Andrew Nixon <andrewnixon0 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/2/08, Andrew Nixon <andrewnixon0 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 12/1/08, ubuntu-uk-request at lists.ubuntu.com
>> <ubuntu-uk-request at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:
>>> Send ubuntu-uk mailing list submissions to
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>>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
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>>>
>>> Today's Topics:
>>>
>>>    1. Re:  OT CPU Advice (Seb Ward)
>>>    2. Re:  OT CPU Advice (Rob Beard)
>>>    3. Re:  OT CPU Advice (gav)
>>>    4. Re:  OT CPU Advice (Chris Coulson)
>>>    5. Re:  OT CPU Advice (Rob Beard)
>>>    6. Re:  OT CPU Advice (Rob Beard)
>>>    7. Re:  OT CPU Advice (gav)
>>>    8. Re:  OT CPU Advice (Darren Mansell)
>>>
>>>
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Message: 1
>>> Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:05:04 +0100
>>> From: Seb Ward <ubuntu at gmx.it>
>>> Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] OT CPU Advice
>>> To: ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com
>>> Message-ID: <20081201130504.223000 at gmx.com>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>>>
>>>
>>> -------------- next part --------------
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>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> Message: 2
>>> Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2008 13:52:42 +0000
>>> From: Rob Beard <rob at esdelle.co.uk>
>>> Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] OT CPU Advice
>>> To: British Ubuntu Talk <ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com>
>>> Message-ID: <B0E1E96C-9757-4AC7-AD88-D4DFDCCF3E86 at esdelle.co.uk>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>>>
>>>
>>> On 1 Dec 2008, at 10:24, Darren Mansell wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I sold my EEE PC about 10 months ago and for (almost) the same money
>>>> built
>>>> a very respectable rig with bits from ebuyer. My spec was:
>>>>
>>>> Decent Abit mainboard
>>>> AMD Athlon X2 4200+
>>>> 2GB Corsair standard stuff
>>>> 2 x 250GB Samsung SATA HDD's (in Linux software MD RAID 0, it rocks)
>>>> dual layer DVD-+RW
>>>> 19" wide HannsG monitor
>>>> Good quality case from eBay with decent PSU
>>>>
>>>> It was a grand total of about ?300 but I had to make sure I got good
>>>> components. Most important is the PSU as Rob says. I've always liked
>>>> Abit
>>>> motherboards. Foxconn are actually pretty good from my experience.
>>>> They
>>>> used to make Intel's own brand boards, not sure if they still do.
>>>>
>>>> The disk speed makes this computer feel very fast.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I heard bad things about Foxconn boards and Linux a while ago, can't
>>> remember if it was posted here.  I'm just a bit dubious now.
>>>
>>> I'm currently running an Athlon X2 3800+ and that seems pretty quick
>>> (I did have a Phenom X4 9600 but it died over the weekend and the
>>> Athlon X2 was the only thing I had which could chuck in the board).  I
>>> could also recommend the Pentium Dual Core chips as they're also
>>> pretty quick (I had one before upgrading to the Phenom, it's now
>>> sitting in my wife's PC).
>>>
>>> Rob
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> Message: 3
>>> Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2008 14:11:46 +0000
>>> From: "gav" <revford at blueyonder.co.uk>
>>> Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] OT CPU Advice
>>> To: British Ubuntu Talk <ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com>
>>> Message-ID: <20081201141146.GA16685 at bluemidget.local>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>>>
>>> On Mon, Dec 01, 2008 at 01:52:42PM +0000, Rob Beard wrote:
>>>> I'm currently running an Athlon X2 3800+ and that seems pretty quick
>>>> (I did have a Phenom X4 9600 but it died over the weekend and the
>>>> Athlon X2 was the only thing I had which could chuck in the board).  I
>>>> could also recommend the Pentium Dual Core chips as they're also
>>>> pretty quick (I had one before upgrading to the Phenom, it's now
>>>> sitting in my wife's PC).
