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

Tue Dec 2 08:05:56 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 12/2/08, 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"
>>>>
>>>>
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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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