<div dir="ltr">2008/9/5 John Levin <<a href="mailto:john@technolalia.org" target="_blank">john@technolalia.org</a>> <div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Hi all, I'm considering getting a new desktop. I'm considering one from Dell, but can't find any reviews of their ubuntu-ized Inspiron (everyone seems to be talking about the laptops). Does anyone on this list have one? Can they tell me 1: if it can handle two monitors? 2: how loud it is? Dual monitors and noise levels are the two most important things to me, so if you have any tips for where to look, I'd be much obliged. </blockquote><div> </div></div> Hey John, A little over a year ago I built my current desktop from scratch to support the same requirements as yours, quiet running, twin monitors and Ubuntu. I ended up assembling the following kit: - Antec Solo enclosure with a single 12 cm case fan - Additional 92mm case fan at front of case to cool the hard disk - Nesteq 450 Watt "Semi-fanless" PSU (from <a href="http://quietpc.com/" target="_blank">quietpc.com</a>) - Basic Asustek P5L-VM1394 motherboard - Intel Dual-core 2140 1.6 GHz Pentium - Zalman CPU fan (<a href="http://quietpc.com">quietpc.com</a>) - Nvidia 7600 GS fanless dual-head video card - 320GB hard disk - 2GB RAM - Edimax Wi-Fi Ralink RT2561 chipset adapter (from the Linux Emporium) - OEM Panasonic DVD player and CD writer Into this I plugged a couple of TFT panels (1280x1024 NEC and a 1680x1050 Philips), a basic Lenovo keyboard, optical mouse, Creative sound system and other minor stuff (USB card reader, etc). The Antec case has a decent number of sound reduction features, although its 12 cm fan is the most audible sound from the system (although very muffled and not intrusive or unpleasant). The Nesteq PSU is virtually silent, has superb build quality and uses a modular connector system, enabling you to lose the connectors you don't use which helps keep the case internals much neater. As you would expect, the fanless VGA card is silent. In fact, the noisiest component by far is the OEM Panasonic optical drive, but I use that only occasionally. Oh, and I replaced the rather noisy standard Intel CPU cooler with a quieter (and larger!) Zalman equivalent. I hadn't built a machine for several years and was pleasantly surprised at how much better packaged components such as the motherboard and the ATX case were compared to some of the nasty kit available back in the '90s. Both the mobo and Antec case were supplied with plenty of accessories and spares, and the case mounting points and connector cut-outs matched the motherboard perfectly. It seems that motherboards are also supplied with well organized and comprehensible instructions and manuals these days.  I've built two machines in the last 18 months or so, one used an Asustek and one a Gigabyte motherboard and both components were very well packaged and documented, with bags of spares such as screws, grommets, and the rest. The slim SATA drive cables make routing and working on the internals much easier than used to be the case with the awful old IDE data-ribbon connectors. When it comes to wiring everything up, the important connectors are all keyed these days, so it's hard to plug anything in the wrong way around. The Edimax wireless adapter is compatible with Debian, Ubuntu, Suse and Fedora, and the Linux Emporium supplies it with custom scripts for the first three of those distros. I think I used a script for Feisty, but on Gutsy the adapter installed automatically and required no manual intervention (I'm wired into a network at the moment, and haven't used the Edimax with Hardy). It's been as reliable as any system I've ever owned. It's low spec by today's standards, but it's like a diesel car, not sexy, but is dependable, stable, rarely groans, and just gets on with it with the minimum of fuss. It's very quiet (if not silent), runs Ubuntu, productivity apps, development tools, etc without even getting warm and was relatively cheap to assemble. I rarely utilize more than 30-35% of the installed RAM and the hard disk is of course huge for Ubuntu's modest system and application needs. It's totally flexible and I know the machine like the back of my hand. If something breaks, I don't have to call an engineer, return it to base or junk the system, I'll just order a new component and pay a fiver for next day delivery. Empowering stuff. Yep, I can thoroughly recommend building your own machine these days. It's a smoother experience than it was seven or eight years back and you can guarantee that your components will work with Ubuntu. When you need component compatibility re-assurance, there's always the Linux Emporium. Moreover, you can target your funds, spending more on key components like a good quality PSU and wasting less on a ridiculously over-specced processor. No idea if this will tempt you or not, but for what it's worth... :-) Roger PS. A couple of links to services that I found very helpful: <a href="http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/products/wireless/">http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/products/wireless/</a> <a href="http://quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/">http://quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/</a> </div>