>>>
>>>
>>> I've not really found a massive multi-core chip to be needed on a modern
>>> Linux desktop, recently I've moved over to an Atom processor on my
>>> desktop,
>>> this board:
>>>
>>> http://www.ebuyer.com/product/147222
>>>
>>> Works beautifully under Ubuntu and Debian for me and the whole system
>>> runs
>>> with an 80W power supply, rather than the hundreds of Watts these big rig
>>> machines use.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Gav Ford
>>> revford at blueyonder.co.uk
>>> http://revford.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
>>> I think we need to:  Reverse the polarity of the communications circuit
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>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> Message: 4
>>> Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2008 14:21:15 +0000
>>> From: "Chris Coulson" <chrisccoulson at googlemail.com>
>>> Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] OT CPU Advice
>>> To: "British Ubuntu Talk" <ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com>
>>> Message-ID:
>>> 	<383a17600812010621n454d12d2x52ae694f0f0e5b5e at mail.gmail.com>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>>>
>>> 2008/12/1 Rob Beard <rob at esdelle.co.uk>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 1 Dec 2008, at 10:24, Darren Mansell wrote:
>>>> >>
>>>> >
>>>> > I sold my EEE PC about 10 months ago and for (almost) the same money
>>>> > built
>>>> > a very respectable rig with bits from ebuyer. My spec was:
>>>> >
>>>> > Decent Abit mainboard
>>>> > AMD Athlon X2 4200+
>>>> > 2GB Corsair standard stuff
>>>> > 2 x 250GB Samsung SATA HDD's (in Linux software MD RAID 0, it rocks)
>>>> > dual layer DVD-+RW
>>>> > 19" wide HannsG monitor
>>>> > Good quality case from eBay with decent PSU
>>>> >
>>>> > It was a grand total of about ?300 but I had to make sure I got good
>>>> > components. Most important is the PSU as Rob says. I've always liked
>>>> > Abit
>>>> > motherboards. Foxconn are actually pretty good from my experience.
>>>> > They
>>>> > used to make Intel's own brand boards, not sure if they still do.
>>>> >
>>>> > The disk speed makes this computer feel very fast.
>>>> >
>>>>
>>>> I heard bad things about Foxconn boards and Linux a while ago, can't
>>>> remember if it was posted here.  I'm just a bit dubious now.
>>>
>>>
>>>> Rob
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com
>>>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
>>>> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
>>>>
>>>
>>> Rob,
>>>
>>> You're probably referring to this:
>>> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=869249
>>>
>>> Regards
>>> Chris
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>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> Message: 5
>>> Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:43:17 +0000
>>> From: Rob Beard <rob at esdelle.co.uk>
>>> Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] OT CPU Advice
>>> To: British Ubuntu Talk <ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com>
>>> Message-ID: <49341425.5070107 at esdelle.co.uk>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>>>
>>> Chris Coulson wrote:
>>>>
>>>> You're probably referring to this:
>>>> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=869249
>>>>
>>>> Regards
>>>> Chris
>>>
>>> Yeah that was it.  TBH, there's not much difference in price between
>>> some of the Foxconn boards and other boards from MSI/Gigabite/ASUS etc.
>>>
>>> Rob
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> Message: 6
>>> Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:46:54 +0000
>>> From: Rob Beard <rob at esdelle.co.uk>
>>> Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] OT CPU Advice
>>> To: British Ubuntu Talk <ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com>
>>> Message-ID: <493414FE.2060509 at esdelle.co.uk>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>>>
>>> gav wrote:
>>>> I've not really found a massive multi-core chip to be needed on a modern
>>>> Linux desktop, recently I've moved over to an Atom processor on my
>>>> desktop,
>>>> this board:
>>>>
>>>> http://www.ebuyer.com/product/147222
>>>>
>>>> Works beautifully under Ubuntu and Debian for me and the whole system
>>>> runs
>>>> with an 80W power supply, rather than the hundreds of Watts these big
>>>> rig
>>>> machines use.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> I guess it depends on what you use your machine for.  I *could* make use
>>> of all 4 cores on the Phenom but not very often, juging by the system
>>> monitor the majority of the time most of the cores were sat idle at
>>> about 1.2GHz and it was only specific things I did that actually used
>>> more than two cores.  I do however sometimes tax the system so I don't
>>> think an Atom would meet my needs.  If I didn't play HD video on my
>>> other half's PC then an Atom would probably do her.
>>>
>>> I'm considering an Atom Dual Core for my server (it's currently running
>>> an Athlon 1400) although I'm not sure what to do after reading this....
>>> http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-atom-efficiency,2069.html
>>>
>>> Rob
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> Message: 7
>>> Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2008 19:10:54 +0000
>>> From: "gav" <revford at blueyonder.co.uk>
>>> Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] OT CPU Advice
>>> To: British Ubuntu Talk <ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com>
>>> Message-ID: <20081201191054.GA28322 at bluemidget.local>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>>>
>>> On Mon, Dec 01, 2008 at 04:46:54PM +0000, Rob Beard wrote:
>>>> I'm considering an Atom Dual Core for my server (it's currently running
>>>> an Athlon 1400) although I'm not sure what to do after reading this....
>>>> http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-atom-efficiency,2069.html
>>>
>>> The Atom seems to work fine for DVD playback, if that helps you judge on
>>> the video side of things, I use an external USB DVD on the machine.
>>>
>>> I've no interest in BluRay yet so I can't tell you how it handles that.
>>>
>>> From that review, it looks like the chipset it holding the Atom back, 4W
>>> for the processor but 22W for the chipset seems backwards.  However that
>>> chipset is well supported under Linux, especially the hassle free, open
>>> driver 3D support.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Gav Ford
>>> revford at blueyonder.co.uk
>>> http://revford.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
>>> I think we need to:  Repair the kettle flow
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>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> Message: 8
>>> Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:50:11 +0000
>>> From: Darren Mansell <darren at vcoc.co.uk>
>>> Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] OT CPU Advice
>>> To: British Ubuntu Talk <ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com>
>>> Message-ID: <342bbd654d1b1dbf225faa82bc732008 at localhost>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>>>
>>> On Mon, 1 Dec 2008 14:21:15 +0000, "Chris Coulson"
>>> <chrisccoulson at googlemail.com> wrote:
>>>> 2008/12/1 Rob Beard <rob at esdelle.co.uk>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 1 Dec 2008, at 10:24, Darren Mansell wrote:
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >
>>>>> > I sold my EEE PC about 10 months ago and for (almost) the same money
>>>>> > built
>>>>> > a very respectable rig with bits from ebuyer. My spec was:
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Decent Abit mainboard
>>>>> > AMD Athlon X2 4200+
>>>>> > 2GB Corsair standard stuff
>>>>> > 2 x 250GB Samsung SATA HDD's (in Linux software MD RAID 0, it rocks)
>>>>> > dual layer DVD-+RW
>>>>> > 19" wide HannsG monitor
>>>>> > Good quality case from eBay with decent PSU
>>>>> >
>>>>> > It was a grand total of about ?300 but I had to make sure I got good
>>>>> > components. Most important is the PSU as Rob says. I've always liked
>>>>> > Abit
>>>>> > motherboards. Foxconn are actually pretty good from my experience.
>>>>> > They
>>>>> > used to make Intel's own brand boards, not sure if they still do.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > The disk speed makes this computer feel very fast.
>>>>> >
>>>>>
>>>>> I heard bad things about Foxconn boards and Linux a while ago, can't
>>>>> remember if it was posted here.  I'm just a bit dubious now.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Rob
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com
>>>>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
>>>>> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Rob,
>>>>
>>>> You're probably referring to this:
>>>> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=869249
>>>>
>>>> Regards
>>>> Chris
>>>>
>>>
>>> Very interesting. Back in my R+D days for a used-to-be well known british
>>> PC manufacturer I had to do a lot with Windows WHQL testing. WHQL
>>> (Windows
>>> Hardware Quality Labs) is basically Microsoft paying hardware
>>> manufacturers
>>> to break support for Linux or any other OS.
>>>
>>> There are test suites called the HCT tests. The mainboard BIOS, VGA card
>>> BIOS, optical firmwares etc all had to be bodged to work with these
>>> tests.
>>> Microsoft would give you kickbacks via the MDP (market development
>>> program)
>>> if your stuff was all WHQL certified.
>>>
>>> Of course every system integrator is then under pressure to get every
>>> piece
>>> of hardware in their PC's WHQL certified and in turn put pressure on the
>>> hardware manufacturers to alter the BIOS/firmware to make it work for the
>>> Windows HCT. As money talks they have no time left to look at Linux
>>> support.
>>>
>>> It's all just another way Microsoft have to make Linux look like some
>>> cheap
>>> joke. Open standards are their enemy.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> --
>>> ubuntu-uk mailing list
>>> ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com
>>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
>>>
>>>
>>> End of ubuntu-uk Digest, Vol 44, Issue 2
>>> ****************************************
>>>
>>
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